Japanese Gojūon - Dakuon (Voiced Sounds)

❓ What is Dakuon? Which Characters Are Included?

Japanese voiced sounds (dakuon, だくおん) are syllables formed by adding a voiced mark (dakuten, ゛) to the base unvoiced sounds in the Gojūon chart. There are 20 in total, covering the ga, za, da, and ba rows. The voiced hiragana include が, ぎ, ぐ, げ, ご, ざ, じ, ず, ぜ, ぞ, だ, ぢ, づ, で, ど, ば, び, ぶ, べ, ぼ. The corresponding voiced katakana are ガ, ギ, グ, ゲ, ゴ, ザ, ジ, ズ, ゼ, ゾ, ダ, ヂ, ヅ, デ, ド, バ, ビ, ブ, ベ, ボ. These voiced characters are widely used in Japanese vocabulary, such as "学校 (がっこう)", "雑誌 (ざっし)", "大学 (だいがく)", and "バス". Compared to unvoiced sounds (seion), voiced sounds involve stronger vocal cord vibration, with consonants shifting from unvoiced to voiced. Additionally, Japanese also features semi-voiced sounds (handakuon, pa-row), contracted sounds (yōon), geminate consonants (sokuon), and long vowels (chōon), which together form the complete Gojūon chart.

Japanese voiced sounds (dakuon) are syllables formed by adding a dakuten (゛) to unvoiced sounds, totaling 20 characters across the ga, za, da, and ba rows. The pronunciation of dakuon features stronger vocal cord vibration, with consonants changing from unvoiced to voiced. Dakuon also has both hiragana and katakana writing systems, widely used in Japanese vocabulary, such as "か" (unvoiced) → "が" (voiced), "さ" → "ざ", "た" → "だ", "は" → "ば". This page includes all voiced kana with detailed technical parameters and audio pronunciation. Understanding the differences between dakuon and seion, yōon, sokuon, and chōon is key to mastering the Gojūon chart.

📝 What Are the Voiced Hiragana?

The voiced hiragana include が (romaji ga, Unicode U+304C), ぎ (gi, U+304E), ぐ (gu, U+3050), げ (ge, U+3052), ご (go, U+3054) from the ga row. The za row includes ざ (za, U+3056), じ (ji, U+3058), ず (zu, U+305A), ぜ (ze, U+305C), ぞ (zo, U+305E). The da row includes だ (da, U+3060), ぢ (ji, U+3062), づ (zu, U+3065), で (de, U+3067), ど (do, U+3069). The ba row includes ば (ba, U+3070), び (bi, U+3073), ぶ (bu, U+3076), べ (be, U+3079), ぼ (bo, U+307C). Note that "ぢ" and "じ" have the same pronunciation in modern Japanese, as do "づ" and "ず". These voiced hiragana are related to their corresponding unvoiced kana but are used to represent different words after voicing, such as "かぎ (key)" and "かき (persimmon)".

🔤 What Are the Voiced Katakana?

The voiced katakana correspond one-to-one with the voiced hiragana, with identical pronunciation but different glyphs. The ga row katakana are ガ (U+30AC), ギ (U+30AE), グ (U+30B0), ゲ (U+30B2), ゴ (U+30B4). The za row katakana are ザ (U+30B6), ジ (U+30B8), ズ (U+30BA), ゼ (U+30BC), ゾ (U+30BE). The da row katakana are ダ (U+30C0), ヂ (U+30C2), ヅ (U+30C5), デ (U+30C7), ド (U+30C9). The ba row katakana are バ (U+30D0), ビ (U+30D3), ブ (U+30D6), ベ (U+30D9), ボ (U+30DC). Voiced katakana frequently appear in loanwords, such as "ガラス" (glass), "バス" (bus), and "ドア" (door). Mastering the meaning of voiced katakana helps with reading loanwords and proper nouns.

📌 Important Notes on Using Dakuon

First, dakuon are formed by adding a dakuten (゛) to the upper right of unvoiced kana, with Unicode codepoints increased by 2 from the corresponding unvoiced character (e.g., "か" U+304B → "が" U+304C). Second, both "じ" and "ぢ" have the romaji "ji", and both "ず" and "づ" have the romaji "zu", but their Unicode codepoints differ — this distinction matters in programming. Third, semi-voiced sounds (handakuon, pa-row) and voiced sounds (ba-row) both originate from the ha-row, distinguished by the use of handakuten versus dakuten. Fourth, when typing, dakuon can be input by typing the unvoiced kana followed by a dakuten, or by directly using precomposed Unicode characters. Fifth, for LaTeX typesetting, the CJK package must be loaded with a Japanese font specified; in HTML, either entities or direct Unicode can be used. Additionally, contracted sounds (yōon, such as きゃ, しゃ) and geminate consonants (sokuon, such as っ) may involve voicing phenomena but are not classified as dakuon; they are typically listed separately in the Gojūon chart. Understanding the relationships between dakuon and seion, chōon, yōon, and sokuon is essential for grasping Japanese pronunciation rules and correct spelling.

💡 Tips for Using the Japanese Gojūon Voiced Sounds Page

Click any voiced kana card above to view detailed information and copy Unicode, romaji, HTML entity, or LaTeX command with one click. Each voiced kana supports audio pronunciation and can be downloaded as a 512×512 pixel transparent PNG image. For web development, it is recommended to use UTF-8 encoding and specify a Japanese font (such as Noto Sans JP) to ensure proper display of voiced kana. To input dakuon, simply type the corresponding romaji in a romaji input method (e.g., type "ga" to get "が"). It is also recommended to study systematically alongside seion, yōon, sokuon, and chōon from the Gojūon chart to fully master the Japanese kana system.