What is this 一 symbol? I see it all of the time. Is it just for names? Is it kanji? - Feed Post by Whinzer9

• 
  SamNatsumi

  it is used for extended vowel sounds like su-pa- which means supermarket, I've mainly seen it in katakana words.
  

  April 27, 2015 at 5:26am
• 
  JoepB

  Or, sometimes it's just the kanji for いち (one). But indeed most often it's the mark for longer vowels. コーヒー kōhī (coffee).

  April 27, 2015 at 6:07am
• 
  mog86uk

  The 一 in your post is actually the kanji for いち!
  The ー in JoepB's post is the long vowel mark (which is a symbol, not a kanji).
  
  一 and ー are different! :P

  April 27, 2015 at 6:32am
• 
  Xiffy

  Different yet they look the same LOL

  April 27, 2015 at 8:37am
• 
  Whinzer9

  o.o Mind blown. xD

  April 27, 2015 at 9:19pm
• 
  mog86uk

  一ー look extremely similar in Meiryo font, which most people will see on this site, but in other fonts are much easier/harder to notice.
  
  Also, they look very different in vertical writing, since only one of them changes orientation:
  
  ⑴　　⑵
  ケ　　十
  ︱　　一
  キ　　月
  
  1 = ケーキ (cake)
  2 = じゅういちがつ (November)
  
  Btw, I'm cheating with this, since this site isn't set-up to allow for vertical writing. I had to use a different character (vertical em-dash) for the vertical long vowel mark, since there is no separate unicode for the vertical version. Normally if you are typing in vertical writing mode, then it uses the same unicode character as the horizontal version but displays it vertically (I think), or you use a vertical version of the font (like "@Meiryo").

  April 28, 2015 at 2:47am
• 
  Xiffy

  That makes a lot of sense

  April 28, 2015 at 4:33pm