In English, compound kana refers to when a kana 仮名 is followed by a small kana (sutegana 捨て仮名) to represent a single syllable that takes only one mora of time to pronounce, for example: kya きゃ.
Such syllables represent diphthongs—they have two vowels. In Japanese, this is called called youon 拗音, "distorted sound." For example: ki き has one vowel, while kya きゃ has two, and kiya きや has two vowels, too, but takes twice as long to pronounce.(福居誠二, 2017:68)
Normally, the normal-sized kana ends in the ~i vowel, such as ki, ni, chi, shi きにちし, followed by a small ya, yu or yo ゃゅょ. This is called kai-youon 開拗音 and found in native words. Besides these, there are compounds used in loan words, like kuwa くゎ, guwa ぐゎ, called gou-youon 合拗音, and others, like fa ファ, va ヴァ.(福居誠二, 2017:p67, n21, p69)
There are also compounds formed of two small kana, such as tyie ティェ:
Chart
For reference, a chart of the compound kana found in native words:
| kya きゃ キャ |
kyu きゅ キュ |
kyo きょ キョ |
| gya ぎゃ ギャ |
gyu ぎゅ ギュ |
gyo ぎょ ギョ |
| sha しゃ シャ |
shu しゅ シュ |
sho しょ ショ |
| ja じゃ ジャ |
ju じゅ ジュ |
jo じょ ジョ |
| cha ちゃ チャ |
chu ちゅ チュ |
cho ちょ チョ |
| dya ぢゃ ヂャ |
dyu ぢゅ ヂュ |
dyo ぢょ ヂョ |
| nya にゃ ニャ |
nyu にゅ ニュ |
nyo にょ ニョ |
| hya ひゃ ヒャ |
hyu ひゅ ヒュ |
hyo ひょ ヒョ |
| bya びゃ ビャ |
byu びゅ ビュ |
byo びょ ビョ |
| pya ぴゃ ピャ |
pyu ぴゅ ピュ |
pyo ぴょ ピョ |
| mya みゃ ミャ |
myu みゅ ミュ |
myo みょ ミョ |
| rya りゃ リャ |
ryu りゅ リュ |
ryo りょ リョ |
As image:
Different Words
The small kana used in a compound kana are not equivalent to their normal-sized kana. This means that a word with small ゃ is not the same as a word with big や. For example:
- kyou
きょう (kanji: 今日)
Today. - kiyou
きよう (器用)
Skillful. - hyou
ヒョウ (雹)
Hail. (the raining kind) - hiyou
ヒヨウ (費用)
Cost.
Sometimes, the small kana is used instead of a prolonged sound mark to mark a long vowel, which is longer than one mora. This, too, would be a different thing:
- waaa!!!
わぁー！！！.
Wahh!!! (a startled shriek.)
Mora
A compound kana takes one mora of time to pronounce.
A mora is an unit of time used in pronunciation: each kana takes exactly one mora to pronounce, and this is the same no matter how fast or slow your normally speak.
The idea is that if there's a 4 kana word, with 4 mora, it should take twice as long to pronounce than a 2 kana word with 2 mora. The compound kana break this rule.
With compound kana, you have a syllable that takes only one single mora to pronounce but is written with more than a single kana.
This means, for example, that kyakya きゃきゃ takes as much time to pronounce as kiya きや, even though it's written longer, since kya きゃ is one mora, ki き is one mora, and ya や is one mora, both kyakya and kiya take two mora of time to pronounce.
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