Ki (kana)

き, in hiragana, キ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, which each represent one mora. Both represent [ki] and are derived from a simplification of the 幾 kanji. The hiragana character き, like さ, is drawn with the lower line either connected or disconnected.

ki
hiragana katakana
transliteration	ki き
translit. with dakuten	gi　ぎ
translit. with handakuten	(ngi)
hiragana origin	幾
katakana origin	幾
spelling kana	切手のキ (Kitte no "ki")

A dakuten may be added to the character; this transforms it into ぎ in hiragana, ギ in katakana, and gi in Hepburn romanization. The phonetic value also changes, to [ɡi] in initial, and varying between [ŋi] and [ɣi] in the middle of words.

A handakuten (゜) does not occur with ki in normal Japanese text, but it may be used by linguists to indicate a nasal pronunciation [ŋi].