The , also known as , , or Katakana-Hiragana Prolonged Sound Mark by the Unicode Consortium, is a Japanese symbol

Japanese typographic symbols

This page lists Japanese typographic symbols which are not included in kana or kanji.The links in the Unicode column lead to the Unihan database.-Repetition marks:-Brackets and quotation marks:-Phonetic marks:-Punctuation marks:...

 which indicates a chōon, or a long vowel of two mora

Mora (linguistics)

Mora is a unit in phonology that determines syllable weight, which in some languages determines stress or timing. As with many technical linguistic terms, the definition of a mora varies. Perhaps the most succinct working definition was provided by the American linguist James D...

e in length. Its form is a horizontal or vertical line in the center of the text with the width of one kanji

Kanji

Kanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters hanzi that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana , katakana , Indo Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet...

 or kana

Kana

Kana are the syllabic Japanese scripts, as opposed to the logographic Chinese characters known in Japan as kanji and the Roman alphabet known as rōmaji...

 character. It is written horizontally in horizontal text and vertically in vertical text. The chōonpu is usually used to indicate a long vowel sound in katakana writing, rarely in hiragana writing, and never in romanized Japanese

Romanization of Japanese

The romanization of Japanese is the application of the Latin alphabet to write the Japanese language. This method of writing is known as , less strictly romaji, literally "Roman letters", sometimes incorrectly transliterated as romanji or rōmanji. There are several different romanization systems...

. The chōonpu is a distinct mark from the dash, and in most Japanese typefaces

Japanese typefaces

' is the Japanese word for writing style and typeface. Shotai covers the calligraphic writing styles, such as*regular script,*seal script,*clerical script,*running script, and*cursive scriptas well as Japanese styles like*Edomoji....

 it can easily be distinguished.

The symbol is sometimes used with hiragana

Hiragana

is a Japanese syllabary, one basic component of the Japanese writing system, along with katakana, kanji, and the Latin alphabet . Hiragana and katakana are both kana systems, in which each character represents one mora...

, for example in the signs of ramen

Ramen

is a Japanese noodle dish. It consists of Chinese-style wheat noodles served in a meat- or fish-based broth, often flavored with soy sauce or miso, and uses toppings such as , , kamaboko, green onions, and occasionally corn...

 restaurants, which are sometimes written らーめん in hiragana. However, usually, hiragana does not use the chōonpu but another vowel kana to express this sound. The following table shows the usual hiragana equivalents used to form a long vowel, using the ha-gyō as an example.

Romaji	Hiragana	Katakana
hā	はあ	ハー
hī	ひい	ヒー
fū / hū	ふう	フー
hē (hei)	へい	ヘー
hē (hee)	へえ
hō (hou)	ほう	ホー
hō (hoo)	ほお

In addition to Japanese, chōonpu are also used in katakana Okinawan writing system

Okinawan writing system

Okinawan language, spoken in Okinawa Island, was once the official language of the Ryukyuan Kingdom. At the time, documents were written in kanji and hiragana, derived from Japan. However, after Japan annexed the kingdom, the language was labeled as the "dialect" of mainland Japanese...

s to indicate two morae. The Sakhalin dialect of Ainu

Ainu language

Ainu is one of the Ainu languages, spoken by members of the Ainu ethnic group on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaidō....

 also uses chōonpu in its katakana writing for long vowels.

In Unicode, the fullwidth form has the value U+30FC , while the halfwidth form has the value U+FF70 , both for horizontal writing.