Why is there a "tsu" in Nippon (にっぽん)?


> **Possible Duplicate:**  
>  [How did "little tsu" become a
> lengthener?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/751/how-did-
> little-tsu-become-a-lengthener)

On Wikipedia and elsewhere, Japan is written like so: Nippon ( にっぽん ).

What is that tsu doing in there? Why isn't it represented in the romaji
rendering of the name?




The つ character you're talking about is commonly referred to as "little つ" and
looks like っ. This characters is not actually pronounced, but rather it means
to take a small pause.

In the case of にっぽん, instead of pronouncing it as "nitsupon", you would be
pronouncing it like "ni [small pause] pon" which is romanised as "nippon"
which has a natural pause between the two 'p's.

But like sawa said in a comment, this is a very basic thing in Japanese and
you would have learnt this from a textbook's first chapter.

For a more complete explanation though, you can visit [the wikipedia page on
it](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokuon).




The つ character you're talking about is commonly referred to as "little つ" and
looks like っ. This characters is not actually pronounced, but rather it means
to take a small pause.

In the case of にっぽん, instead of pronouncing it as "nitsupon", you would be
pronouncing it like "ni [small pause] pon" which is romanised as "nippon"
which has a natural pause between the two 'p's.

But like sawa said in a comment, this is a very basic thing in Japanese and
you would have learnt this from a textbook's first chapter.

For a more complete explanation though, you can visit [the wikipedia page on
it](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokuon).

