Chinese

Punctuation mark

々

1. Ideographic iteration mark, indicating that the previous hanzi should be repeated.

Usage notes

In Japanese, the symbol 々 is used in any kind of writing. In Chinese, it is sometimes used in casual horizontal writing (or calligraphy) to indicate a repeated character, but not in formal writing, in print. More often, 〻 is used (but still only casually), or sometimes the older 二. Usually, however, the character is simply written twice, without the use of any of the above symbols.

Japanese

〻, vertical form of 々

Alternative forms

• 〻 (in vertical writing, now rare)

Etymology

Simplified from 仝, variant of 同 ‎(“same (used as iteration mark)”), written in cursive.^[2]

Punctuation mark

々 (3 strokes)

1. Ideographic iteration mark, indicating that the previous kanji should be repeated. The repeated character might not have the same pronunciation as the first due to rendaku.

   黙々 ‎(mokumoku, “silent, mute, tacit”)

   早々 ‎(hayabaya, “promptly”)

   佐々木 ‎(sasaki, “Sasaki (a Japanese surname)”)

   昔々 ‎(mukashimukashi, “once upon a time”)

   時々 ‎(tokidoki, “occasionally, sometimes”)

   久々 ‎(hisabisa, “long-absent”)

   色々 ‎(iroiro, “various”)

   日々 ‎(hibi, “daily”)

   島々 ‎(shimajima, “islands”)

Usage notes

In Japanese, this mark is formally called 漢字返し ‎(kanji-gaeshi, “kanji repeater”) or 同の字点 ‎(dō no ji ten, “same-character mark”). More casually, it is called noma since it looks like a combination of the katakana ノマ noma, 繰り返し ‎(kurikaeshi, “repeating”), 同じ ‎(onaji, “same”), or 同じく ‎(onajiku, “same”).

See also

• 々 on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• ゝ
• ヽ

References

1. ↑ 漢字文化資料館 漢字 Q&A コーナー Q0009 「々」はなんと読むのですか？
2. ↑ 漢字文化資料館 漢字 Q&A コーナー Q0009 「々」はなんと読むのですか？

• Unihan entry