bya / ビャ
The first BY combined kana — ビ plus a small ャ becomes “bya,” one syllable. Rare; seen in ビャクシン (juniper).
Pronunciation
The compound character ビャ represents the syllable 'bya'. Extremely rare in modern katakana loanwords. Appears only in a few specialized terms like ビャクシン (juniper).
ビャ is ビ (bi — ヒ with a dakuten) plus a small ャ, read as one syllable, “bya.” It's uncommon in loanwords — ビャクシン (juniper) is one of the few — and turns up in a handful of native readings. The combining rule is the same as every other set.
How to write ビャ
Trace ビャ on the canvas at the top of the page. Animated arrows show each stroke's direction; trace along them and the stroke fills in. Each numbered step below explains what that stroke does.
Write ビ: that's ヒ (a short rising stroke, then a long L-like base) plus a dakuten — two small ticks at the upper right.
Write a small ャ tucked into the lower right at about half height — a miniature ヤ (a hooking stroke, then a vertical).
Origin
Katakana ビャ combines ビ — ヒ (from the kanji 比) plus a dakuten that voices it to “bi” — with a small ャ (reduced ヤ, from 也). Together they spell a single “bya” sound.
Common words starting with ビャ
Printable practice sheet
Print this worksheet to practice writing ビャ by hand — the top row shows the stroke order to trace, then fill the blank squares.
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