pya / ピャ
The first PY combined kana — ピ plus a small ャ becomes “pya,” one syllable. Very rare; mostly seen in onomatopoeia.
Pronunciation
The compound character ピャ represents the syllable 'pya'. Extremely rare in modern katakana — appears in onomatopoeia and a few specialized terms.
ピャ is ピ (pi — ヒ with a handakuten) plus a small ャ, read as one syllable, “pya.” It's about the rarest combined kana — it has essentially no common loanwords, surfacing mainly in sound-words. The combining rule is exactly the same as every other set.
How to write ピャ
Trace ピャ 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 ピ: that's ヒ (a short rising stroke, then a long L-like base) plus a handakuten — a single small circle 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 ピャ combines ピ — ヒ (from the kanji 比) plus a handakuten that makes it “pi” — with a small ャ (reduced ヤ, from 也). Together they spell a single “pya” sound.
Common words starting with ピャ
Printable practice sheet
Print this worksheet to practice writing ピャ by hand — the top row shows the stroke order to trace, then fill the blank squares.
Lock it into memory
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