Sokuon
The Sokuon is a Japanese character representing a small tsu (っ or ッ in either Hiragana or Katakana respectively). This small tsu quite simply means that the consonant in the next character is ‘doubled’, and a slight pause results. For example, in the word ‘Yukkuri’ (ゆっくり), the word is pronounced ‘yu’ (a slight pause of one mora) ‘kuri’. The っ (tsu) represents this slight pause.
