をことてん

also: おことてん

を

こ

と

て

ん

Meanings

noun

diacritical marks for reading classical Chinese

usually written using kana alone

A system of marks added to Chinese texts to indicate Japanese word order and grammatical endings, used in the traditional reading of kanbun. The term is technical and primarily encountered in historical or linguistic contexts.

漢かん文ぶんの教きょう科か書しょにはヲコト点てんが振ふってある。
The classical Chinese textbook has ヲコト点 marks added.

Kanji

点spot, point, mark
乎question mark, ?
古old
止stop, halt
己self

Related words

返かえり点てん
返り点 are marks that indicate the order in which characters should be read, while ヲコト点 specifically indicate grammatical endings and particles.
訓くん点てん
訓点 is a broader term for all marks added to Chinese texts to aid Japanese reading; ヲコト点 is one type of 訓点.

Written forms

ヲコト点てん
Standard katakana spelling; usually written in kana.
乎古止点
- をことてん
  Kanji spelling using 乎古止; also readable as おことてん.
- おことてん
  rarely-used kana form
乎己止点
rarely-used kanji form
- おことてん
  rarely-used kana form
  Rare kanji spelling; the reading おことてん is itself rare.
- をことてん
おことてん
rarely-used kana form

Etymology

Named for the marks indicating Japanese function words such as ヲ and コト that were added around Chinese characters to guide their Japanese reading.