How to write Sonya in katakana
Japanese writes foreign names in katakana, one of its two alphabets, by sound rather than by spelling. Sonya becomes ソーニャ, made of these parts:
| Katakana | Sound | Note |
|---|---|---|
| ソ | so | |
| ー | – | long vowel mark: hold the sound before it a little longer |
| ニャ | nya | two characters read as one sound |
When you write a full name, Japanese puts a middle dot between the first and last name, for example ソーニャ・スミス for Sonya Smith.