"ァ" meaning in Japanese

{
  "etymology_number": 1,
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "ア",
        "2": "a"
      },
      "expansion": "Small form of the katakana character ア (a).",
      "name": "Kana-small"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Small form of the katakana character ア (a).",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "combining form"
      },
      "expansion": "ァ",
      "name": "ja-pos"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "Japanese",
  "lang_code": "ja",
  "pos": "combining_form",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Japanese entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Japanese katakana",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Japanese terms with redundant sortkeys",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "ファ - the sound [ɸa] rather than [ɸu] (フ) or [ha] (ハ)"
        },
        {
          "text": "ファン - transliteration of English fan"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Small combining form of katakana ア (a) used to explicitly specify the vowel part of the previous katakana character, or to show a speaker's pronunciation or extension of that vowel."
      ],
      "id": "en-ァ-ja-combining_form-TmtAAaCe",
      "links": [
        [
          "ア",
          "ア#Japanese"
        ]
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "english": "hiragana small a",
          "translation": "hiragana small a",
          "word": "ぁ"
        },
        {
          "english": "full-size a",
          "translation": "full-size a",
          "word": "ア"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "morpheme"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "ァ"
}

{
  "lang": "Japanese",
  "lang_code": "ja",
  "pos": "soft-redirect",
  "redirects": [
    "ぁ"
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "id": "en-ァ-ja-soft-redirect-47DEQpj8",
      "tags": [
        "no-gloss"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "ァ"
}

{
  "categories": [
    "Japanese combining forms",
    "Japanese entries with incorrect language header",
    "Japanese katakana",
    "Japanese lemmas",
    "Japanese terms with redundant sortkeys",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "etymology_number": 1,
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "ア",
        "2": "a"
      },
      "expansion": "Small form of the katakana character ア (a).",
      "name": "Kana-small"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Small form of the katakana character ア (a).",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "combining form"
      },
      "expansion": "ァ",
      "name": "ja-pos"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "Japanese",
  "lang_code": "ja",
  "pos": "combining_form",
  "related": [
    {
      "english": "hiragana small a",
      "translation": "hiragana small a",
      "word": "ぁ"
    },
    {
      "english": "full-size a",
      "translation": "full-size a",
      "word": "ア"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "ファ - the sound [ɸa] rather than [ɸu] (フ) or [ha] (ハ)"
        },
        {
          "text": "ファン - transliteration of English fan"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Small combining form of katakana ア (a) used to explicitly specify the vowel part of the previous katakana character, or to show a speaker's pronunciation or extension of that vowel."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "ア",
          "ア#Japanese"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "morpheme"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "ァ"
}

{
  "lang": "Japanese",
  "lang_code": "ja",
  "pos": "soft-redirect",
  "redirects": [
    "ぁ"
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "tags": [
        "no-gloss"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "ァ"
}