[_kst_]

In C, the type of a string literal is

    char[n]

where n is the length of the literal plus 1.

In C++, it's "array of n const char", or

    const char[n]

It's not of a reference type. See the ISO C++11 standard, 2.4.15 [lex.string].

(In both C and C++, array expressions "decay" to pointer expressions in most contexts. But for example

    sizeof "hello"

is 6 (the size of the string), not the size of a char* pointer.