Wu (kana)

Wu (hiragana: 𛄟, katakana: 𛄢) is a Japanese mora or a kana used to write it, though it has never been in standard use.^[1]

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Quick facts Transliteration, Hiragana origin ...

History

It is presumed that 𛄟 would have represented /β̞u/.^[2]^[a] Along with 𛀆 and 𛀁 (yi and ye respectively), the mora wu has no officially recognized kana, as these morae do not occur in native Japanese words; however, during the Meiji period, linguists almost unanimously agreed on the kana for yi, ye, and wu. 𛀆 and wu are thought to have never occurred as morae in Japanese, and 𛀁 was merged with え and エ.

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Characters

In the Edo period and the Meiji period, some Japanese linguists tried to separate kana u and kana wu. The shapes of characters differed with each linguist. 𛄟 and 𛄢 were just two of many shapes.

They were phonetic symbols to fill in the blanks of the gojuon table. Japanese people didn't separate them in normal writing.

u
- Traditional kana
  - う^[3] (Hiragana)
  - 𛀋^[4] (A variant form of う. Hiragana.)
  - 𛀍^[5] (A variant form of う. Hiragana.)
  - ウ^[3] (Katakana)
- Constructed kana
  - ^[5] (A part of 傴. Katakana.)

wu
- Traditional kana
  - う^[5] (Hiragana)
  - 𛀋^[6] (A variant form of う. Hiragana.)
  - ウ^[5] (Katakana)
  - 𛄢^[3]^[7] (An old variant form of ウ. Katakana.)
- Constructed kana
  - ゔ^[8](う with dots. Hiragana.)
  - 𛄟^[3] (A cursive script style of 汙.^[1] Hiragana.)
  - ^[3] (A cursive script style of 紆. Hiragana.)
  - ^[9] (A cursive script style of 迂. Hiragana,)
  - ^[10] (A cursive script style of 卯. Hiragana.)
  - ヴ^[8](ウ with dots. Katakana.)

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Notes

/β̞/ corresponds to what is typically represented as /w/ in modern Japanese, which is still phonetically a bilabial approximant.

History

Characters

Unicode

Notes

References

See also

Wikiwand - on