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]

wu
hiragana
japanese hiragana wu
katakana
japanese katakana wu
transliterationwu
hiragana origin汙/于
katakana origin
unicodeU+1B11F, U+1B122

History

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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 and .

Characters

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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
      • [3] (Hiragana)
      • 𛀋[4] (Hentaigana of う. Hiragana.)
      • 𛀍[5] (Hentaigana of う. Hiragana.)
      • [6] (Katakana)
    • Constructed kana
      •  [7] (A part of 傴. Katakana.)
  • wu
    • Traditional kana
      • [8] (Hiragana)
      • 𛀋[9] (Hentaigana of う. Hiragana.)
      • [10] (Katakana)
      • 𛄢[11][12] (An old variant form of ウ. Katakana.)
    • Constructed kana
      • [13](う with dots. Hiragana.)
      • 𛄟[14] (A cursive script style of 汙.[1] Hiragana.)
      •  [15] (A cursive script style of 紆. Hiragana.)
      •  [16] (A cursive script style of 迂. Hiragana,)
      •  [17] (A cursive script style of 卯. Hiragana.)
      • [18](ウ with dots. Katakana.)

These suggestions weren't accepted.

Unicode

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This kana has been encoded into Unicode 14.0 since September 14, 2021 as HIRAGANA LETTER ARCHAIC WU (U+1B11F), and KATAKANA LETTER ARCHAIC WU (U+1B122).

Notes

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

References

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  1. ^ a b Iannacone, Jake (2020). "Reply to The Origin of Hiragana /wu/ 平仮名のわ行うの字源に対する新たな発見"
  2. ^ Gross, Abraham (2020-01-05), Proposal to Encode Missing Japanese Kana (PDF), p. 1
  3. ^ 綴字篇
  4. ^ 村山自彊; 中島幹事 (1891). 仮名遣. 開新堂. p. 19.
  5. ^ 音韻啓蒙 : 2巻. 上巻
  6. ^ 綴字篇
  7. ^ 音韻啓蒙 : 2巻. 上巻
  8. ^ 音韻啓蒙 : 2巻. 上巻
  9. ^ 日本新文典
  10. ^ 音韻啓蒙 : 2巻. 上巻
  11. ^ 綴字篇
  12. ^ 有賀長隣. 片仮名元字. p. 4.
  13. ^ 小学日本文典入門. 巻之1
  14. ^ 綴字篇
  15. ^ 綴字篇
  16. ^ 国語仮字つかい
  17. ^ 辞礎
  18. ^ 小学日本文典入門. 巻之1

See also

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