𛄠
| ||||||||
JapaneseEdit
EtymologyEdit
From the left side of 以.
SyllableEdit
𛄠 (romaji yi)
Usage notesEdit
- In modern Japanese, old /ji/ evolved into /i/, and is written as い in hiragana and イ in katakana. Sound /ji/ reintroduced later is written as いぃ in hiragana and イィ in katakana - however most speakers pronounce this as a long /i/ sound.
- 𛄠 is a retrospective invention. It was not actually used in the ancient Japanese literature (which uses man'yōgana instead) and thus is not included in the historical kana orthography.
- In Meiji era grammar books, 𛄠 was sometimes used to spell や行上一段活用 verbs, as well as や行上二段活用 verbs. However, this was not universal; some books did this, while others did not.
- The katakana syllabary is used primarily for transcription of foreign language words into Japanese and the writing of gairaigo (loan words), as well as to represent onomatopoeias, technical and scientific terms, and the names of plants, animals, and minerals. It is also occasionally used in some words for emphasis, or to ease reading; katakana may be preferred for words becoming buried in the text if they are written under their canonical form in hiragana. Names of Japanese companies, as well as certain Japanese language words such as colloquial terms, are also sometimes written in katakana rather than the other systems. Formerly, female given names were often written in katakana. [edit]