Wu (kana)
{{ SpecialChars
| compact =
| special = Hentaigana characters
| fix = Help:Multilingual_support#Hentaigana
| characters = Hentaigana
}}
{{Expand Japanese|わ行う|date=August 2021}}
{{Infobox kana
|Hiragana image = Japanese_Hiragana_kyokashotai_WU.svg
|Katakana image = Japanese_Katakana_kyokashotai_WU.svg
|Transliteration = u, wu
|Hiragana Manyogana = 汙/于
|flag1=9|flag2=3|flag3=1
|Footnotes =
|Katakana Manyogana=汙
|Other Manyogana=傴 汙 紆 迂 于 宇 卯
|Unicode=U+1B11F, U+1B122}}
{{kana gojuon sidebar}}
{{One source|date=December 2020}}
Wu (hiragana: {{lang|ja|𛄟}}, katakana: {{lang|ja|𛄢}}) is a Japanese mora or a kana used to write it, though it has never been in standard use.Iannacone, Jake (2020). [https://kobunworld.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-5.html "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"]
History
It is presumed that {{lang|ja|𛄟}} would have represented {{IPA|/β̞u/}}.{{citation|last=Gross|first=Abraham|date=2020-01-05|title=Proposal to Encode Missing Japanese Kana|page=1|url=http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2019/19381-missing-kana.pdf}}{{Efn|{{IPA|/β̞/}} corresponds to what is typically represented as {{IPA|/w/}} in modern Japanese, which is still phonetically a bilabial approximant.}} Along with {{lang|ja|𛀆}} and {{lang|ja|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. {{lang|ja|𛀆}} and wu are thought to have never occurred as morae in Japanese, and {{lang|ja|𛀁}} was merged with {{lang|ja|え}} and {{lang|ja|エ}}.
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. {{lang|ja|𛄟}} and {{lang|ja|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[https://nierlib.nier.go.jp/lib/database/KINDAI/EG00001141/ 綴字篇] (Hiragana)
- 𛀋{{cite book|url={{NDLDC|862200/14}}|author=村山自彊|author2=中島幹事|title=仮名遣|year=1891|publisher=開新堂|page=19}} (A variant form of う. Hiragana.)
- 𛀍[https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/993449/16 音韻啓蒙 : 2巻. 上巻] (A variant form of う. Hiragana.)
- ウ (Katakana)
- Constructed kana
- 15px (A part of 傴. Katakana.)
- wu
- Traditional kana
- う (Hiragana)
- 𛀋[https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/1870622/12 日本新文典] (A variant form of う. Hiragana.)
- ウ (Katakana)
- 𛄢{{cite book|url={{NDLDC|862191/4}}|author=有賀長隣|title=片仮名元字|page=4}} (An old variant form of ウ. Katakana.)
- Constructed kana
- ゔ[https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/863888/8 小学日本文典入門. 巻之1](う with dots. Hiragana.)
- 𛄟 (A cursive script style of 汙.Iannacone, Jake (2020). [https://kobunworld.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-5.html "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"] Hiragana.)
- 20px (A cursive script style of 紆. Hiragana.)
- 20px[https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/862259/7 国語仮字つかい] (A cursive script style of 迂. Hiragana,)
- 20px[https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/992989/27 辞礎] (A cursive script style of 卯. Hiragana.)
- ヴ(ウ with dots. Katakana.)
These suggestions were not accepted.
Unicode
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
{{notelist}}