Wu (kana)

wu
wu
hiragana;	katakana;
transliteration	wu
hiragana origin	汙/于
katakana origin	汙
unicode	U+1B11F, U+1B122

This article contains Hentaigana characters. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Hentaigana.

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]

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.

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] (Hentaigana of う. Hiragana.)
  - 𛀍^[5] (Hentaigana of う. Hiragana.)
  - ウ^[6] (Katakana)
- Constructed kana
  - ^[7] (A part of 傴. Katakana.)

wu
- Traditional kana
  - う^[8] (Hiragana)
  - 𛀋^[9] (Hentaigana of う. Hiragana.)
  - ウ^[10] (Katakana)
  - 𛄢^[11]^[12] (An old variant form of ウ. Katakana.)
- Constructed kana
  - う^〻^[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.)
  - ウ^〻^[18](ウ with dots. Katakana.)

These suggestions weren't 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

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

References

^ ^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"
^ Gross, Abraham (2020-01-05), Proposal to Encode Missing Japanese Kana (PDF), p. 1
^ 綴字篇
^ 村山自彊; 中島幹事 (1891). 仮名遣. 開新堂. p. 19.
^ 音韻啓蒙 : 2巻. 上巻
^ 綴字篇
^ 音韻啓蒙 : 2巻. 上巻
^ 音韻啓蒙 : 2巻. 上巻
^ 日本新文典
^ 音韻啓蒙 : 2巻. 上巻
^ 綴字篇
^ 有賀長隣. 片仮名元字. p. 4.
^ 小学日本文典入門. 巻之1
^ 綴字篇
^ 綴字篇
^ 国語仮字つかい
^ 辞礎
^ 小学日本文典入門. 巻之1