Japanese Language Stack Exchange
Japanese Language Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [obsolete-kana]

歴史的仮名遣. Kana no longer in common use.

As the Japanese language has evolved over time, some syllables have merged. s have dropped from common use the corresponding letters of the Japanese syllabaries, (ひらがな) and (カタカナ). These letters are sometimes used in and .

Particularly, obsolete kana include ゐ/ヰ [i] and ゑ/ヱ [e], usually transliterated ⟨wi⟩ and ⟨we⟩.

This tag applies to any question asking about those obsolete kana.

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Why were ゐ and ゑ eliminated?

Sometime in the early 20th century, usage of the now-historical kana ゐ and ゑ (and their katakana equivalents) dropped off, being replaced with い and え in modern Japanese. What exactly happened here and why?
bdonlan
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When did the "wu" character drop out of use?

In the last century, the ゐ and ゑ characters were eliminated from common use. But it seems like there used to also be a "wu" character that has since been lost. Given that it's a lot harder to find information about "wu", I assume it vanished much…
Troyen
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Modern names of the obsolete kana ゑ and ゐ

In modern Japanese, the kana ゑ/ヱ (we) and ゐ/ヰ (wi) are largely obsolete. Words formerly containing them now are pronounced with /e/ and /i/, so they were replaced by え and い, respectively. But when referring to the letters themselves, it would be…
Mechanical snail
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Why has を been spared but ゐ and ゑ been deemed obsolete?

According to When is the katakana form of wo (ヲ) used?, を is almost always used only for the particle, and is usually pronounced o (お). There are some dialects where を is pronounced with a "w", but the same is true for the obsolete kana ゐ and…
Andrew Grimm
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戦前はどうやってしりとりをしていたのですか？

（日本語でもしてみむとて） 現在遊ばれている「しりとり」は基本的に終わりの一文字をつないでやるものだと思いますが、例えば「がっこう」なら（東京の発音ではガッコーですが）次は「う」、「こうてい」（コーテー）なら「い」というルールになると思います。 これを旧かな遣いで考えると「杖（つゑ）」は「ゑ」、「家（いへ）」は「へ」でないといけないと思います。そうだとすると子供の遊びにしてはやや難しいと思いますが、逆に言えば教育にはよかったのかもしれません（笑）。戦前はこのようにして遊んでいたのでしょうか。
broccoli facemask
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Orthography at the turn of the previous century

A couple of days ago I purchased an old book published in 1908. It uses a strange orthography I haven't encountered before. Everything that is not in kanji is written in katakana, including particles, inflections, etc. Was this the normal way, or…
hippietrail
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Do speakers that distinguish all four yotsugana in speech preserve the non-rendaku ぢ and づ in writing?

According to Wikipedia (and some posters here), Kagoshima Japanese resists the じ・ぢ and ず・づ mergers, much in the same way that various English dialects retain differences between words like meet and meat: But the gendai kanadzukai (or rather…
Foobie Bletch
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Can anyone explain the obsolete, non-phonetic use of hiragana from pre war times?

At university our most learned lecturer in Japanese once mentioned there were non-phonetic usages of hiragana at the end of kanji verbs and adjectives pre WWII. Apparently books printed prewar used this writing system, meaning old prints are…
crunchyt
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Why is katakana /va/ normally written ヴァ rather than ヷ?

Even though there is a katakana character ヷ, most of the time when I see something that is transcribed into Japanese as /va/, it is in the form ヴァ (say, for example, in the title of the anime series 革命機ヴァルヴレイヴ). Similarly, the forms ヸ, ヹ, and ヺ seem…
ハイドン
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Why is the volitional form of する - しよう, considering the classical post-む pre-spelling reform form was せう which should net *しょう?

Why is the volitional form of する - しよう, considering the pre-spelling reform but post-む form was せう, which according to sound changes and modern kana orthography should become しょう? Especially considering we have でしょう and ましょう, which come from the…
LittleWhole
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Questions about 絵本 by 林芙美子

I'm reading several short texts as a part of a university course that's starting this fall, but I'm having problem understand parts of this one text. It's called 絵本 and is written by 林芙美子 http://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/000291/files/24368_15542.html I…
Saitama
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Why did "mairasesoro" (まいらせさうらふ/まいらせ候) have its own kana ligature?

The Japanese Wikipedia notes that before 1900, the kana sequence まいらせさうらふ (mairasesōrō) had its own kana ligature: Poking around Wiktionary, my best guess would be that this is a set phrase in archaic keigo, but what exactly does this mean, and why…
lambshaanxy
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Is まはりて an archaic form of 廻って, and how is it broken down grammatically?

I came across a cover version of "Bad Apple", where the singer uses a more traditional style than the original song, including a translation of the (modern) lyrics into more archaic/poetic language. In one part of the song, I heard what sounds like…
Soron
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Japanese words with を in shiritori?

I've been playing some しりとり recently at http://www.shiritori.org/ and was wondering why no words with を show up. siritori.net suggests there are quite a few nouns starting with を: を をかし をことてん をつうじ をつうじて をつうじまして …
rhyaeris
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Can ゐ/ヰ be combined with ゃゅょ/ャュョ?

I'm writing a program which replaces kana characters with romaji, so that りょかん becomes ryokan etc. I thus need to handle cases where ゃゅょ (or ャュョ) combine with the preceding character. My understanding is that they can combine with any -i kana…
GoBusto
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