Wi (kana)

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The hiragana ゐ.

The katakana ヰ.

	kana - gojūon
n	wa	ra	ya	ma	ha	na	ta	sa	ka	a
tsu	wi	ri		mi	hi	ni	chi	shi	ki	i
゛		ru	yu	mu	fu	nu	tsu	su	ku	u
ー	we	re		me	he	ne	te	se	ke	e
	wo	ro	yo	mo	ho	no	to	so	ko	o

ゐ, in hiragana, or ヰ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, which each represent one mora. It is presumed that ゐ was pronounced as "wi" listen (help·info) and that ゐ and い (i) were pronounced differently from each other until anywhere between the Kamakura period and the Taishō period. Although it is often transliterated as "wi", this kana was usually pronounced as "i" before it was deemed obsolete, and replaced with い and イ.

This kana is obsolescent (it was commonly used before World War II), and rare in everyday usage. In fact, in onomatopoeia and foreign words, the katakana form ウィ (U-[small-i]) is preferred.

One modern-day usage of this kana is the Japanese spelling of Nikka Whiskey, which is written "ニッカウヰスキー" (nikka uwisukī).

[edit] See also

• U (kana)
• I (kana)