Wi (kana)

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Hiragana	Katakana
Transliteration:	wi
Hiragana Man'yōgana:	為
Katakana Man'yōgana:	井
Unicode:
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 an obsolete Japanese kana, each of which represent one mora. It is presumed that ゐ represented /ɰi/ (help·info) and that ゐ and い indicated different pronunciations until somewhere between the Kamakura period and the Taishō period when they both came to denote /i/. This kana was deemed obsolete in 1946, and replaced with い and イ. It is now 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). Also, the name of the comedy duo Yoiko is written "よゐこ" (yowiko).

[edit] Stroke order

[edit] See also

• U (kana)
• I (kana)