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ゐ and ゑ

Wladimir

先輩
Joined
24 Mar 2007
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ゑ we --> ヱ
ゐ wi --> ヰ

Can someone explane me what are these? I didn't find them into ReadWrite Hiragana software and is there any more scripts beside this:

あい う え お
か き く け こ
さ し す せ そ
た ち つ て と
な に ぬ ね の
は ひ ふ へ ほ
ま み む め も
や ゆ よ
ら り る れ ろ
わ ゐ ゑ
 
ゐ and ゑ used to be used quite widely in Japanese vocabulary, but with kana reforms that took place around 1950, they have been completely replaced by い and え. You will still occasionally see them in brand names (such as ヱビス) and other places, but they are no longer a part of standard Japanese. They should be pronounced the same as い and え.

You left を and ん off your list. を has a similar history to ゐ and ゑ, but it has remained in one standard Japanese word - the particle を. ん is very much a part of modern standard Japanese.
 
Thank you so much for your reply... Yeah, I forgot 'wo' and 'n'... I know really much about them, it's just harmless mistake, but thanks anyway.

And how many characters hiragana have... 46 or 47???
 
The usual count is 46. That leaves out ゐ and ゑ.
 
Thanks, well I was confused because in JWPce program I saw as a explanation for hiragana: hiragana, 47 syllables, the cursive syllabary, (P), and I learned only 46...
 
Hm. There was a time when ん didn't exist long long ago. Maybe the 47 is counting ゐ and ゑ and leaving out ん. It's definitely 46 now.
 
I doubt it, because ん should have been around long enough for it to be counted. Anyway, it's called the 五十音図, which is a bit of a misnomer nowadays, but it also suggests that there actually used to be fifty sounds. I guess that means ye and wu existed at some point, but I'm not sure about that.
 

Here's the i-ro-ha, order, which has I suppose a suggested n at the end...

The approximate reading is...

Colours are fragrant
But they fade away.
In this world of ours none lasts forever.
Today cross the high mountain of life's illusions,
And there will be no more shallow dreaming,
no more drunkenness.


link: here
 

This is so amazing, I must write this down... and thanks for the translation...
 
I dunno why... But I think Japanese should add some kana... like the following:

tsa, tsi, tse, tso, fa, fi, fe, fo, wi, wu, we, and crap XD well, that's not gunna happen o__o yeah.. SX
 
I dunno why... But I think Japanese should add some kana... like the following:
tsa, tsi, tse, tso, fa, fi, fe, fo, wi, wu, we, and crap XD well, that's not gunna happen o__o yeah.. SX

Well, there is fa fi fe fo... ふぁ、ふぃ、ふぇ、ふぉ, but you'll get them with combination fu with a, i, e, o, like し + や = しゃ
 
tsa - つぁ
tsi - つぃ
tse - つぇ
tso - つぉ
fa - ふぁ
fi - ふぃ
fe - ふぇ
fo - ふぉ
wi - うぃ
we - うぇ
 
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