Wu (kana)

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

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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]

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.

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] (A variant form of う. Hiragana.)
    • 𛀍^[5] (A variant form of う. Hiragana.)
    • ウ^[3] (Katakana)
  • Constructed kana
    • ^[5] (A part of 傴. Katakana.)

• wu
  • Traditional kana
    • う^[5] (Hiragana)
    • 𛀋^[6] (A variant form of う. Hiragana.)
    • ウ^[5] (Katakana)
    • 𛄢^[3][7] (An old variant form of ウ. Katakana.)
  • Constructed kana
    • ゔ^[8](う with dots. Hiragana.)
    • 𛄟^[3] (A cursive script style of 汙.^[1] Hiragana.)
    • ^[3] (A cursive script style of 紆. Hiragana.)
    • ^[9] (A cursive script style of 迂. Hiragana,)
    • ^[10] (A cursive script style of 卯. Hiragana.)
    • ヴ^[8](ウ with dots. Katakana.)

These suggestions were not accepted.

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).

• Yi (kana)
• Ye (kana)

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• v
• t
• e