Hi I just started learning Japanese and I found out about ゐ (wi) and was curious about why they don’t teach it and if there are any modern examples of it being used in media (such as titles of anime, books, or characters names)
If you read literature from before the post-WWII written language reforms, you may encounter it there. If you were to study classical Japanese, you’ll definitely find it there.
titles of music/manga etc: 魔法少女とチョコレゐト / モノノケミステリヰ / エスケヱプ・スピヰド
I recently saw these old hiragana in a magazine. Not common but I guess some are still used, perhaps mostly for names? But i could be wrong
The reason they don’t teach it is because it’s an obsolete kana – it’s sound is no longer made in Japanese.
It’s romanized as “wi” and it USED to be pronounced that way, but over time it gradually shifted in pronunciation until it was just pronounced the same way い is. There’s no point having two characters that represent the exact same sound, so all words that were spelled with ゐ were changed to be spelled with い instead.
The exact same thing happened to ゑ (we) which eventually changed in pronunciation to become identical to え.
Technically, this has also already happened to を as well, which is romanized as “wo” but pronounced the same as お. I think the reason this one hasn’t been completed replaced by お is because を is only ever used as a particle, so it is convenient to have it look distinct for reasons unrelated to its pronunciation. If を were actually used in any words it probably would have already been phased out of use.
I honestly find it quite interesting that somehow わ is still distinct from あ despite all other kana in the w-row losing their consonant.
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It’s obsolete. That’s why it’s not taught.
If you read literature from before the post-WWII written language reforms, you may encounter it there. If you were to study classical Japanese, you’ll definitely find it there.
Everything I’ve said also applies to ゑ
[あらゐけいいち](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keiichi_Arawi) (the mangaka of Nichijou)
[よゐこ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yowiko) (popular comic duo)
[因幡てゐ](https://touhou.fandom.com/ja/wiki/%E5%9B%A0%E5%B9%A1%E3%81%A6%E3%82%90) (from Touhou)
[ニッカウヰスキー](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikka_Whisky_Distilling) (producer of Japanese whisky) *ヰ: katakana ゐ
These are well known examples.
​
And there are many minor examples…
manga/anime characters: 紫乃宮まゐ / 松前るもゐ / 伏見やよゐ / ゐの壱
titles of music/manga etc: 魔法少女とチョコレゐト / モノノケミステリヰ / エスケヱプ・スピヰド
I recently saw these old hiragana in a magazine. Not common but I guess some are still used, perhaps mostly for names? But i could be wrong
The reason they don’t teach it is because it’s an obsolete kana – it’s sound is no longer made in Japanese.
It’s romanized as “wi” and it USED to be pronounced that way, but over time it gradually shifted in pronunciation until it was just pronounced the same way い is. There’s no point having two characters that represent the exact same sound, so all words that were spelled with ゐ were changed to be spelled with い instead.
The exact same thing happened to ゑ (we) which eventually changed in pronunciation to become identical to え.
Technically, this has also already happened to を as well, which is romanized as “wo” but pronounced the same as お. I think the reason this one hasn’t been completed replaced by お is because を is only ever used as a particle, so it is convenient to have it look distinct for reasons unrelated to its pronunciation. If を were actually used in any words it probably would have already been phased out of use.
I honestly find it quite interesting that somehow わ is still distinct from あ despite all other kana in the w-row losing their consonant.
i don’t even have that in my keyboard 😭