Could you please provide all the non basic kana characters as We, Wi, Vu and etc with explanation why they are not in the kana chart and should I learn those characters?

6 comments

1. Hentaigana aren’t used in 99% of text. I doubt there’s any practical reason to learn them except maybe some old text (I’ve never seen them anywhere)

2. They’re obsolete and aren’t used in most tests anymore.

   If you’re considering learning Classical Japanese (and you’re likely a long way off), I’d learn them.

3. For katakana used in modern transcriptions Wikipedia has [this table](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcription_into_Japanese#Extended_katakana_2), although not all of the combinations shown there are actually used in practice

   For obsolete kana there’s really only ゐゑヰヱ that you’ll realistically encounter unless you plan to read texts from Meiji or earlier

4. I really appreciate all of your answers but could you please provide the kana you won’t find in a regular kana chart? Also, I’d very like to know why those characters are not used anymore. Much thanks in advance!

5. It’s useful to know they exist and maybe have a general idea what they look like in the scenario you encounter them. However they’re obsolete and rarely used, so that probably won’t happen. But I mean, never say never I guess.

6. wi ru 為る was replaced by i ru いる。But いる can represent many Kanji characters. Here is an abstract from wiktionary:

   Classical conjugation of “ゐる” (ワ行上一段活用, see Appendix:Japanese verbs.)
   Stem forms
   Irrealis (未然形) ゐ wi
   Continuative (連用形) ゐ wi
   Terminal (終止形) ゐる wiru
   Attributive (連体形) ゐる wiru
   Realis (已然形) ゐれ wire
   Imperative (命令形) ゐよ wiyo

   [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E3%81%84%E3%82%8B](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E3%81%84%E3%82%8B)

   The reason was because at some point, Japanese got rid of the “w” consonant from many of its words. You search for the internet for the related information.

   ている is actually て + ゐる meaning “being”, the so-called “continuous tense”.