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Hullo!
I was wondering, as I saw different hiragana-chart, that we don’t learn “wi” and “we” in the hiragana lesson.
Is there a reason? Are they not usefull?
I admit I’m still very early in the lesson, so if we encounter them later, don’t mind me.
Ta!
They’re basically not used any more, ever. Unless you’re trying to be anachronistic (like the old “Ye Olde English Shoppe” style, only in Japanese). Just as “wo” is usually pronounced as “o”, “we” and “wi” are pronounced as “e” and “i”, so they became obsolete. I can’t even figure out how to type them using my IME…
Fun fact: the beer brand Yebisu is technically written as ゑびす (but is pronounced “Ebisu”).
I was wondering about this too, actually. I ran into both in my anime.
I’ve only seen each once, though. Are they really rare enough that they’re not worth learning?-
This reply was modified 10 years, 11 months ago by
Pretty much, yeah. There’s only two of them, though, so you may as well learn to at least recognise them.
What anime?
Wi is in Nichijou. Fairly popular, i think. You can see the kana on the cover of the manga and i think during the anime intro too.
Can’t remember where i saw we.
Ah, that’s the manga author’s name. Arai Keiichi. Think obsolete kanji and kana are still used in names, especially if they’re old distinguished names. Like ゑびす.
Oh okay. Now that you mention it i think the other place i saw it was a musician’s name.
Thanks for the info. -
This reply was modified 10 years, 11 months ago by
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