View source for Yi (kana)

{{SpecialChars|compact=|special=Hentaigana characters|fix=Help:Multilingual_support|characters=Hentaigana}}
{{Expand Japanese|や行い|date=August 2021}}

{{Infobox kana
|Hiragana image = Hiragana_I_01.svg
|Katakana image = Japanese_Katakana_kyokashotai_YI.svg
|Transliteration = yi
|Hiragana Manyogana = 以
|Katakana Manyogana = 以
|flag1=9|flag2=3|flag3=1
|Footnotes =
}}

{{kana gojuon sidebar}}

'''Yi''' ([[hiragana]]: {{lang|ja|𛀆}}, [[katakana]]: {{lang|ja|𛄠}})  is a Japanese [[Mora (linguistics)#Japanese|mora]] or a [[kana]] used to write it, though it has never been in standard use.<ref name="hirakanagenji">Iannacone, Jake (2020). [https://kobunworld.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-5.html "Reply to The Origin of Hiragana /wu/ 平仮名のわ行うの字源に対する新たな発見"]</ref>

== History ==
It is presumed that ''yi'' would have represented {{IPA|ja|ji||}}.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=Gross|first=Abraham|title=Proposal to Encode Missing Japanese Kana|url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2019/19381-missing-kana.pdf|website=Unicode}}</ref> Along with {{lang|ja|[[Ye (kana)|𛀁]]}} (''ye'') and {{lang|ja|[[Wu (kana)|𛄟]]}} (''wu''), the mora ''yi'' 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''. {{lang|ja|𛀆}} (''yi'') and {{lang|ja|𛄟}} (''wu'') are thought to have never occurred as morae in Japanese, and {{lang|ja|𛀁}} (''ye'') was merged with {{lang|ja|[[E (kana)|え]]}} and {{lang|ja|[[E (kana)|エ]]}} as a result of regular historical sound changes.

== Characters ==
In the Edo period and the Meiji period, some Japanese linguists tried to separate kana ''i'' and kana ''yi''. The shapes of characters differed with each linguist. {{lang|ja|𛀆}} and {{lang|ja|𛄠}} were just two of many glyphs.

They were phonetic symbols to fill in the blanks of the gojuon table, but Japanese people did not separate them in normal writing.

*i
**Traditional kana
***い<ref>[https://nierlib.nier.go.jp/lib/database/KINDAI/EG00001141/ 綴字篇]</ref> (Hiragana)
***イ<ref>[https://nierlib.nier.go.jp/lib/database/KINDAI/EG00001141/ 綴字篇]</ref> (Katakana)

*yi
**Traditional kana
***い (Hiragana)
***𛀆<ref>[https://nierlib.nier.go.jp/lib/database/KINDAI/EG00001141/ 綴字篇]</ref> (Hentaigana of い. Hiragana.𛀆)
***イ (Katakana)
**Constructed kana
***い<sup>〻</sup><ref>[https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/863888/8 小学日本文典入門. 巻之1]</ref>(い with dots. Hiragana.)
***𛀆<sup>〻</sup> <ref>[https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/863888/9 小学日本文典入門. 巻之1]</ref>(𛀆  with dots. Hiragana.)
***イ<sup>〻</sup><ref>[https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/863888/8 小学日本文典入門. 巻之1]</ref>(イ with dots. Katakana.)
***𛄠<ref>[https://nierlib.nier.go.jp/lib/database/KINDAI/EG00001141/ 綴字篇]</ref><ref>[https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/868800/8 新式漢文捷径初歩]</ref>(A part of 以.<ref>[https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/868800/8 新式漢文捷径初歩]</ref> Katakana.)

These suggestions were not accepted.

== Unicode ==
The hiragana form of this kana is encoded into Unicode as HENTAIGANA LETTER I-1, with the position of U+1B006, while the katakana is encoded as KATAKANA LETTER ARCHAIC YI, in the position U+1B120.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.unicode.org/Public/UCD/latest/ucd/UnicodeData.txt|title=UCD: UnicodeData.txt|work=The Unicode Standard|accessdate=2024-05-27}}</ref>

==References==
<references />

== See also ==
* [[Ye (kana)]]
* [[Wu (kana)]]

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[[Category:Specific kana]]
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