When we are starting our journey in studying Japanese, it is common to recommend starting with Hiragana and then moving on to Katakana. These are two of the three “alphabets” used in the Japanese language, each having 46 letters (not counting the combinations and modification marks, known as “dakuten” and “handakuten”).
We can summarize everything as follows: there are two syllabaries and one ideographic alphabet. The syllabaries are known as a set of sounds (Hiragana and Katakana), while the ideograms (Kanji) are symbols that represent deep ideas and generally have a large number of pronunciations.
However, what is often not taught to us is that, in the past, the list of characters was larger, and some letters that were widely used fell into disuse.
Although they are not present in modern texts, these characters may appear in old books, historical records, manga set in archaic times, classical literature, poetry, or as a way to beautify and bring a more traditional aura to the written text.
In this article, we will see which Hiragana and Katakana are no longer in use.
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Table of Contents
Old Hiragana and Katakana – what are they?
The old characters are called Kyu Kana (旧仮名、きゅうかな). Kana (仮名、かな) means “syllabary,” and Kyu (旧、きゅう) is a kanji that conveys the idea of “old,” “ancient,” “archaic,” etc.
In summary, we can say that these special characters are graphic forms that emerged to compose the old Japanese system of phonetic reading and writing but have ceased to be used in modernity.
Although they are rare today, these letters are still considered important for scholars of the language and Japanese history.
Interestingly, it is possible to find some characters through Jisho.org. The online dictionary classifies the kyu kana as “obsolete” and as “historical kana.” Another curiosity is that it is possible to type ゐ using the Japanese QWER keyboard. Just type “wi,” and the option ゐ will appear.
Below, we will explain in more detail some of the most well-known archaic letters:
- ゐ – Wi (Old Hiragana). Evolved to “I” in modern pronunciation and in romaji transcription. It is similar to み (mi) and ね (ne) of current Hiragana.
- ヰ – Wi or Yi (Old Katakana). Evolved to “I.”
- ゑ – We or Ye (Old Hiragana). Evolved to “E.” Very similar to る (ru) of modern Hiragana.
- ヱ – We (Old Katakana). Evolved to “E.”
- 𛀁 – Ye (Old Hiragana) – An extremely rare character. In fact, if you enter it in Jisho, no definition will appear for it!
- 𛀀 – Ye (Old Katakana) – Evolved to “E.” It is also extremely rare, and its form resembles ウ (u) of contemporary Katakana.
It is worth noting that there are not only 5 characters that exist, but we will only address these, considering that the others are even difficult to find in their “digitized” form.
Do I need to know this?
The question that remains is: do I need to know this? Unless you are a curious person or an academic scholar of Japanese history and language, the answer is a resounding “No.”
It is not necessary to know these letters to learn to read Japanese. As mentioned earlier, these archaic characters are rarely found today.
Over time, it is possible that ヲ (を、o) of Katakana will also become extinct. Since there is the corresponding sound オ (o) within Katakana itself, this symbol is rarely used in words.
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Curiosities about Archaic Japanese
The Japanese language is full of peculiarities. One of them is the fact that the language has been changing over the years, varying in its grammatical structures, pronunciation, writing, and even calligraphy.
The term Kobun 古文 (こぶん) refers to the old forms of writing and classical literature, especially from the Edo period (1603 – 1868) onwards, and is formed by the kanji for old (古) and the ideogram for literature, writing, or composition (文). There is also the term 文語 (ぶんご, bungo) which means “literary language” or “written language.” This word is part of another, even larger term: 文語体 (ぶんごたい、bungotai) which means “literary style” or “writing style.”
In this article from the Tofugu portal, you can check more details about Classical Japanese: Kobun (Classical Japanese) – Old Kana (in English).
There are numerous characteristics of archaic Japanese that we cannot discuss in depth in a single article. If you want to delve deeper by researching on your own, we suggest searching for #words #arch or words #obs on Jisho.org. By searching in these two ways, you will find a list of archaic and obsolete words and expressions.
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