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Japanese/Kana/Lessons/Katakana/Lesson 11

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Hiragana: [ a ] [ ka ] [ sa ] [ ta ] [ na ] [ ha ] [ ma ] [ ya ] [ ra ] [ wa, wo, n ] [ ゐ and ゑ (ancient hiragana in disuse) ]
Katakana: [ a ] [ ka ] [ sa ] [ ta ] [ na ] [ ha ] [ ma ] [ ya ] [ ra ] [ wa, wo, n ] [ ヰ and ヱ (ancient katakana in disuse) ]

In this lesson you are going to learn how to read and write ヰ and ヱ. These characters are not in modern Japanese but because they were legitimate characters before, one sees them in old Japanese text.

Brush Stroke:
Sound:

It is pronounced the same as "イ", but in ancient times there was a clear difference. Scholars guess that the sound was something like "ウィ".

Mnemonic:
Example:

Not normally seen in modern Japanese. Occasionally, ウイスキー (whiskey) is written as ウヰスキー.

Brush Stroke:
Sound:

It is pronounced the same as "エ", but in ancient times there was a clear difference. Scholars guess that the sound was something like "ウェ".

Mnemonic:
Example:

ヱビス - Ebisu, one of the seven lucky gods.