We (kana)

Infobox_kana
Hiragana

Katakana

Transliteration = [we]
Hiragana Manyogana = 恵
Katakana Manyogana = 恵
Unicode =
Footnotes =

ゑ, in hiragana, or ヱ in katakana, is an obsolete Japanese kana, each of which represent one mora.

It is presumed that ゑ represented (IPA: Audio-IPA|We_(Japanese).ogg|/ɰe/). It is thought that after ゑ and え came to denote the same pronunciation as イェ (IPA: Audio-IPA|Ie_(Japanese).ogg|/ie/) in the Kamakura period that they came to be pronounced as the modern エ (IPA: IPA|/e/); there is also the view that the pronunciation difference between the two kana remained until the Taishō period.

This kana became obsolete in 1946, and is now rare in everyday usage. In fact, in onomatopoeia or foreign words, the katakana form ウェ (we) is preferred. One modern-day usage of this kana is in the name of the beer Yebisu, which is written "ヱビス" or "ゑびす". The movie "Rebuild of Evangelion" uses ヱ to write e in the word Evangelion, as well as ヲ (wo) for o: ヱヴァンゲリヲン ("Wevangeriwon"). This is different from the previous variant エヴァンゲリオン ("Evangerion").

troke order

ee also

*U (kana)
*E (kana)