Yi (kana)

It is presumed that yi would have represented [ji].[2] Along with 𛀁 (ye) and 𛄟 (wu), the syllable yi has no officially recognized kana, as these syllables do not occur in native Japanese words; however, during the Meiji period, linguists almost unanimously agreed on the kana for yi, ye, and wu. 𛀆 and 𛄟 are thought to have never occurred as syllables in Japanese, and 𛀁 was merged with え and エ.

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. 𛀆 and 𛄠 were just two of many shapes.

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[3] (Hiragana)
    • イ[4] (Katakana)

• yi
  • Traditional kana
    • い (Hiragana)
    • 𛀆[5] (Hentaigana of い. Hiragana.𛀆)
    • イ (Katakana)
  • Constructed kana
    • い^〻[6](い with dots. Hiragana.)
    • 𛀆^〻 [7](𛀆 with dots. Hiragana.)
    • イ^〻[8](イ with dots. Katakana.)
    • 𛄠[9][10](A part of 以.[11] Katakana.)

These suggestions were not accepted.

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.

• Ye (kana)
• Wu (kana)