Historical Kana Orthography - General Differences

General Differences

This section uses Nihon-shiki romanization for づ, ず, ぢ, じ, ゐ, and ゑ.

In historical kana usage:

• Two kana are used that are obsolete today: ゐ/ヰ wi and ゑ/ヱ we. These are today read as i and e. Words that formerly contained those characters are now written using い/イ i and え/エ e respectively.
• Outside of its use as a particle, the を wo kana is used to represent the o sound in some, but not all, words.
• Yōon sounds, such as しょう shō or きょう kyō, are not written with a small kana (ゃ, ゅ, ょ); depending on the word, they are written with either two or three full-sized kana. If written with two kana and the last one is や ya, ゆ yu, or よ yo, then it represents a short syllable of one mora, such as きよ kyo. If written with two or three kana and the last one is う u or ふ fu, then it represents a long syllable of two moras. The first kana is not always the same as one used in the modern spelling, as in 今日 kyō "today", written けふ kefu. If written with three kana, the middle one will always be や ya, ゆ yu, or よ yo, and the last kana will always be う u or ふ fu, as in 丁 chō, the counter for tools, guns, etc., written ちやう chiyau.
• The series of kana ha hi fu he ho are used to represent, in some words, the sounds wa, i, u, e, o, respectively.
• Precedence is given to grammar over pronunciation. For example, the verb warau (to laugh), is written わらふ warafu, and in accordance with Japanese grammar rules, waraō, the volitional form of warau, is written わらはう warahau.
• The kana づ du and ぢ di, which are mostly only used in rendaku in modern kana usage, are more common. Modern kana usage replaces them with the identically-pronounced ず zu and じ ji in most cases. For example, ajisai (hydrangea) is written あぢさゐ adisawi.

Most of the historical kana usage has been found to accurately represent certain aspects of the way words sounded during the Heian period. As the spoken language has continued to develop, some orthography looks odd to the modern eye. As these peculiarities follow fairly regular patterns, they are not difficult to learn. However, some of the historical kana usages are simply mistakes. For example,

或いは aruiwa (or) might be found written incorrectly as: 或ひは or 或ゐは

用ゐる mochiiru (use) might be found written incorrectly as: 用ひる

つくえ tsukue (desk, table) might be found written incorrectly as: つくゑ

えびす ebisu (barbarian, savage) might be found written incorrectly as: ゑびす, according to the old pronunciations.

Some forms of unusual kana usage are not, in fact, historical kana usage. For example, writing どじょう dojō (loach, a sardine-like fish) in the form どぜう dozeu is not historical kana usage (which was どぢやう dodiyau), but a kind of slang writing originating in the Edo period.