Wa (kana)

{{Infobox kana |Hiragana image = Japanese_Hiragana_kyokashotai_WA.svg |Katakana image = Japanese_Katakana_kyokashotai_WA.svg |Transliteration = wa |Hiragana Manyogana = 和 |Katakana Manyogana = 和 |Other Manyogana = 和丸輪 |Braille = 32px|⠄ |Unicode = U+308F, U+30EF |flag1=2|flag2=9 |Footnotes = |Spelling= わらびのワ Warabi no "wa" }}

'''Wa''' (hiragana: わ, katakana: ワ) is one of the Japanese kana, which each represent one mora. It represents {{IPA|[wa]}} and has origins in the character 和. There is also a small ゎ/ヮ, that is used to write the morae /kwa/ and /gwa/ (くゎ, ぐゎ), which are almost obsolete in contemporary standard Japanese but still exist in the Ryukyuan languages. A few loanwords such as {{nihongo||シークヮーサー|shiikwaasa|from Okinawan language}} and {{nihongo|Musica Antiqua Köln|ムジカ・アンティクヮ・ケルン|Mujika Antiikuwa Kerun|a German early music group}} contain this kana in Japanese. Katakana ワ is also sometimes written with dakuten, ヷ, to represent a {{IPA|/va/}} sound in foreign words; however, most IMEs lack a convenient way to write this. It is far more common to represent the /va/ sound with the digraph ヴァ.

{|class="wikitable" !Form !Rōmaji !Hiragana !Katakana |- !rowspan="2"|Normal ''w-'' (わ行 ''wa-gyō'') |''wa'' |わ |ワ |- |''waa'' ''wā'' |わあ わー |ワア ワー |}

The kana は (ha) is read as "wa" when it represents a particle.

The katakana {{nihongo||ヷ|'''va'''}}, which is a ''wa'' with a ''dakuten'' ("voiced mark"), along with {{nihongo||ヴ|vu}}, was first used by the educator Fukuzawa Yukichi for transcribing English in 1860<ref>{{cite book|lang=ja|quote={{lang|ja|安政五年余が江戶に{{ruby|來|きた}}りて{{ruby|初|はじ}}めて{{ruby|出|し{{hentaigana|𛃥}}つ}}{{ruby|版|ぱん}}したるは{{ruby|華|くわ}}{{ruby|英|えい}}{{ruby|通|つう}}{{ruby|語|ご}}なり是れは{{ruby|飜|ほん}}{{ruby|譯|やく}}と云ふ可き{{ruby|程|ほど}}のものにも非ず{{ruby|原|げん}}{{ruby|書|しよ}}の{{ruby|橫|よこ}}{{ruby|文|も}}{{ruby|字|じ}}に{{ruby|假|か}}{{ruby|名|な}}を{{ruby|附|つ}}けたるまでにして{{ruby|事|こと}}{{ruby|固|もと}}より易し{{ruby|唯|たゞ}}{{ruby|原|げん}}{{ruby|書|しよ}}のVの字を{{ruby|正|せい}}{{ruby|音|{{hentaigana|𛀕}}ん}}に近からしめんと欲し{{ruby|試|こゝろみ}}にウワの{{ruby|假|か}}{{ruby|名|な}}に{{ruby|濁|に}}{{ruby|點|ごり}}を附けてヴヷと記したるは{{ruby|當|たう}}{{ruby|時|じ}}{{ruby|思|{{hentaigana|𛀕}}もひ}}{{ruby|付|つき}}の{{ruby|新|しん}}{{ruby|案|あん}}と云ふ可きのみ}}|pp=418–419|script-title=ja:福澤全集緖言|date=5 December 1897|authorlink=Fukuzawa Yukichi|last=Fukuzawa|first=Yukichi|publisher=Jiji Shinpō Sha|location=Kyōbashi, Tokyo|url=https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1083585/1/26}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Vance |first=Timothy J. |year=1987 |title=An Introduction to Japanese Phonology |location=Albany, New York |publisher=State University of New York Press |isbn=978-0-88706-360-2 |p=32|chapter=Chapter 4: Consonants }}</ref> in his English-Japanese dictionary, which featured such entries as {{ruby|''Heaven''|{{lang|ja|ヒーヴヌ}}}} (''Hīvunu''), {{ruby|''Venus''|{{lang|ja|ヴェヌス}}}} (''Venusu''), {{ruby|''River''|{{lang|ja|リーヷル}}}} (''Rīvaru''), etc.<ref>{{cite book|lang=ja|script-title=ja:増訂華英通語|authorlink=Fukuzawa Yukichi|last=Fukuzawa|first=Yukichi|year=1860|url=https://iiif.lib.keio.ac.jp/FKZ/F7-A01-01/pdf/F7-A01-01.pdf|volume=1|location=Tokyo}}</ref> It is intended to represent a voiced labiodental fricative {{IPAblink|v}} in foreign languages, but the actual pronunciation by Japanese speakers may be closer to a voiced bilabial fricative {{IPAblink|β}} (see {{sectionlink|Japanese phonology#Voiced bilabial fricative}}).

==Stroke order== {| |- | thumb|upright|alt=Stroke order in writing わ|Stroke order in writing わ | thumb|upright|alt=Stroke order in writing ワ|Stroke order in writing ワ |}

==Other communicative representations== {{Letter reps|lang=Japanese|radio={{lang|ja|わらびのワ}}|radio_trans=Warabi no "Wa"|morse=-・- |morse_sound=K morse code.ogg|flag_img=ICS Kilo.svg|sign_img=|sem1=Japanese Semaphore Basic Stroke 2.svg|sem2=Japanese Semaphore Basic Stroke 9.svg|braille_img=Japanese Wa Braille.svg|braille=⠄}}

* Full Braille representation {| class="wikitable nowrap" style="text-align:center" |- !colspan=4| わ / ワ in Japanese Braille |- | わ / ワ '''wa''' || ヷ '''va''' || わあ / ワー '''wā''' || ヷー '''vā''' |- |{{Braille cell|type=kana|size=30px|わ}}|| {{Braille cell|type=kana|size=30px|5|わ}}|| {{Braille cell|type=kana|size=30px|わ|25}}||{{Braille cell|type=kana|size=30px|5|わ|25}} |}

* Computer encodings {{charmap |308F|name1=Hiragana Letter Wa |30EF|name2=Katakana Letter Wa |FF9C|name3=Halfwidth Katakana Letter Wa |1F2C0|name4=Halfwidth Katakana Letter Small Wa |map1=Shift JIS<ref name="shift_jis-utc">{{cite web |url=https://www.unicode.org/Public/MAPPINGS/OBSOLETE/EASTASIA/JIS/SHIFTJIS.TXT |title=Shift-JIS to Unicode |author=Unicode Consortium |author-link=Unicode Consortium |date=2015-12-02 |orig-year=1994-03-08}}</ref>|map1char1=82 ED|map1char2=83 8F|map1char3=DC |map2=EUC-JP<ref name="euc-jp-2007">{{cite web |url=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/unicode-org/icu/master/icu4c/source/data/mappings/euc-jp-2007.ucm |title=EUC-JP-2007 |author1=Unicode Consortium |author-link1=Unicode Consortium |author2=IBM |author-link2=IBM |work=International Components for Unicode}}</ref>|map2char1=A4 EF|map2char2=A5 EF|map2char3=8E DC |map3=GB 18030<ref name="gb18030">{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/GB18030-2005|title=GB 18030-2005: Information Technology—Chinese coded character set|last=Standardization Administration of China (SAC)|date=2005-11-18}}</ref>|map3char1=A4 EF|map3char2=A5 EF|map3char3=84 31 9B 36 |map4=EUC-KR<ref name="euc-kr-ibm970">{{cite web |url=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/unicode-org/icu/master/icu4c/source/data/mappings/ibm-970_P110_P110-2006_U2.ucm |title=IBM-970 |author1=Unicode Consortium |author-link1=Unicode Consortium |author2=IBM |author-link2=IBM |work=International Components for Unicode}}</ref> / UHC<ref name="uhc-ms949">{{cite web |url=https://www.unicode.org/Public/MAPPINGS/VENDORS/MICSFT/WINDOWS/CP949.TXT |title=cp949 to Unicode table |last=Steele |first=Shawn |publisher=Microsoft / Unicode Consortium |date=2000}}</ref>|map4char1=AA EF|map4char2=AB EF |map5=Big5 (non-ETEN kana)<ref name="big5noneten-utc">{{cite web |url=https://www.unicode.org/Public/MAPPINGS/OBSOLETE/EASTASIA/OTHER/BIG5.TXT |title=BIG5 to Unicode table (complete) |author=Unicode Consortium |author-link=Unicode Consortium |date=2015-12-02 |orig-year=1994-02-11}}</ref>|map5char1=C6 F3|map5char2=C7 A9 |map6=Big5 (ETEN / HKSCS)<ref name="big5hkscs-html5">{{cite web |url=https://encoding.spec.whatwg.org/big5.html |title=big5 |work=Encoding Standard |publisher=WHATWG |last=van Kesteren |first=Anne |author-link=Anne van Kesteren}}</ref>|map6char1=C7 76|map6char2=C7 EB }} {{charmap |308E|name1=Hiragana Letter Small Wa |30EE|name2=Katakana Letter Small Wa |30F7|name3=Katakana Letter Va |32FB|name4=Circled Katakana Wa |map1=Shift JIS (plain)<ref name="shift_jis-utc"/>|map1char1=82 EC|map1char2=83 8E |map2=Shift JIS (KanjiTalk 7)<ref name="macjapanese">{{cite web | url=https://unicode.org/Public/MAPPINGS/VENDORS/APPLE/JAPANESE.TXT | title=Map (external version) from Mac OS Japanese encoding to Unicode 2.1 and later. | author=Apple Computer |author-link=Apple Computer |publisher=Unicode Consortium |date=2005-04-05 |orig-year=1995-04-15}}</ref>|map2char1=82 EC|map2char2=83 8E|map2char3=88 6A |map3=Shift JIS-2004<ref name="shift-jis-2004">{{cite web |url=http://x0213.org/codetable/sjis-0213-2004-std.txt |title=Shift_JIS-2004 (JIS X 0213:2004 Appendix 1) vs Unicode mapping table |date=2009-05-03 |author=Project X0213}}</ref>|map3char1=82 EC|map3char2=83 8E|map3char3=84 92 |map4=EUC-JP (plain)<ref name="euc-jp-2007"/>|map4char1=A4 EE|map4char2=A5 EE |map5=EUC-JIS-2004<ref name="euc-jis-2004">{{cite web |url=http://x0213.org/codetable/euc-jis-2004-std.txt |title=EUC-JIS-2004 (JIS X 0213:2004 Appendix 3) vs Unicode mapping table |date=2009-05-03 |author=Project X0213}}</ref>|map5char1=A4 EE|map5char2=A5 EE|map5char3=A7 F2 |map6=GB 18030<ref name="gb18030"/>|map6char1=A4 EE|map6char2=A5 EE|map6char3=81 39 A7 35 |map7=EUC-KR<ref name="euc-kr-ibm970"/> / UHC<ref name="uhc-ms949"/>|map7char1=AA EE|map7char2=AB EE |map8=Big5 (non-ETEN kana)<ref name="big5noneten-utc"/>|map8char1=C6 F2|map8char2=C7 A8 |map9=Big5 (ETEN / HKSCS)<ref name="big5hkscs-html5"/>|map9char1=C7 75|map9char2=C7 EA }}

==References== {{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wa (Kana)}} Category:Specific kana