I (い in

hiragana is a Japanese language, Japanese syllabary, part of the Japanese writing system, along with ''katakana'' as well as ''kanji''. It is a phonetic lettering system. The word ''hiragana'' means "common" or "plain" kana (originally also "easy", ...

or イ in

katakana is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script (known as rōmaji). The word ''katakana'' means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana characters are derived fr ...

) is one of the Japanese

kana are syllabary, syllabaries used to write Japanese phonology, Japanese phonological units, Mora (linguistics), morae. In current usage, ''kana'' most commonly refers to ''hiragana'' and ''katakana''. It can also refer to their ancestor , wh ...

each of which represents one mora. い is based on the sōsho style of the

kanji are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are ...

character 以, and イ is from the

radical Radical (from Latin: ', root) may refer to: Politics and ideology Politics *Classical radicalism, the Radical Movement that began in late 18th century Britain and spread to continental Europe and Latin America in the 19th century *Radical politics ...

(left part) of the kanji character 伊. In the modern Japanese system of sound order, it occupies the second position of the mora chart, between あ and

う U (hiragana: う, katakana: ウ) is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represents one mora (linguistics), mora. In the modern Japanese system of alphabetical order, they occupy the third place in the modern Gojūon (五十音) system of coll ...

. Additionally, it is the first letter in

Iroha The is a Japanese poem. Originally the poem was attributed to Kūkai, the founder of Shingon Buddhism, but more modern research has found the date of composition to be later in the Heian period (794–1179). The first record of its existence ...

, before ろ. Both represent the sound . In the

Ainu language Ainu (, ), or more precisely Hokkaido Ainu (), is a language spoken by a few elderly members of the Ainu people on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. It is a member of the Ainu language family, itself considered a language family isola ...

, katakana イ is written as ''y'' in their Latin-based mora chart, and a small ィ after another katakana represents a

diphthong A diphthong ( ), also known as a gliding vowel or a vowel glide, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of ...

Variant forms

Like other vowels, scaled-down versions of the kana (ぃ, ィ) are used to express sounds foreign to the Japanese language, such as フィ (fi). In some

Okinawan writing system Okinawan language, Okinawan, spoken in Okinawa Island. Documents in Ryukyu Kingdom were written in kanji and hiragana, derived from Japan. Although generally agreed among Linguistics, linguists to be a distinct language, most Japanese, as well ...

s, a small ぃ is also combined with the kana く (''ku'') and ふ to form the digraphs くぃ ''kwi'' and ふぃ ''hwi'' respectively, although the Ryukyu University system uses the kana ゐ/ヰ instead.

Origin

い comes from the left part of the

Kanji are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are ...

以, while イ originates from the left part of the Kanji 伊.Where do the kana come from
/ref> An alternate form - 𛀆, based on the full cursive form of 以 is one of the most common

hentaigana In the Japanese writing system, are variant forms of hiragana. Description In contrast to modern Japanese, originally hiragana had several forms for a single sound. For example, while the hiragana reading "ha" has only one form in modern ...

, as it merged with い late in the development of modern Japanese writing.

Stroke order

The Hiragana い is made in two strokes: #At the top left, a curved vertical stroke, ending with a hook at the bottom. #At the top right, a shorter stroke, slightly curving in the opposite direction. The Katakana イ is made in two strokes: #At the top, a curved diagonal line going from right to left. #In the center of the last stroke, a vertical line going down.

Other communicative representations

* Full Braille representation When lengthening "-i" or "-e" morae in Japanese braille, a chōon is always used, as is standard in katakana orthography, instead of adding the い / イ kana. * Computer encodings

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:I (Kana) Specific kana