We (kana)

we
hiragana katakana
transliteration	e, we
hiragana origin	恵
katakana origin	恵

ゑ, in hiragana, or ヱ in katakana, is a nearly obsolete Japanese kana.

It is presumed that ゑ represented [we]. It is thought that, after ゑ and え came to denote the same pronunciation as イェ [je] in the Kamakura period, they came to be pronounced as the modern エ [e]; there is also the view that the pronunciation difference between the two kana remained until the Taishō period.

Along with the kana for wi (ゐ in hiragana, ヰ in katakana), this kana became obsolete in 1946 for Japanese, and is now rare in everyday usage; in onomatopoeia or foreign words, the katakana form ウェ (we) is preferred (as, ウェスト for "west"). One modern-day usage of this kana is Ebisu. This word is usually written "えびす", but sometimes "ゑびす" like Kyōto Ebisu Shrine (京都ゑびす神社 Kyōto　Ebisu Jinja),^[1] and name of the beer Yebisu (ヱビス), which is actually pronounced "Ebisu". The Japanese title of the Rebuild of Evangelion series is Evangelion: New Theatrical Edition (ヱヴァンゲリヲン新劇場版 Evangerion Shin Gekijōban). Katakana ヱ is sometimes written with a dakuten, ヹ, to represent a /ve/ sound in foreign words; however, most IMEs lack a convenient way to write this. The combination ヴェ is far more commonly used.

Hiragana ゑ is still used in several Okinawan orthographies for the syllable /we/. In the Ryukyu University system, ゑ is also combined with a small ぃ, ゑぃ/ヱィ, to represent the sound /wi/. Katakana ヱ is used in Ainu for /we/.

Stroke order

Stroke order in writing ゑ

Stroke order in writing ヱ

Other representations

• Computer encodings

Character	ゑ		ヱ
Unicode name	HIRAGANA LETTER WE		KATAKANA LETTER WE
Encodings	decimal	hex	decimal	hex
Unicode	12433	U+3091	12529	U+30F1
UTF-8	227 130 145	E3 82 91	227 131 177	E3 83 B1
Numeric character reference	ゑ	ゑ	ヱ	ヱ
Shift JIS	130 239	82 EF	131 145	83 91

• Braille

ゑ / ヱ in Japanese Braille
ゑ / ヱ we	ヹ ve	ゑい / ヱー wē/wei	ヹー vē/vei

• Japanese semaphore

References

1. 京都ゑびす神社

See also

• U (kana)
• E (kana)