Not only is this old hiragana or barely used but I can’t seem to find what “ゐる” is supposed to mean. I know it’s pronounced “wiru”. ゐ is one of those hiragana in the table in the W column along with わ & を but just not used.
Anyone have a clue what this means though? I’m seeing it in words like
愛してゐる
生まれついてゐる
やつてゐる もの
ゐる is the historical form of いる. So those just look like historical form of modern day ている.
Ahh ok…now that’s not so confusing anymore. Thanks.
It’s not a “wi” sound actually. Historically maybe it was pronounced like that, but not for a very long time (to be accurate, it was the same consonant as the わ sounds, but that may or may not have sounded like they are pronounced in modern Japanese). All Japanese would pronounce it as “i” nowadays if they saw it. Same for the “we” kana (ゑ, ヱ), it’s pronounced “e”, like in Ebisu (ヱビス).
You’ll still find these historical kana in older books, or as a stylistic choice, but they are now pronounced the same as the modern “e”, “i” sounds.
This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.