The I form of 吾 (waga)

Japanese dictionary to the rescue. From what I can see, there are two things to note about this kanji.

  1. It’s dated – don’t ever use it yourself or it’ll make you sound like a character in a historical drama or a fantasy story. Just know that it exists and what it means when you see it.

  2. There are a ton of different readings for it, わが is only one of them and it isn’t even the reading your most likely to encounter. Let’s look at a few of the definitions.

Entry 1:
Pronunciation: あ
Origin: Ancient Japanese; from the middle ages it began to be pronounced わ
Meaning: first person pronoun (わたし)

Entry 2:
Pronunciation: あれ
Meaning: First person pronoun (わたし)
Note: From the middle ages on, it began to be pronounced われ

Entry 3:
Pronunciation: わ
Meaning:

  1. First person pronoun. Can refer to men or women. わたし
  2. Reflexive pronoun. Myself/himself/herself/etc (私自身、その人自身)
  3. Second person pronoun. Used to call out to a person familiar to you, like a friend or family member. It can also be used pejoratively. (お前)

The list goes on. From what I can tell, the わが reading only applies as a prefix to indicate ownership of something, like 私の in modern Japanese. I haven’t been able to confirm this specifically though.

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