The origins and changes over time of the features and characteristics of Japanese in its spoken and written forms.
13
votes
2answers
1k views
When did the “wu” character drop out of use?
In the last century, the ゐ and ゑ characters were eliminated from common use. But it seems like there used to also be a "wu" character that has since been lost. Given that it's a lot harder to find ...
2
votes
2answers
181 views
What was the origin for the term 水色 to be associated with youth, adolescence and puberty?
I am particularly interested in the phrase 「水色時代」. Did it come from the old manga that used the phrase as its title, or has the phrase been carrying that particular cultural connotation long before ...
5
votes
2answers
410 views
Can anyone explain the obsolete, non-phonetic use of hiragana from pre war times?
At university our most learned lecturer in Japanese once mentioned there were non-phonetic usages of hiragana at the end of kanji verbs and adjectives pre WWII. Apparently books printed prewar used ...
35
votes
1answer
865 views
Why were ゐ and ゑ eliminated?
Sometime in the early 20th century, usage of the now-historical kana ゐ and ゑ (and their katakana equivalents) dropped off, being replaced with い and え in modern Japanese. What exactly happened here ...
9
votes
1answer
251 views
Japanese/Chinese numbers usage timeline
Around what time did the Japanese start using Chinese numbers?
For example, 八百長 pronounced やおちょう rather than using the modern はっぴゃく.
