I recently discovered the kana ゟ, which is a ligature of よ and り, so it's the comparison particle. According to a few sites it's obsolete, or 'dated'.
Why is ゟ considered obsolete, and why should I use it, or avoid doing so?
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3For anyone (like me) whose browser font doesn't include a glyph for this character, you can see an image here. – GoBusto May 17 '15 at 6:33
The reason is very simple: universal education.
ゟ is not a "kana" but an abbreviation (合略仮名) used in the 1800s. In other words, it is not an outdated letter like long s (ſ), but a scribal abbreviation like "Ↄ̄" for "contra". It was mainly in use when writing was limited to a small literate class, and when language began being taught to the public at large, it was omitted, as can be seen in this 1874 textbook.
Wikipedia says that you can still see ゟ in newspapers from time to time; I might have seen it myself at some point. But the most common scribal abbreviations still in use today are the iteration marks 々, ゝ, and 〻. You should not use the other ones.
It's considered obsolete because it isn't in use any more, and people don't really think of it when they want an archaic flavour.
answered May 16 '15 at 22:28
ゟ has fallen nearly entirely out of standard usage. This means that if you show it to most people, they'll have no idea what it means, and you should definitely not use it yourself in regular writing. Instead, write out より with 2 kana, as this is standard now.
