4 ms·

It's not pronounced as 'yen' anymore, but it was in the past. Some of the historical kana that are not commonly used anymore, such as ゐ、ゑ used to express sounds

It's not pronounced as 'yen' anymore, but it was in the past. Some of the historical kana that are not commonly used anymore, such as ゐ、ゑ used to express sounds that are not distinguished anymore, but were retained in historical orthography for a while. It seems ゑ 'we' was pronounced 'ye' in the past (It seems え also was, at least in the middle ages, hence old forms such as Yedo for Edo 江戸) Nowadays, ゐ is pronounced 'i' and ゑ as 'e', so words that were written with them now just use い and え instead. ゐ、ゑ became most relegated to bring an 'antiquated' look. Think Yebisu (ヱビス) beer, written with ヱ, the katakana equivalent of ゑ, that also kept the archaism in the romanization, as Yen did. So ヱビス or ゑびす are read as 'Ebisu' even if written with the archaic kana But some Ainu and Okinawan orthographies have adopted their used (in case of Ainu only the katakana variants, I believe) を 'wo' (but really pronounced 'o') nowadays is only used as the 'direct object particle', but it was used in words like をとこ (男 man). As it ceased to sound different from お, subsequent orthographic reforms also removed it from use except in the particle function.

kevingadd 5y ago
Oh, that anecdote about 男 is fascinating. I never would have guessed. Thanks for the insight :) The various ways to pronounce the characters (particles, in particular) definitely adds another layer of depth here.
- sauropterygia 5y ago
  I suggest you read this article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_kana_orthography https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_kana_orthography It explains the shifts in pronunciantion in Japanese, making old Japanaese kana ortography differ from actual pronunciations, as in English orthography today. The remains of the old system can still be seen in the particles: A particular shift is medial and final h/f->w and w->∅(except) for 'wa'. This meant that non initial は was pronounced 'wa'. For example, かわ 'kawa' (river) was written as かは before the reform. The かは reflected and even older pronounciation of 'kapa' for the word There's a shift p->f->h on the は 'row' explaining why ふ is 'fu', and why ば is 'ba', as 'b' is the voiced equivalento of 'p' and not 'h') There was the same thing for へ, かえる 'kaeru' (frog) was written かへる historically, reflecting these changes. From wiktionary: ⟨kaperu⟩ → /kaperu/ → /kaferu/ → /kaweru/ → /kajeru/ → /kaeru/ (notice we -> ye -> e shift of ゑ here too, this one recent enough to influence the word 'Yen') Source: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E8%9B%99#Japanese https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E8%9B%99#Japanese So the particles は and へ, being pronounced 'wa' and 'e' instead of the expected 'ha' and 'he' are just remainers of this old orthography conventions, and give hints that the old form where probably pronounced 'pa' and 'pe' over a thousand years ago! Facinating stuff indeed :)

kevingadd 5y ago

Oh, that anecdote about 男 is fascinating. I never would have guessed. Thanks for the insight :) The various ways to pronounce the characters (particles, in particular) definitely adds another layer of depth here.

sauropterygia 5y ago
I suggest you read this article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_kana_orthography https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_kana_orthography It explains the shifts in pronunciantion in Japanese, making old Japanaese kana ortography differ from actual pronunciations, as in English orthography today. The remains of the old system can still be seen in the particles: A particular shift is medial and final h/f->w and w->∅(except) for 'wa'. This meant that non initial は was pronounced 'wa'. For example, かわ 'kawa' (river) was written as かは before the reform. The かは reflected and even older pronounciation of 'kapa' for the word There's a shift p->f->h on the は 'row' explaining why ふ is 'fu', and why ば is 'ba', as 'b' is the voiced equivalento of 'p' and not 'h') There was the same thing for へ, かえる 'kaeru' (frog) was written かへる historically, reflecting these changes. From wiktionary: ⟨kaperu⟩ → /kaperu/ → /kaferu/ → /kaweru/ → /kajeru/ → /kaeru/ (notice we -> ye -> e shift of ゑ here too, this one recent enough to influence the word 'Yen') Source: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E8%9B%99#Japanese https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E8%9B%99#Japanese So the particles は and へ, being pronounced 'wa' and 'e' instead of the expected 'ha' and 'he' are just remainers of this old orthography conventions, and give hints that the old form where probably pronounced 'pa' and 'pe' over a thousand years ago! Facinating stuff indeed :)