Japanese

Stroke order

Syllable

い ‎(romaji i)

1. The hiragana syllable い ‎(i). Its equivalent in katakana is イ ‎(i). It is the second syllable in the gojūon order; its position is あ行い段 ‎(a-gyō i-dan, “row a, section i”).

See also

• (Hiragana) 平仮名; あぁ, いぃ, うぅゔ, えぇ, おぉ, かゕが, きぎ, くぐ, けゖげ, こご, さざ, しじ, すず, せぜ, そぞ, ただ, ちぢ, つっづ, てで, とど, な, に, ぬ, ね, の, はばぱ, ひびぴ, ふぶぷ, へべぺ, ほぼぽ, ま, み, む, め, も, やゃ, ゆゅ, よょ, ら, り, る, れ, ろ, わゎ, ゐ, ゑ, を, ん, ー, ゝ, ゞ, ゟ

Etymology 2

From Old Japanese. Possibly cognate with Korean nominal particle 이 (i).

Used in Old Japanese, still found in use in Chinese works annotated for Japanese readers of Early Middle Japanese in the early Heian period, then becoming more limited and appearing only in specialized Buddhist texts. Fallen into disuse by the late Heian period from the time of so-called “cloistered rule”.^[1][2]

Obsolete. Not used in modern Japanese.

Particle

い ‎(romaji i)

1. (obsolete) emphatic subject marker, added to nouns and verb stems
   • c. 759, Man'yōshū (book 4, poem 545)

     吾背子之 跡履求 追去者 木乃関守伊 将留鴨

   • c. 759, Man'yōshū (book 12, poem 3161)

     在千方 在名草目而 行目友 家有妹伊 将鬱悒

   • c. 759, Man'yōshū (book 13, poem 3287)

     乾坤乃 神乎禱而 吾恋 公以必 不相在目八方

   • c. 759, Man'yōshū (book 14, poem 3393)

     筑波祢乃 乎弖毛許能母尓 毛利敝須恵 波播已毛礼杼母 多麻曾阿比尓家留

   • 797: Shoku Nihongi (edict #6)

     京職大夫從三位藤原朝臣麻呂等伊負圖龜一頭獻止

   • 797: Shoku Nihongi (edict #12)

     聞看食國中能東方陸奥國守從五位上百濟王敬福伊部内少田郡仁黄金出在奏弖獻

   • 797: Shoku Nihongi (edict #34)

     然後仁逆心乎以天朝庭乎動傾止之天兵乎備流時仁和氣伊申天在

2. (obsolete) emphatic phrase-final particle, emphasizing preceding phrase
   • c. 759, Man'yōshū (book 3, poem 481)

     白細之 袖指可倍弖 靡寢 吾黒髪乃 真白髪尓 成極新世尓 共将有跡 玉緒乃 不絶射妹跡 結而石 事者不果 [...]

   • c. 759, Man'yōshū (book 7, poem 1359)

     向岳之 若楓木 下杖取 花待伊間尓 嘆鶴鴨

   • c. 759, Man'yōshū (book 10, poem 1851)

     青柳之 糸乃細紗 春風尓 不乱伊間尓 令視子裳欲得

3. (obsolete) unbound nominalizing suffix:

   Examples: 木 ‎(ko, “tree”, bound form, only found in compounds) + i → 木 ‎(ki, “tree”, standalone form), 高 ‎(taka, “height”, bound form) + i → 丈 ‎(take, “height”, standalone form), 火 ‎(ho, “fire”, bound form) + i → 火 ‎(hi, “fire”, standalone form)

Derived terms

• 或 (ある)いは ‎(arui wa)
• いは ‎(iha)
• いし ‎(ishi)
• いも ‎(imo)

Etymology 3

Reading of various kanji.

Adjective

い ‎(-na inflection, romaji i)

1. 偉: great, excellent, magnificent
2. 異: different; unusual, aberrant

Counter

い ‎(romaji -i)

1. 位: counter for the souls of the dead; (math) counter for the number of decimal places
2. 囲: counter for the amount that can be encircled in one's arms, used as a rough measurement of circumference (roughly 1.5 meters)

Noun

い ‎(romaji i)

1. 位: rank, degree
2. 夷: uncivilized people (living to the east of ancient Imperial China; included Japan); neutral color, something colorless
3. 威: authority; threat
4. 尉: a watchman in the ancient Chinese military
5. 意: intent; meaning; goodwill
6. 易: something easy to do
7. 為: the twelfth string on a koto (Japanese zither); a fingering method for playing the shakuhachi (Japanese flute)
8. 異: (Buddhism) change or disease, one of the four states or avasthā
9. 移: under the Ritsuryō system of ancient Japan, an official document exchanged between officials with no direct authority over each other
10. 胃: stomach; one of the twenty-eight mansions in the Chinese constellations system
11. 衣: clothing; robes
12. 遺: something fallen, something lost or left behind
13. 医: medicine; a doctor
14. 井: a well (water source)
15. 亥: one of the twelve Earthly Branches in the Chinese time system and zodiac
16. 堰: a dike or levee for containing water
17. 居: being, sitting (in a place); a seat
18. 寝, 眠: sleep
19. 胆: gallbladder; liver
20. 猪: pig, boar
21. 姨: a wife's sister; more specifically, a wife's younger sister; a mother's sister, a maternal aunt; a mistress (extramarital female lover); more specifically, a father's mistress
22. 夷: a curtain or hanging that covers all sides
23. 彝: in ancient China, a tripod kettle or other vessel used to make offerings to one's ancestors
24. 藺: a bulrush, a rush (plant)
25. 蝟: the Chinese name of the 針鼠 ‎(harinezumi, “hedgehog”)
26. 扆: in China, a special windscreen placed behind the throne, made of red cloth embroidered with a pattern of axes and used during imperial audiences; by extension, the throne itself

Numeral

い ‎(romaji i)

1. 五: five
2. 五十: fifty

Prefix

い ‎(romaji i-)

1. 斎: added to spiritual nouns to indicate purity and holiness

Pronoun

い ‎(romaji i)

1. 彝: you (second-person pronoun)

Proper noun

い ‎(romaji I)

1. 伊: Italy

Suffix

い ‎(romaji -i)

1. 位: ordinal suffix: -th

References

1. ↑ 1988, 国語大辞典（新装版） (Kokugo Dai Jiten, Revised Edition) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan
2. ↑ 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, ISBN 4-385-13905-9

• Kurano, Kenji; Yūkichi Takeda (1958) Nihon Koten Bungaku Taikei 1: Kojiki, Norito, Iwanami Shoten, ISBN 4-0006-0001-X
• Kurano, Kenji (1936) Shoku Nihongi Senmyō (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Iwanami Shoten, ISBN 4-00-300381-0
• Satake, Akihiro; Hideo Yamada; Rikio Kudō; Masao Ōtani; Yoshiyuki Yamazaki (c. 759) Shin Nihon Koten Bungaku Taikei 1: Man’yōshū 1 (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Iwanami Shoten, ISBN 978-4-00-240001-3, published 1999.
• Satake, Akihiro; Hideo Yamada; Rikio Kudō; Masao Ōtani; Yoshiyuki Yamazaki (c. 759) Shin Nihon Koten Bungaku Taikei 2: Man’yōshū 2 (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Iwanami Shoten, ISBN 978-4-00-240002-0, published 2000.
• Satake, Akihiro; Hideo Yamada; Rikio Kudō; Masao Ōtani; Yoshiyuki Yamazaki (c. 759) Shin Nihon Koten Bungaku Taikei 3: Man’yōshū 3 (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Iwanami Shoten, ISBN 978-4-00-240003-7, published 2002.