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U+3080, む
HIRAGANA LETTER MU

[U+307F]
Hiragana
[U+3081]

Japanese[edit]

Stroke order
3 strokes

Etymology 1[edit]

Derived in the Heian period from writing the man'yōgana kanji in the cursive sōsho style.

Pronunciation[edit]

Syllable[edit]

(mu

  1. The hiragana syllable (mu). Its equivalent in katakana is (mu). It is the thirty-third syllable in the gojūon order; its position is (ma-gyō u-dan, row ma, section u).
See also[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

Onomatopoeia.

Pronunciation[edit]

Interjection[edit]

(mu

  1. Used to indicate a mumbling sound.

Etymology 3[edit]

From Old Japanese. First cited in the Kojiki of 712.[2]

The pronunciation shifted from /mu/ to just nasal /m/ and then to the generalized nasal /ɴ/ by the mid-Heian period (794–1185), leading some writers to use (n) instead to write this suffix.[2] The kana (n) itself evolved out of a hentaigana (alternative kana form) for (mu) based on the cursive for kanji (mu). In Classical Japanese texts, the practice now is to pronounce final (-mu) as (-n) instead.

As a separate phonological shift, /mu/ retained the vowel but lost the consonant, becoming a nasalized /ũ/ and then plain /u/. This then often fused with the preceding vowel, ultimately leading to the development of the modern volitional / suppositional /oː/ ending in modern Japanese.[2] See よう#Japanese:_suffix for more detail.

Variously described as suppositional ("seems like"), volitional ("I will"), or hortative ("let's). Ultimately, all of these senses arise from an apparent base meaning of "seem, appear, look like". May be cognate with (me, eye), 見る (miru, to see; to look at), びる (-biru, to look like, to seem like, to behave like).

Suffix[edit]

(-muyodan

  1. (Classical Japanese, after mizenkei) used to form the suppositional / volitional / hortative form of verbs, equivalent to modern (-u > -ō) / よう (-yō); also used as a mild imperative
    • c. late 9th–mid-10th century, Taketori Monogatari
      (われ)こそ()
      Ware koso shiname.
      I would rather die myself.
    • ()(たか)し。()()
      Nari takashi. Nari yamamu.
      You are too noisy. Be quiet
Conjugation[edit]
  • Resembling yodan conjugation, but defective.
Derived terms[edit]

Etymology 4[edit]

Native Japanese kun’yomi pronunciation of various Chinese characters.

For pronunciation and definitions of – see the following entries.
1
[noun] six
3
[noun] (only in compounds) a body
(This term, , is the hiragana spelling of the above terms.)
For a list of all kanji read as , see Category:Japanese kanji read as む.)

Etymology 5[edit]

Middle Chinese-derived on’yomi pronunciation of various Chinese characters.

For pronunciation and definitions of – see the following entries.
4
[noun] nothing, nothingness
[noun] (Buddhism) mu; the null set: neither yes nor no (in response to a koan or other question that mistakenly assumes an affirmative or negative answer).
[prefix] non-, un-
Alternative spelling
5
[affix] dream
[affix] illusion
[affix] vision
[affix] fantasy
5
[affix] military, martial
(This term, , is the hiragana spelling of the above terms.)
For a list of all kanji read as , see Category:Japanese kanji read as む.)

(The following entries are uncreated: , , , , .)

References[edit]

  1. ^ Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006) 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 ”, in 日本国語大辞典 (Nihon Kokugo Daijiten, Nihon Kokugo Daijiten)[1] (in Japanese), concise edition, Tōkyō: Shogakukan, 2000