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obsolete katakana? 2007/4/10 19:18
Is the katakana "wo" ever used?
It's in every katakana chart I've
seen, but I have yet to see it being used in any texts, or words
written in katakana; likewise the charaters "wi" and
"we".
Just askin' out of curiosity.
by vedran  

. 2007/4/11 09:30
Because the hiragana equivalent, ‚ð, is used almost exclusively as the direct object particle, and particles are always written in hiragana, ƒ’ is seldom actually used.
by . rate this post as useful

Obsolete katakana 2007/4/11 09:32
Vedran,

You won't see the katakana "wo" widely used in written Japanese, and you might find that a not insignificant number of (older) Japanese natives would have trouble remembering how to write the character if asked on the spot.
One place where I see it is on the scrolling LED displays of store cash registers, which only seem to use katakana. It would also have been seen in the days of telegrams, when messages were written entirely in katakana.
On the net, it is quite common for "otaku" to be written using the katakana "wo".

The characters "wi" and "we" are no longer used in modern Japanese, so these are very rarely seen.
by Dave in Saitama rate this post as useful

Obsolete Kana 2008/6/11 10:48
I doubt that the Katakana ƒ’ is used because I didn't learn how to write it when I began studying Japanese two years ago. In 1946, the two Hiragana characters ‚î and ‚ï have been considered obsolete and have never been used since.
by Melissa rate this post as useful

ƒ’ 2008/6/11 19:06
The display on my printer uses "ƒ’", as all the information that comes up on the screen is in katakana- similar to the use on cash registers that Dave mentioned.
by Sira rate this post as useful

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