HIRAGANA · SMALL KANA
small u
ぅ · paired with ゥ
Sound and use
Hiragana commonly writes grammatical endings, particles and native Japanese words.
See ゥ, the katakana counterpart →
Kana represent sounds and spelling functions. They do not have lexical meanings of their own.
How the shape formed
This is a reduced form of う; it changes how the surrounding kana are read rather than naming a separate word.
History and change
Japanese writers used Chinese characters for their sounds. The source character 宇 belonged to that wider practice; the kanji meaning was not inherited by ぅ.
Hiragana and katakana developed as Japanese syllabaries in the early Heian period (794–1185). This is the script-level period, not a first attested date for ぅ.
Hiragana commonly writes grammatical endings, particles and native Japanese words.
What is documented?
The sources above support the script’s broad period and the conventional parent-character account for ぅ. A first surviving appearance of this exact modern shape has not been established for this entry.
For a look at earlier hiragana variants, use the NINJAL hentaigana index ↗.