HIRAGANA · MAIN KANA
nu
ぬ · paired with ヌ
Sound and use
Hiragana commonly writes grammatical endings, particles and native Japanese words.
See ヌ, the katakana counterpart →
Kana represent sounds and spelling functions. They do not have lexical meanings of their own.
How the shape formed
The standard hiragana shape is conventionally traced to a cursive form of 奴. Earlier manuscripts also used other shapes for the same sound.
History and change
Japanese writers used Chinese characters for their sounds. The source character 奴 belonged to that wider practice; the kanji meaning was not inherited by ぬ.
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 ぬ.
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 ぬ. 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 ↗.