Yu (kana) explained

Hiragana Image:	Japanese Hiragana kyokashotai YU.svg
Katakana Image:	Japanese Katakana kyokashotai YU.svg
Transliteration:	yu
Hiragana Manyogana:	由
Katakana Manyogana:	由
Other Manyogana:	由 喩 遊 湯
Spelling:	弓矢のユ Yumiya no "yu"
Unicode:	U+3086, U+30E6
Flag1:	9
Flag2:	1

ゆ, in hiragana or ユ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, which each represents one mora. Both the hiragana and katakana forms are written in two strokes and represent the sound pronounced as /[jɯ]/.

When small and preceded by an -i kana, this kana represents a palatalization of the preceding consonant sound with the pronounced as /[ɯ]/ vowel (see yōon).^[1]

Forms	Rōmaji	Hiragana	Katakana
Normal y- (や行 ya-gyō)	yu	ゆ	ユ
	yuu, ywu yū	ゆう, ゆぅ ゆー	ユウ, ユゥ ユー

Other communicative representations

• Full Braille representation

The yōon characters ゅ and ュ are encoded in Japanese Braille by prefixing "-u" kana (e.g. Ku, Su) with a yōon braille indicator, which can be combined with the "Dakuten" or "Handakuten" braille indicators for the appropriate consonant sounds.

• Computer encodings

References

• The Compact Nelson Japanese-English Character Dictionary (Andrew Nelson, John H Haig) Tuttle Publishing 1999

Notes and References

1. Book: Japanese Hiragana: An Introductory Japanese Language Workbook. Contracted sounds. Jim Gleeson. Tuttle Publishing. 2013. 9781462913978.