Fu (kana) explained

Hiragana Image:Japanese Hiragana kyokashotai HU.svg
Katakana Image:Japanese Katakana kyokashotai HU.svg
Transliteration:fu, hu
Hiragana Manyogana:
Katakana Manyogana:
Other Manyogana:不 否 布 負 部 敷 経 歴
Dakuten Manyogana:夫 扶 府 文 柔 歩 部
Unicode:U+3075, U+30D5
Flag1:9
Footnote:This mora was historically pronounced as "pu".
Spelling:富士山のフ Fujisan no "fu"

Japanese: , in hiragana, or Japanese: in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represents one mora. The hiragana is made in four strokes, while the katakana in one. It represents the phoneme pronounced as //hɯ//, although for phonological reasons (general scheme for /h/ group, whose only phonologic survivor to /f/ ([ɸ]) remaining is ふ: b←p←f→h), the actual pronunciation is pronounced as /ja/, which is why it is romanized fu in Hepburn romanization instead of hu as in Nihon-shiki and Kunrei-shiki rōmaji (Korean 후 /hu/ creates the same phonetic effect as lips are projected when pronouncing "u"). Written with a dakuten (ぶ, ブ), they both represent a "bu" sound, and written with handakuten (ぷ, プ) they both represent a "pu" sound.

The katakana フ is frequently combined with other vowels to represent sounds in foreign words. For example, the word "file" is written in Japanese as ファイル (fairu), with ファ representing a non-native sound, fa.

In certain Okinawan writing systems, ふ/フ can be written as ふぁ, ふぃ, ふぇ to make both fa, fi, and fe sounds as well as representing the sounds hwa, hwi, and hwe. In the Ryukyu University system, fa/hwa is written using the wa kana instead, ふゎ/フヮ.[1] In the Ainu language the katakana with a handakuten プ can be written as a small ㇷ゚ to represent a final p sound. In the Sakhalin dialect, フ without a handakuten can be written as small ㇷ to represent a final h sound after an u sound (ウㇷ uh).

FormsRōmajiHiraganaKatakanaExample words (with kanji)
Normal f-
(は行 ha-gyō)
fu
  • ふゆ fuyu 冬 winter
  • ふえる fueru 増える to grow/increase
  • ふつう futsū 普通 normal
  • ふみきり fumikiri 踏み切り level crossing
  • ふとん futon 布団 quilt/blanket
  • ふるえる furueru 震える to shake
  • フランス furansu France
fuu, fwu
ふう, ふぅ
ふー
フウ, フゥ
フー
Addition dakuten b-
(ば行 ba-gyō)
bu
  • はんぶん hanbun 半分 half
  • かぶ kabu 株 share/stump
  • ぶし bushi 武士 samurai
  • ハーブ hābu herb
buu, bwu
ぶう, ぶぅ
ぶー
ブウ, ブゥ
ブー
Addition handakuten p-
(ぱ行 pa-gyō)
pu
  • きっぷ kippu 切符 stamp
  • おんぷ ompu 音符 note
puu, pwu
ぷう, ぷぅ
ぷー
プウ, プゥ
プー

Other communicative representations

ふ / フ in Japanese Braille
ふ / フ
fu
ぶ / ブ
bu
ぷ / プ
pu
ふう / フー
ぶう / ブー
ぷう / プー
Other kana based on Braille
ひゅ / ヒゅ
hyu
びゅ / ビュ
byu
ぴゅ / ピュ
pyu
ひゅう / ヒュー
hyū
びゅう / ビュー
byū
ぴゅう / ピュー
pyū

Notes and References

  1. Web site: 首里・那覇方言のかな表記について. ja. Shuri-Naha Dialect Dictionary. University of the Ryukyus. n.d.. https://web.archive.org/web/20200211173523/http://ryukyu-lang.lib.u-ryukyu.ac.jp/srnh/sign.html. 2020-02-11. dead.