# あ, 吾



## Isidore Demsky

is あ, or 吾 (pronounced "ah"?) the first person personal pronoun (i.e. equivalent to "I" in English)?


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## Isperia

We pronounce "吾" "Ware".
And it's the dated first person personnal pronoun.
("我" or "吾" is not in daily use.)


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## Isidore Demsky

Isperia said:


> We pronounce "吾" "Ware".
> And it's the dated first person personnal pronoun.
> ("我" or "吾" is not in daily use.)



Thank you.

So why does this page say the meaning of *あ* is "I," and why does the voice say "ah" when you click on the icon?


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## SoLaTiDoberman

I agree with Isperia.
We usually don't notice that 吾 has that pronunciation of "a."
After looking for a dictionary, I can tell that the pronunciation "a(あ)" is only used for names, like "吾妻(あづま）."
Names in the Japanese language have a lot of exceptional rules of pronunciation for some reason I don't know.
Probably those names have a longer history than a modern Japanese language grammar was made or something.


The online dictionary you're looking at doesn't show the frequency of the kanji or the pronunciation used.
So if you try to learn or review every Japanese words starting from あ,い,う,... I don't think it's a wise method.


By the way, in 吾輩（わがはい）は猫（ねこ）である (I'm a cat.), a famous Japanese novel by Souseki Natsume, 吾 is pronounced as わ (wa), and 吾輩（わがはい） is a lofty and obsolete expression to refer "I," although that dictionary doesn't refer to that pronunciation.


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## Isperia

"吾" has several pronunciations. And almost all "吾" for the first personnal pronoun was pronounced "Ware".
(In Nara or Asuka period, people pronounced it "A". But it was 1200-1400 years ago.)


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## Ranja

Isidore Demsky said:


> So why does this page say the meaning of *あ*is "I," and why does the voice say "ah" when you click on the icon?



That page is not wrong.  The general meaning of 吾 is 'I'.  The page is not saying that the meaning of あ is 'I'.
あ is used for names of places or persons , such as 吾郷 (agou).


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## Cowrie

If I remember correctly, 吾子（あこ）, which is not used in modern Japanese, means “my child”.


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## Isidore Demsky

Ranja said:


> That page is not wrong.  The general meaning of 吾 is 'I'.  The page is not saying that the meaning of あ is 'I'.
> あ is used for names of places or persons , such as 吾郷 (agou).



Thank you.

Is 吾 pronounced "ah" or "ware"?


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## Flaminius

あ does have the sense of 'I.'  吾 happens to be the Ancient Chinese word for the same and recognised as such in Japanese.  It's pronounced _a_ and _ware_.  In practical terms, both are obsolete and it is advised not to use them in real life.


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## animelover

万葉集: 「今日(ケフ)今日と*あ*を待たすらむ」

==>訳: 「今日こそは今日こそはと私を待っていらっしゃることだろう」


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