わ

Stroke order

Derived in the Heian period from writing the man'yōgana kanji 和 in the cursive sōsho style.

• IPA^(key): [β̞a̠]

わ • (wa) 

1. The hiragana syllable わ (wa). Its equivalent in katakana is ワ (wa). It is the forty-fourth syllable in the gojūon order; its position is わ行あ段 (wa-gyō a-dan, “row wa, section a”).

• (Hiragana) 平仮名; あぁ, いぃ, うぅゔ, えぇ, おぉ, かゕが, きぎ, くぐ, けゖげ, こ𛄲 (𛄲)ご, さざ, しじ, すず, せぜ, そぞ, ただ, ちぢ, つっづ, てで, とど, な, に, ぬ, ね, の, はばぱ, ひびぴ, ふぶぷ, へべぺ, ほぼぽ, ま, み, む, め, も, やゃ, 𛀆, ゆゅ, 𛀁, よょ, らら゚, りり゚, るる゚, れれ゚, ろろ゚, わゎわ゙, ゐ𛅐 (𛅐)ゐ゙, 𛄟 (𛄟), ゑ𛅑 (𛅑)ゑ゙, を𛅒 (𛅒)を゙, ん, ー, ゝ, ゞ, ゟ

From Old Japanese.

(women's particle):

• (Tokyo) わ [wáꜜ] (Atamadaka – [1])
• IPA^(key): [β̞a̠]

(dialectal particle):

• (Tokyo) わ [wà] (Heiban – [0])
• IPA^(key): [β̞a̠]

 

English Wikipedia has an article on:

The Japanese particle "wa"

Wikipedia

わ • (wa) 

1. (women's speech, dated) a particle used in the end of sentences to indicate admiration or emotion

   あなたの髪(かみ)は長(なが)いわね！

   Anata no kami wa nagai wa ne!

   Wow, your hair is so long!

   今(いま)、行(い)くわ。

   Ima, iku wa.

   I'm coming.

   知(し)らないわ。

   Shiranai wa.

   I don't know.

2. (dialectal or men's speech) a particle used in the end of sentences to indicate emphasis

   何(なに)言(い)ってんのか解(わか)んねえわ。

   Nani itten no ka wakannē wa.

   I've no idea what he's saying.

• (Sense 1) In standard Japanese, this particle is mainly used by women, although its usage is almost extinct among younger generations.
• (Sense 2) In various dialects, particularly western, it is used by both men and women, but with a different pitch accent.

Reading for various kanji.

(The following entries are uncreated: 把, 曲.)

• Horiuchi, Hideaki with Akiyama Ken (1997) Shin Nihon Koten Bungaku Taikei 17: Taketori Monogatari, Ise Monogatari (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Iwanami Shoten, →ISBN
• Yamagishi, Tokuhei (1958) [c. 1001-1014] Koten Bungaku Taikei 14: Genji Monogatari 1 (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Iwanami Shoten, →ISBN