Explore each form from the oldest known stage to today.
The character 吾 has an interesting evolution. In ancient oracle bone and bronze inscriptions, it was composed of 五 (five) and 口 (mouth), originally representing 'I' or 'we' - perhaps suggesting the five mouths of a family or clan speaking collectively. Over time, it became a first-person pronoun in Classical Chinese, meaning 'I', 'me', or 'my'. The character exemplifies the phonetic loan principle in Chinese character formation, where 五 provided the sound while 口 added meaning related to speech or person. Arrived in Japan: The character 吾 likely arrived in Japan during the 5th-6th centuries CE along with the introduction of Chinese writing and Confucian classics. It appears in early Japanese texts like the Manyōshū (8th century) where it was used in man'yōgana as a phonetic character before being adopted into the Japanese lexicon with readings 'ware' (わが) and 'go' (ご), maintaining its meaning as a first-person pronoun.