む

Stroke order

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

• IPA^(key): [mɯ̟]

む • (mu) 

1. The hiragana syllable む (mu). Its equivalent in katakana is ム (mu). It is the thirty-third syllable in the gojūon order; its position is ま行う段 (ma-gyō u-dan, “row ma, section u”).

• (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

Onomatopoeia.

• (Tokyo) む [múꜜ] (Atamadaka – [1])^[1]
• IPA^(key): [mɯ̟]

む • (mu) 

1. A mumbling sound.

From Old Japanese. First cited in the Kojiki of 712.^[2]

The pronunciation shifted from /mu/ to just nasal /m/ and then to the generalized nasal /ɴ/ by the mid-Heian period (794–1185), leading some writers to use ん (n) instead to write this suffix.^[2] The kana ん (n) itself evolved out of a hentaigana (alternative kana form) for む (mu) based on the cursive for kanji 无 (mu). In Classical Japanese texts, the practice now is to pronounce final む (-mu) as ん (-n) instead.

As a separate phonological shift, /mu/ retained the vowel but lost the consonant, becoming a nasalized /ũ/ and then plain /u/. This then often fused with the preceding vowel, ultimately leading to the development of the modern volitional / suppositional /oː/ ending in modern Japanese.^[2] See よう#Japanese:_suffix for more detail.

Variously described as suppositional ("seems like"), volitional ("I will"), or hortative ("let's). Ultimately, all of these senses arise from an apparent base meaning of "seem, appear, look like". May be cognate with 目 (me, “eye”), 見る (miru, “to see; to look at”), びる (-biru, “to look like, to seem like, to behave like”).

む • (-mu) ^†yodan

1. (Classical Japanese, after mizenkei) used to form the suppositional / volitional / hortative form of verbs, equivalent to modern う (-u > -ō) / よう (-yō); also used as a mild imperative
   • c. late 9th–mid-10th century, Taketori Monogatari

     我(われ)こそ死(し)なめ。

     Ware koso shiname.

     I would rather die myself.

   • 1021, Murasaki Shikibu, The Tale of Genji 21

     鳴(な)り高(たか)し。鳴(な)り止(や)まむ。

     Nari takashi. Nari yamamu.

     You are too noisy. Be quiet

• Resembling yodan conjugation, but defective.

• ん (-n)
• う (-u)
• よう (-yō)

Native Japanese kun’yomi pronunciation of various Chinese characters.

Middle Chinese-derived on’yomi pronunciation of various Chinese characters.

(The following entries are uncreated: 矛, 務, 霧, 牟, 墓.)