Chi (kana)

chi
hiragana katakana
transliteration	chi, ti
translit. with dakuten	ji, zi, di
hiragana origin	知
katakana origin	千
spelling kana	千鳥のチ (Chidori no "chi")

ち, in hiragana, or チ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, which each represent one mora. Both are phonemically /ti/ although for phonological reasons, the actual pronunciation is [t͡ɕi].

The kanji for one thousand (千, sen), appears similar to チ, and at one time they were related, but today チ is used as phonetic, while the kanji carries an entirely unrelated meaning.

Many onomatopoeic words beginning with ち pertain to things that are small or quick.^[1]

The dakuten forms ぢ, ヂ, pronounced the same as the dakuten forms of the shi kana in most dialects (see yotsugana), are uncommon. They are primarily used for indicating a voiced consonant in the middle of a compound word (see rendaku), and they can never begin a word, although some people will write the word for hemorrhoids (normally じ) as ぢ for emphasis. The dakuten form of the shi character is sometimes used when transliterating "di", as opposed to チ's dakuten form; for example, Aladdin is written as アラジン Arajin, and radio is written as ラジオ. More commonly though is to use ディ instead, such as ディオン to translate the name Dion.

In the Ainu language, チ by itself is pronounced [t͡ʃi], and can be combined with the katakana ヤ, ユ, エ, and ヨ to write the other [t͡ʃ] sounds as well as [t͡s] sounds. The combination チェ (pronounced [t͡se]), is interchangeable with セ゚.

Form variants

Form	Rōmaji	Hiragana	Katakana
Normal ch- (た行 ta-gyō)	chi	ち	チ
	chii chī	ちい, ちぃ ちー	チイ, チィ チー
Addition yōon ch- (ちゃ行 cha-gyō)	cha	ちゃ	チャ
	chaa chā, chah	ちゃあ ちゃー	チャア チャー
	chu	ちゅ	チュ
	chuu chū	ちゅう ちゅー	チュウ チュー
	cho	ちょ	チョ
	chou choo chō, choh	ちょう ちょお ちょー	チョウ チョオ チョー
Addition dakuten d- (j/z-) (だ行 da-gyō)	di (ji, zi)	ぢ	ヂ
	dii (jii, zii) dī (jī, zī)	ぢい, ぢぃ ぢー	ヂイ, ヂィ ヂー
Addition yōon and dakuten dy- (j-) (ぢゃ行 dya-gyō)	dya (ja)	ぢゃ	ヂャ
	dyaa (jaa) dyā (jā), dyah (jah)	ぢゃあ ぢゃー	ヂャア ヂャー
	dyu (ju)	ぢゅ	ヂュ
	dyuu (juu) dyū (jū)	ぢゅう ぢゅー	ヂュウ ヂュー
	dyo (jo)	ぢょ	ヂョ
	dyou (jou) dyoo (joo) dyō (jō), dyoh (joh)	ぢょう ぢょお ぢょー	ヂョウ ヂョオ ヂョー

Other additional forms
Form A (ch-) Romaji Hiragana Katakana (cha) (ちゃ) (チャ) (chyi, chi) (ちぃ, ち) (チ) (chu) (ちゅ) (チュ) che ちぇ チェ (cho) (ちょ) (チョ)	Form B (dy/j-) Romaji Hiragana Katakana (dya, ja) (ぢゃ) (ヂャ) (dyi, ji) (ぢぃ, ぢ) (ヂィ, ヂ) (dyu, ju) (ぢゅ) (ヂュ) dye (je) ぢぇ ヂェ (dyo, jo) (ぢょ) (ヂョ)

Stroke order

Stroke order in writing ち

Stroke order in writing チ

Stroke order in writing ち

Stroke order in writing チ

Other representations

• Computer encodings

Character	ち		チ		ﾁ		ぢ		ヂ
Unicode name	HIRAGANA LETTER TI		KATAKANA LETTER TI		HALFWIDTH KATAKANA LETTER TI		HIRAGANA LETTER DI		KATAKANA LETTER DI
Encodings	decimal	hex	decimal	hex	decimal	hex	decimal	hex	decimal	hex
Unicode	12385	U+3061	12481	U+30C1	65409	U+FF81	12386	U+3062	12482	U+30C2
UTF-8	227 129 161	E3 81 A1	227 131 129	E3 83 81	239 190 129	EF BE 81	227 129 162	E3 81 A2	227 131 130	E3 83 82
Numeric character reference	ち	ち	チ	チ	ﾁ	ﾁ	ぢ	ぢ	ヂ	ヂ
Shift JIS	130 191	82 BF	131 96	83 60	193	C1	130 192	82 C0	131 97	83 61

• Braille

ち / チ in Japanese Braille				Ch/J/Dy + Yōon braille
ち / チ chi	ぢ / ヂ ji/di	ちい / チー chī	ぢい / ヂー jī/dī	ちゃ / チャ cha	ぢゃ / ヂャ ja/dya	ちゃあ / チャー chā	ぢゃあ / ヂャー jā/dya
Ch/J/Dy + Yōon braille
ちゅ / チュ chu	ぢゅ / ヂュ ju/dyu	ちゅう / チュー chū	ぢゅう / ヂュー jū/dyū	ちょ / チョ cho	ぢょ / ヂョ jo/dyo	ちょう / チョー chō	ぢょう / ヂョー jō/dyō

• Japanese semaphore

See also

• Shi (kana)
• Hepburn romanization
• Kunrei-shiki romanization

References

1. Hiroko Fukuda, Jazz Up Your Japanese with Onomatopoeia: For All Levels, trans. Tom Gally. New York: Kodansha International (2003): 19 - 20, Introduction, Words Beginning with ち Chi, Indicating Smallness or Quickness.