Chi (kana)

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] (listen).

chi
hiragana katakana
transliteration	chi, ti
translit. with dakuten	ji, zi, di
hiragana origin	知
katakana origin	千
Man'yōgana	知 智 陳 千 乳 血 茅
Voiced Man'yōgana	遅 治 地 恥 尼 泥
spelling kana	千鳥のチ (Chidori no "chi")

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 common, 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
	Hepburn	Kunrei-shiki	Nihon-shiki
Normal ch-/t- (た行 ta-gyō)	chi	ti		ち	チ
	chii chī	tii tī		ちい, ちぃ ちー	チイ, チィ チー
Addition yōon ch-/ty- (ちゃ行 cha-gyō)	cha	tya		ちゃ	チャ
	chaa chā	tyaa tyā		ちゃあ ちゃー	チャア チャー
	chu	tyu		ちゅ	チュ
	chuu chū	tyuu tyū		ちゅう ちゅー	チュウ チュー
	cho	tyo		ちょ	チョ
	chou choo chō	tyou tyoo tyō		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)	ji	zi	di	ぢ	ヂ
	jii jī	zii zī	dii dī	ぢい, ぢぃ ぢー	ヂイ, ヂィ ヂー
Addition yōon and dakuten dy- (j/zy-) (ぢゃ行 dya-gyō)	ja	zya	dya	ぢゃ	ヂャ
	jaa jā	zyaa zyā	dyaa dyā	ぢゃあ ぢゃー	ヂャア ヂャー
	ju	zyu	dyu	ぢゅ	ヂュ
	juu jū	zyuu zyū	dyuu dyū	ぢゅう ぢゅー	ヂュウ ヂュー
	jo	zyo	dyo	ぢょ	ヂョ
	jou joo jō	zyou zyoo zyō	dyou dyoo dyō	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 communicative representations

Japanese radiotelephony alphabet	Wabun code
千鳥のチ Chidori no "Chi"	▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄

Japanese Navy Signal Flag	Japanese semaphore	Japanese manual syllabary (fingerspelling)	Braille dots-1235 Japanese Braille

• Full Braille representation

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

• Computer encodings

Character information

Preview	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[2]	130 191	82 BF	131 96	83 60	193	C1	130 192	82 C0	131 97	83 61
EUC-JP[3]	164 193	A4 C1	165 193	A5 C1	142 193	8E C1	164 194	A4 C2	165 194	A5 C2
GB 18030[4]	164 193	A4 C1	165 193	A5 C1	132 49 152 57	84 31 98 39	164 194	A4 C2	165 194	A5 C2
EUC-KR[5] / UHC[6]	170 193	AA C1	171 193	AB C1			170 194	AA C2	171 194	AB C2
Big5 (non-ETEN kana)[7]	198 197	C6 C5	199 89	C7 59			198 198	C6 C6	199 90	C7 5A
Big5 (ETEN / HKSCS)[8]	199 72	C7 48	199 189	C7 BD			199 73	C7 49	199 190	C7 BE

Character information

Preview	㋠
Unicode name	CIRCLED KATAKANA TI
Encodings	decimal	hex
Unicode	13024	U+32E0
UTF-8	227 139 160	E3 8B A0
Numeric character reference	㋠	㋠

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.
2. Unicode Consortium (2015-12-02) [1994-03-08]. "Shift-JIS to Unicode".
3. Unicode Consortium; IBM. "EUC-JP-2007". International Components for Unicode.
4. Standardization Administration of China (SAC) (2005-11-18). GB 18030-2005: Information Technology—Chinese coded character set.
5. Unicode Consortium; IBM. "IBM-970". International Components for Unicode.
6. Steele, Shawn (2000). "cp949 to Unicode table". Microsoft / Unicode Consortium.
7. Unicode Consortium (2015-12-02) [1994-02-11]. "BIG5 to Unicode table (complete)".
8. van Kesteren, Anne. "big5". Encoding Standard. WHATWG.