Chi (kana)

ち, in hiragana, or チ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, which each represent one mora. Both are phonemically /ti/, reflected in the Nihon-shiki and Kunrei-shiki romanization ti, although, for phonological reasons, the actual pronunciation is [t͡ɕi] ^ⓘ, which is reflected in the Hepburn romanization chi.

chi
hiragana katakana
transliteration	chi, ti
translit. with dakuten	ji, dji, 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, are uncommon. They are primarily used for indicating a voiced consonant in the middle of a compound word (see rendaku), and they don't usually begin a word. 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. It is, however, more common 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 [t͡s], and can be combined with the katakana ヤ, ユ, エ, and ヨ to write the other [t͡s] sounds. The combination チェ (pronounced [t͡se]), is interchangeable with セ゚.

Form	Rōmaji	Hiragana	Katakana
Normal ch-/t- (た行 ta-gyō)	chi	ち	チ
	chii, chyi chī	ちい, ちぃ ちー	チイ, チィ チー
Addition yōon ch-/ty- (ちゃ行 cha-gyō)	cha	ちゃ	チャ
	chaa chā	ちゃあ, ちゃぁ ちゃー	チャア, チャァ チャー
	chu	ちゅ	チュ
	chuu, chwu chū	ちゅう, ちゅぅ ちゅー	チュウ, チュゥ チュー
	cho	ちょ	チョ
	chou choo chō	ちょう, ちょぅ ちょお, ちょぉ ちょー	チョウ, チョゥ チョオ, チョォ チョー
Addition dakuten d-/j- (だ行 da-gyō)	ji	ぢ	ヂ
	jii, jyi jī	ぢい, ぢぃ ぢー	ヂイ, ヂィ ヂー
Addition yōon and dakuten dy-/j- (ぢゃ行 dya-gyō)	ja	ぢゃ	ヂャ
	jaa jā	ぢゃあ, ぢゃぁ ぢゃー	ヂャア, ヂャァ ヂャー
	ju	ぢゅ	ヂュ
	juu, jwu jū	ぢゅう, ぢゅぅ ぢゅー	ヂュウ, ヂュゥ ヂュー
	jo	ぢょ	ヂョ
	jou joo jō	ぢょう, ぢょぅ ぢょお, ぢょぉ ぢょー	ヂョウ, ヂョゥ ヂョオ, ヂョォ ヂョー

Other additional forms
Form A (ch-/chw-) Romaji Hiragana Katakana (cha) (ちゃ) (チャ) (chyi) (ちぃ) (チィ) (chu) (ちゅ) (チュ) che chei chee chē ちぇ ちぇい, ちぇぃ ちぇえ ちぇー チェ チェイ, チェィ チェエ チェー (cho) (ちょ) (チョ) chwa ちゅぁ, ちゎ チュァ, チヮ chwi ちゅぃ チュィ (chwu) (ちゅぅ) (チュゥ) chwe ちゅぇ チュェ chwo ちゅぉ チュォ	Form B (dy-/j-/jw-) Romaji Hiragana Katakana (dya, ja) (ぢゃ) (ヂャ) (dyi, jyi) (ぢぃ) (ヂィ) (dyu, ju) (ぢゅ) (ヂュ) dye, je dyei, jei dyee, jee dyē, jē ぢぇ ぢぇい, ぢぇぃ ぢぇえ ぢぇー ヂェ ヂェイ, ヂェィ ヂェエ ヂェー (dyo, jo) (ぢょ) (ヂョ) jwa ぢゅぁ, ぢゎ ヂュァ, ヂヮ jwi ぢゅぃ ヂュィ (jwu) (ぢゅぅ) (ヂュゥ) jwe ぢゅぇ ヂュェ jwo ぢゅぉ ヂュォ

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		㋠
Unicode name	HIRAGANA LETTER TI		KATAKANA LETTER TI		HALFWIDTH KATAKANA LETTER TI		HIRAGANA LETTER DI		KATAKANA LETTER DI		CIRCLED KATAKANA TI
Encodings	decimal	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex
Unicode	12385	U+3061	12481	U+30C1	65409	U+FF81	12386	U+3062	12482	U+30C2	13024	U+32E0
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	227 139 160	E3 8B A0
Numeric character reference	ち	ち	チ	チ	ﾁ	ﾁ	ぢ	ぢ	ヂ	ヂ	㋠	㋠
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

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.