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12.2. Where does the word `yen' come from?

In Japanese the name of the currency is en (円) not `yen'. In fact Japanese has no `ye' sound (see 4.1.2. Is there a kana symbol for ye or yi? ).

In the old (pre-war) writing system en was written in kana as wen (ゑん) not `yen'. Writing it as `yen' in English originated in Hepburn's dictionary of 1867, in which all words starting e or we were represented with an English ye. Other well-known examples are writing Yedo for Edo (the old name for Tokyo) or Yezo for Ezo, the old name for Hokkaidou.

Edited from a post by NAKANO Yasuaki.

Copyright (c) 1994-2006 Ben Bullock

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