I (kana)

i
hiragana katakana
transliteration	i
hiragana origin	以
katakana origin	伊
Man'yōgana	伊 怡 以 異 已 移 射 五
spelling kana	いろはのイ (Iroha no "i")

I (い in hiragana or イ in katakana) is one of the Japanese kana each of which represents one mora. い is based on the sōsho style of the kanji character 以, and イ is from the radical (left part) of the kanji character 伊. In the modern Japanese system of sound order, it occupies the second position of the mora chart, between あ and う. Additionally, it is the first letter in Iroha, before ろ. Both represent the sound [i]. In the Ainu language, katakana イ is written as y in their Latin-based mora chart, and a small ィ after another katakana represents a diphthong.