いつ

From Old Japanese.[1] Appears in the Man'yōshū, completed some time after 759 CE.[2]

The presence of other Old Japanese indefinites beginning with い (i) suggests a possible shared root of い (i, possibly “what” or “which”), as in 如何 (ikaga, “how”), 何処 (izuko, “where”), 幾ら (ikura, “how many, how much”).

Likely cognate with eastern Old Japanese word idu (modern idzu or izu, “where”), still used in modern Japanese as part of the word いずれ (izure, “which”).

• (Tokyo) い​つ [íꜜtsù] (Atamadaka – [1])[3][4][5]
• IPA^(key): [it͡sɨᵝ]

いつ (rōmaji itsu)

1. when

• This word is usually written in hiragana.
• 何 (い)時 (つ) (itsu) is more commonly used to mean when in terms of dates or days, while 何 (なん)時 (じ) (nanji) is more commonly used to mean when in terms of time of day.