Why does ha (は) replace wa (わ) ?

[Azshannar]

Hello everyone I'm new here as well as fairly new to the Japanese language. So bear with me if I'm asking a silly question.
I was wondering why does the hiragana symbol for ha - は substitute for wa - わ. And for what reason ? Is it only when used separately ?
Mainly trying to understand the reason for this. Just seems odd to me, but only since I know so little of the language.

Any clarification is appreciated

 

[Toritoribe]

は is pronounced as "wa" only when used as a particle in modern Japanese, as well as "へ - e".

Japanese/Grammar/Basic Particles - Wikibooks, open books for an open world
Japanese/Grammar/Basic Particles - Wikibooks, open books for an open world

hope this helps

 

[Azshannar]

Thanks for the links, hopefully they help me understand.

 

[Glenn]

Hello everyone I'm new here as well as fairly new to the Japanese language. So bear with me if I'm asking a silly question.
I was wondering why does the hiragana symbol for ha - は substitute for wa - わ. And for what reason ? Is it only when used separately ?
Mainly trying to understand the reason for this. Just seems odd to me, but only since I know so little of the language.
Any clarification is appreciated

It's because of historical pronunciation shifts. Basically はひふへほ used to be ぱぴぶぺぼ, but "p" turned to something like "f" (which remains in only ふ), which then turned to "h" when it came at the beginning of words. When it came between vowels (as in when it was the topic marker) it turned to "w," and this can be seen in historical spellings like かは for かわ (川) and in the name 藤原, ふじわら (原 has a reading of はら). So it isn't that は replaces わ -- it's that when the orthography was reformed they decided to leave the older, more traditional spellings for the particles, and decided not to replace は with わ (or を with お or へ with え, like Toritoribe pointed out).

 

[kyubisharingan]

just try not to think about it too much....or you will constantly get confused whne learning japanese

 

[Nall-ohki]

just try not to think about it too much....or you will constantly get confused whne learning japanese

My advice: don't listen to this person.

Thinking about things is one of the ways to learn.

 

[kyubisharingan]

My advice: don't listen to this person.
Thinking about things is one of the ways to learn.

i never said thinking about stuff was a bad thing. THinking about things too much is bad. There are tons more problems people may encounter in japanese. Yet if they worrying about why this is this way and that is that way, they will just get stuck and might not move on

 

[skj91]

It's because of historical pronunciation shifts. Basically はひふへほ used to be ぱぴぶぺぼ, but "p" turned to something like "f" (which remains in only ふ), which then turned to "h" when it came at the beginning of words. When it came between vowels (as in when it was the topic marker) it turned to "w," and this can be seen in historical spellings like かは for かわ (川) and in the name 藤原, ふじわら (原 has a reading of はら). So it isn't that は replaces わ -- it's that when the orthography was reformed they decided to leave the older, more traditional spellings for the particles, and decided not to replace は with わ (or を with お or へ with え, like Toritoribe pointed out).

OH! Ok that explains it perfectly. Just like in the U.S. on a lot of government buildings (or most any building that is built in the old greek architectural style), they spell 'u' with a 'v'. on the Supreme Court building it says Svpreme Covrt, for instance. We all know that's the Greek spelling for the sound 'u' makes. Easy to see how it might confuse a foreigner though.