わ VS は!

[Fedgrub]

Now I am totally confused. I read through the particles thread, but still didn't feel like I had the answer. When do you write the symbol for "ha" and when do you write the symbol "wa" in a sentance?

For example, I assume you would write

わたしわのなめわまとです。

However, occassionally I read the "wa" parts written as は (ha).

Can anyone help clear this up for me so I dont get into a bad habit?

Thanks.

[Javizy]

は is read as わ when it acts as a topic-marking particle, otherwise it is read as 'ha' as usual.

(1) わたしはジムです。watashi wa Jim desu. I'm Jim.
(2) これがはなです。kore ga hana desu. This one is a flower.
(3) かのじょははなこです。kanojo wa Hanako desu. She is Hanako.

In the first sentence, わたし is the subject of the sentence,so it is marked by the subject-marking particle は, which as I said is read as わ when used in this way. In the second sentence, は is part of the word はな, so it is read as normal. In the last sentence, かのじょ is the subject, and is so marked with は as in (1), and followed by the name はなこ, where は is read as usual as in (2), so you have both different readings of the same character of followed in succession.

This may seem a bit confusing, but you get used to it fairly quickly and it's rarely ever a problem in kanji texts. Also, some kanji have up to seven readings, so you'll have to get used to judging which one to use based on the surrounding characters.

By the way, in your sentence you should not have two subject-marking particles. わたしのなまえ would be the subject, so it would go わたしのなまえはマットです. The best way to learn how to use particles is from seeing as many examples as possible, so keep studying and it'll be second nature before long.

[markystar]

the good news is, once you get used to it, you'll never forget it. and you'll totally be at peace with the fact that as a topic marker は is pronounced like わ.

the bad news is, if you're looking for a reason why, you probably won't find it. to the best of my knowledge, it's a pretty random choice. just as を represents お sound and not うぉ. my guess is, since particles are critical as grammatical markers they should stand out as being different from purely orthographic characters.



also, as with many things that drove me crazy when i first began studying japanese, i just learned to accept it (as every other student of japanese must do - and as, indeed, the japanese themselves do).

if anyone can find the historical reason for this choice of kana for は and を (date, person/committee, rationale, etc...), it might be a pretty interesting read for all of us. but even my japanese teacher told me she had no idea why it's done, they just needed to use something.

marky

[Jason]

I don't know about は but を used to actually be commonly pronounced "wo" and you can still hear it sometimes pronounced that way. Somewhere along the way people started pronouncing it "o" and it stuck. There used to be 2 other characters in the w row that aren't used anymore, ゐ/wi and ゑ/we.

What kana stood for what sounds actually wasn't standardized until 1946.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_kana_usage

[Shaydwyrm]

I don't know about は but を used to actually be commonly pronounced "wo" and you can still hear it sometimes pronounced that way.

へ　is also pronounced え　when used as a particle.

[Fedgrub]

Thanks for your advice guys, it seems so easy now. Seeing it in romaji and noticing how to write it when it stands alone really helps.

Javizy, thanks for correcting my line! I didn't realise my mistake. Much appreciated!

[jkeyz15]

.....the bad news is, if you're looking for a reason why, you probably won't find it. to the best of my knowledge, it's a pretty random choice.....

if anyone can find the historical reason for this choice of kana for は and を (date, person/committee, rationale, etc...), it might be a pretty interesting read for all of us. but even my japanese teacher told me she had no idea why it's done, they just needed to use something.

marky

Jkeyz to the rescue.
(I'm not on my comp or one that can type Japanese so I'll just italize the romaji.

Like English and other languages of the world, Japanese has changed with the passage of time. Grammar changes, and sometimes phonetics and writing changes too, such as The Vowel Shift in English. Well, in Classical Japanese of a long time ago (don't ask me exactly what dates), the ha row was previously read as /wa/ /i/ /u/ /e/ /o/. So for the particles /wa/ and /e/ were written using this row. Over time the writing system changed to what it is today, but the old ways to write the particles were preserved.

Another interesting note: Many verbs that end in u; the /u/ was once written using what is now fu (but back then it was pronounced /u/). For example the verb kau ....if you type kafu (still pronounced the same, as /kau) into Google you will get a number of hits.

Same thing goes for the he particle being pronounced as /e/.

Also the honorific o prefix was once written as what is nowho

[sphere]

this could be relevant...
歴史的仮名遣