Postby thegooseking » July 5th, 2014 2:20 pm
It's not necessary to know the reason for this, but it is quite interesting.
The fact is, historically, people actually did say 'ha'. That was how the particle was pronounced. Over time, the pronunciation of the particle changed, but the way it's written didn't. It seems confusing, but it's only really confusing because it's so rare in Japanese. Things being written differently to how they're pronounced is so massively common in English that we sort of take it for granted, but the reason for it is usually the same - those English words used to be pronounced differently to how they are now. The historical change in Japanese pronunciation is also why, for instance, the Japanese currency is called 'yen' in English (because that's how it used to be pronounced in Japanese), but 'en' in modern Japanese.
The reason it's so rare for Japanese words to be spelled differently to how they're pronounced is that kana has been reformed twice in (relatively) recent history to more accurately reflect changing pronunciation - the first time was in 1900, and the second time in 1946. The 1946 reform, however, was only partially implemented, which is why you have は and へ instead of わ and え. Some argue that it's also why you have を instead of お, but my understanding is that they are still pronounced slightly differently, anyway.
小狼
Domo arigato gozaimasu!
Arigato gozaimasu!