15888
I looked up [the etymology of 古【いにしえ】 on gogen-allguide](http://gogen-
allguide.com/i/inishie.html), and found the following:

>
> いにしえは、「去る」を意味する動詞「いぬ（往ぬ）」の連用形「イニ」に、過去を示す助動詞「キ」の連体形「シ」がついた「イニシ」が、方向を表す名詞「ヘ（方）」を修飾した「往にし方（いにしへ）」。

This basically says that we take the verb 往ぬ, conjugate it, add the 助動詞 「き」,
conjugate again, and finish by adding the _noun_ 方【へ】. This was a bit
surprising to me, since I've never seen the noun 方【へ】 myself, and was
expecting the particle へ to show up there instead.

This is obviously suggestive of some sort of relationship between the noun
方【へ】 and the particle へ. So - what _is_ the etymological relationship between
the noun 方【へ】 and the particle へ?
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-05-10T18:28:30.167
15860
2014-05-14T08:21:21.190
2014-05-12T20:34:16.460
3437
3437
question
etymology particle-へ
How are the noun 方【へ】 and the particle へ related?
Put simply, the particle へ is derived from the noun 方{へ}.

Bjarke Frellesvig provides a brief explanation in his book _A History of the
Japanese Language_ (page 132).

> … The noun _pye_ "side, direction" was being grammaticalized as an
> _allative_ case particle _pye_ , but in the Old Japanese period had not yet
> acquired that status.

As for pronunciation, sound changes would have likely proceeded something like
*pye > *pe > *ɸe > *we > e.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-05-12T02:30:08.413
15888
2014-05-12T02:52:47.313
2014-05-12T02:52:47.313
5328
5328
15860
answer
As ファルキエッレ stated, the particle へ is cognate with the noun, variously spelled
方 or 辺, and probably derives from it. This has been a very productive noun,
appearing as a component of many terms in modern Japanese:

  * 芦辺 _ashibe_ , "reed-covered bank"
  * 海辺 _umibe_ , "seaside"
  * 夕べ _yūbe_ , "last night, yesterday evening"

Some modern JA terms aren't necessarily even recognized as compounds:

  * 前 _mae_ , "front", compound of 目 + 辺 "eye-wards; visible place"
  * 家 _ie_ , "home", probably a compound of 寝 + 辺 "sleeping place"

This へ may also be cognate with 瓮 ( _he_ , "container"), from which we get 鍋
_nabe_ , "pot", compound of 肴 + 瓮 "side-dish container".

Regarding the use of へ as a particle meaning something like English "to" or
"towards", we already see such usage as long ago as in the
[_Man'yōshū_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man%27y%C5%8Dsh%C5%AB) poetry of
no later than the mid-700s:

  * [Poem 3696](http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/japanese/manyoshu/Man15Yo.html#3696):  
新羅奇敝可 伊敝尓可加反流  
_Shiraki he ka / Ihe ni ka kaheru_  
I'll go back to Silla [the kingdom in the north of the Korean peninsula] or to
home...

Perhaps in reflection of the noun's sense of "place, general area", the
particle へ in the ancient texts denoted "towards, in the direction of" rather
than denoting a specific arrival location, and was more often used to indicate
faraway places rather than anywhere close by. In contrast, に was used to
denote a specific arrival location and was used for closer places. The vaguer
connotations of へ ("in the direction of a place") still persist to some extent
in modern Japanese and contrast with the more specific connotations of に
("specifically to a place").
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-05-12T20:28:49.670
15902
2014-05-14T08:21:21.190
2014-05-14T08:21:21.190
5229
5229
15860
answer