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In A Dictionary to Basic Japanese Grammar, it says under the conditional ば
that this is the origin of the topic particle は but I haven't been able to
find where this claim comes from. Does anyone know how the conditional came to
be the topic particle?
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2017-06-02T04:55:30.877
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2017-06-02T07:36:16.960
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question
etymology particle-は classical-japanese
Where does the particle は come from?
It's not that one is the origin of the other. Adverbial particle は,
conjunction ば and sentence ender わ (as in 出るわ出るわ) share the same origin.

The reason why adverbial particle は came to denote the topic is probably
because one needed something to tell boundary when it had been originally
unmarked.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-06-02T07:36:16.960
47946
2017-06-02T07:36:16.960
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answer