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The particle は is pronounced similarly to わ (unlike the rest of the ハ行 kana)
when used as a particle; why is this? What historical shifts went on to cause
this irregularity?
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2011-06-01T19:49:13.823
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2011-07-18T05:08:35.940
2011-07-18T05:08:35.940
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question
particles pronunciation history kana language-change
Why is は pronounced as わ when used as a topic particle?
The sound 「わ」 used to be written は in old kana usage in some cases. Old kana
usage was much more irregular than it is nowadays. The old way of writing has
kind of stuck in some words.

It's the same thing with the readings for the particles へ and を too - the
modern sound 「え」 used to be written as へ in some cases and 「お」 as を. Of
course, pronunciation varies and sometimes you can hear a clear difference
between お and を for instance, but in all words besides the particles the old
pronunciation differences have disappeared as time has passed.
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2011-06-01T21:17:39.623
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2011-06-01T21:32:26.093
2011-06-01T21:32:26.093
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answer
In Old Japanese (probably before 800 BC), the pronunciation of 「は」 (and indeed
the entire ハ行) was **PA** , but it later changed to **FA** (more accurately,
[ɸa], with a bilabial fricative), and this was the common pronunciation at
least up to the 16th century (we know this since early Portuguese
transliteration of Japanese words use the letter F where we would use H
today).

While the phoneme /p/ became /f/ in isolation or in the beginning of the word,
it remained /p/ after a the consonant ん and in between vowels (except in some
compounds such as 魔法 まほう). This led to a verb such as 買う (Old Japanese: 買フ
_kapu_ ) to be read as _kau_ (<\- _kawu_ ) in Positive form and _kawanai_
(instead of _kapanai_ ) in negative form, and also for the particle 「は」 (which
regularly appears after a vowel) to be normalized as **WA**.

Up to the spelling reform of 1946, Historical Kana Usage (歴史的仮名遣 れきしてきかなづかい)
was still the standard, so 買う was still written 買フ (Katakana was more commonly
used for [Okurigana](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okurigana)back then), and
買わない was 買ハナイ. That changed in the reforms, along with many other archaic and
confusing spelling, so much that the current Japanese spelling is almost
completely phonemic. Only a handful of traditional spelling quirks remained,
and using は for the particle that is pronounced **WA** is one of them.
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2011-06-01T22:06:10.600
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answer