Text in D article (4th revision) [OT] ha vs wa

[Hasan Aljudy]

Chris Nicholson-Sauls wrote:
> Daniel Keep wrote:
>>
>> Hasan Aljudy wrote:
>>>
>>> konnichiwa!!!!!!11one :D
>>
>>
>> Actually, I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be konnichiha: people keep
>> spelling and saying it "konnichiwa" because westerners misheard what the
>> Japanese were saying :3
>>
>> (Do correct me I'm wrong, btw...)
It's written konnichiha in hiragana, but it's pronounced konnichiwa, 
because the "ha" is actually a particle, and the "ha" particle is 
pronounced "wa" even though it's written as "ha".
I think the phrase is basically an incomplete sentence understood to be 
"It's morning" or something like that ..

> 
> Unless my Japanese mentor was playing a prank on me (which is /entirely/ 
> possible) its actually a quirk thing.  While it is written "kon'ityi-ha" 
> it is indeed pronouned "kon'nityi-wa", as the 'ha' kana is written for 
> the particle 'wa' for some long-forgotten reason.  (Kind of like the 
> archaic 'wo' kana is still used for the 'o' prefix, as in "(w)o-genki 
> desu-ka".)

kon'ity-ha?
Wow, what kind of romanization system is that? Now /that/ is a prank ..

I think what you said about the ha/wa is correct thu. From what I've 
gathered, the particle used to be pronounced "ha" but its pronunciation 
has changed over the centuries, while the spelling for it didn't.


> 
> -- Chris Nicholson-Sauls