From: "Nik Taylor" <fortytwo@...>
> Hiroshi Kato wrote:
> > BTW, I am a great lover of traditional Japanese orthography.
> > Because it represents the history of the Japanese language and you can see
the
> > logical relationship among the related words more clearly.
>
> Speaking of which, do you know why the topic particle is written "ha"
> but pronounced "wa"?
>
This usage of 'ha' is a reminiscence of traditional orthography.
It used to be pronounced as 'ha' but about 1000 years ago,
the letter 'ha' in the middle or in the end of the word started to be pronounced
as 'wa.'
BTW, this is just a note that the letter 'ha' once pronounced as bilabial
plosive and then as bilabial fricative.
Hiro