(no subject)

[larryhammer]

Ode to Japanese Orthography

    Kana memorized!
Wait -- は as particle is ... ?
    Resentment cries "wa!"


---L.

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

How do you like Cranston's translations?

And if は for particle "wa" bothers you, how about へ for directional "e"?

[larryhammer]

The big slab entertains me -- I'm still working my way through the songs from the chronicles.

The story,
the words of the story
are these words.

The transformations of he>e and wo>o don't bother me nearly as much -- they are at least phonologically logical. Ha>wa is too big a step. 正しくない!

---L.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Now you're making me wonder how and when "ha" did get to be used for "wa" (<--too lazy this time round to switch to Japanese character set.....)

I'll have to ask wakanomori if he knows...

[larryhammer]

Let me know if you find out.

I think I meant to say 正しくないよ above.

---L.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I appreciate the exclamatory yo!

I will let you know. (Right now Waka is off on a run...)

[wakanomori.livejournal.com]

I think the problem is that modern pronunciation makes the ha->wa seem like e big step, but go back in time a bit (Heian era) and the H sound was even less like an English H than it is now (you see that still with FU, instead of HU). As with e.g. English 'night' being pronounced 'nite', orthography just doesn't change as fast as spoken language; if anything it's like a brake on change, or at least interference.

Talking of the Heian era, the family name Fujiwara was until the big orthographical revisions of the mid-20th century spelled FUJIHARA (what you'd expect from the kanji, FUJI + HARA). When the government made the updated spelling they made exceptions for the particles, wo, he, & ha, so now ha kind of stands out like a sore thumb. It all gets to be more fun when you learn historical spelling*, imho. At least, it makes a bit more sense, I think.

(Oh, and that would add a couple more kana to the ones you've memorised, probably: 'wi' and 'we.' They were dropped in the modernisation...)

[larryhammer]

Thanks -- makes sense. I've seen the wi and we kana, and that Heian and pre-, Japanese had eight instead of five vowels (and more verb conjugations), and the whole why both b and p from h thing, so shifts from a sound closer to w makes a certain amount of sense.

I still kinda resent they didn't include particles in one or the other of the 20th century spelling reforms.

---L.

[marith.livejournal.com]

*giggles*

[larryhammer]

*bows*