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submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by glorious_puffy@lemmy.world to c/learnjapanese@lemmy.ml

わなし にほんじんです Here は is read as wa instead of its usual ha Can somebody explain this?

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[-] e_t_@kbin.pithyphrase.net 3 points 5 months ago

It's WA when it's used as a particle and HA when not used as a particle. The Japanese government attempted to standardize WA sounds to わ after WWII, and was mostly successful, but the は particle stuck around, seemingly due to inertia. Lots of languages have little oddities in pronunciation that aren't reflected in spelling, or vice versa. Where do the British get the F in lieutenant?

this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2024
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