# Transcriptions of Topicalisation Particle は



## maybe4ever

My Japanese friend lives in Kyoto.  For Valentine's day I decided I would tell her she was pretty.  So I wrote her, {her name+san} _wa_ kirei desu.

She really liked me writing her this, but since I'm learning Japanese she told me it should be, {her name+san} _ha_ kirei desu, if I write it.  

If I said it, it would be {her name+san}  wa kirei desu.

I didn't get a chance to ask her, why you write ha, but say wa.  It confuses me.  Could someone explain this to me in English? Arigato


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## palomnik

Did you write it in _kana?  _If you did, that's where the confusion lies.

Although the topic particle is pronounced _wa, _it's written with the kana for _ha.  _Just a peculiarity of the written language that you have to accept for what it is.  Fortunately there aren't too many other examples of this sort of thing, although there are a few.


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## uchi.m

If you say _I go to school_ in Japanese, you will end up employing the particle _e_, which denotes direction_. _When you say it, it sounds *e*, but when you write it, it reads *he*.


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## Anatoli

I would still romanise the particles は and　へ　as "wa" and "e", regardless how they are written but I noticed native Japanese often prefer (if they ever write in roomaji) to spell "ha" and "he". There's probably no rule, so it depends whether you want to convey the pronunciation or the original kana spelling. Letter を　is pronounced as "o" ("hot") can be romanised as "o" and "wo". Use the latter on the computer.

I can't think of other examples but ん (n) can be pronounced differently depending on the position (shinbun -> shimbun; jikan - jikang (English "si_ng_") but I prefer to spell it as "n".


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## _forumuser_

Anatoli said:


> I would still romanise the particles は and　へ　as "wa" and "e", regardless how they are written but I noticed native Japanese often prefer (if they ever write in roomaji) to spell "ha" and "he". There's probably no rule, so it depends whether you want to convey the pronunciation or the original kana spelling. Letter を　is pronounced as "o" ("hot") can be romanised as "o" and "wo". Use the latter on the computer.
> 
> I can't think of other examples but ん (n) can be pronounced differently depending on the position (shinbun -> shimbun; jikan - jikang (English "si_ng_") but I prefer to spell it as "n".


 
On why ha is pronounced wa you can read this thread.


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## cheshire

Orthography
Transliteration
Pronunciation

These are often confused by novice in any language.


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## Anatoli

_forumuser_ said:


> On why ha is pronounced wa you can read this thread.


I have no doubts about the pronunciation of the particles, thanks very much . I am talking about the _romanisation_ here.


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## _forumuser_

Anatoli said:


> I have no doubts about the pronunciation of the particles, thanks very much . I am talking about the _romanisation_ here.


 
Yes, sorry, I just quoted your post because it was last on the thread. I wasn't responding to you in particular.


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## Flaminius

Hello maybe4ever,

I assume that you wrote in Latin script.  In that case _wa_ is preferable over _ha_ since the purpose of transcription, as I see it, is to provide as accurate as possible an account of the actual pronunciation.

Anatoli observes that native speakers are more tend to write the topicalisation particle as _ha_.  I think it is due to the input method they use when typing Japanese on computers.

As a matter of fact Japanese has yet to have a definitive transcription convention.  See a related article here.  I find Kunreeshiki useful when typing Japanese with input method software but reading any text written in this system gets a bit tiring after five words.


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## Anatoli

Thanks, Flam. It's a pity if Kunree becomes standard, Hepburn is so much closer to the pronunciation.


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