I received a very interesting question from my students the other day. The question was this.
Sensei, when you spell Konnichiwa in Hiragana, is it supposed to be Konnichiwa
with Hiragana HA or Hiragana WA?
Which is correct and why?
So, today I want to talk about this topic in this lesson.
Ok, the correct answer is this.
こんにちは with Hiragana HA even though we pronounce the phrase KonnichiWA.
Why?
Because this WA in this particular phrase is a particle.
It is the same WA that you use when you say something like this. Sushi wa
oishii desu.
Sushi wa oishii desu. As for sushi, it's delicious, meaning Sushi is delicious.
But why do we need to use the particle WA here?
It's even not a sentence.
Right?
Well, in fact, this phrase is an incomplete sentence, and こんにちは is only the
beginning part of the sentence.
Let me explain step by step.
The word こんにち looks like this in Kanji and it's an old way of saying "today" in Japanese. It's same as
きょう in modern Japanese.
So こんにちは by itself literally means "as for today," and it was the topic of the
original phrase.
Traditionally, as a greeting, people used to say something like this after こんにちは.
こんにちは よいおてんきですね。Konnichi WA yoi otenki desu ne.
As for today, it is a beautiful day, isn't it?
こんにちは ごくろうさまです。
Konnichi WA gokuroosama desu. As for today, thank you for your hard work.
こんにちは ごきげんいかがですか。
Konnichi WA gokigen ikaga desu ka? As for today, how are you?
Gradually, people stopped saying the entire phrases, and only the beginning part こんにちは
has remained as a greeting in modern Japan.
Same goes with Konbanwa こんばんは, by the way.
こんばん means tonight or this evening in Japanese, so こんばんは literally means "As for
tonight."
Again, it is the beginning part of a phrase like this.
こんばんは よいつきよですね。
Konban WA yoi tsukiyo desu ne? As for tonight, it is a lovely moonlit night, isn't it?
Now you know why you have to write こんにちは and こんばんは with Hiragana HA.
The WA in these expressions is the Topic Marker, so it has to be in Hiragana HA.
However, nowadays even some Japanese native speakers spell こんにちわ and こんばんわ
with Hiragana WA.
It is because people became more inclined towards writing as they pronounce the phrase rather
than paying attention to its meaning or origin.
It may be similar to the mistakes that English speakers make such as spelling "there" for
"their" or "night" for "knight."
Again, these are the mistakes as a result of people only paying attention to the pronunciation
of the word and not the meaning.
Language always changes.
If future generations start spelling only こんにちわ with Hiragana WA, you never
know, it may become the standard in my language.
I hope it's not going to be the case for a long time since I so very much cherish the history and
graceful aspects of my language which is quickly disappearing in modern Japanese.
I hope this short lesson helped you to understand why you have to write こんにちは with
Hiragana HA.
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