k for konnichiwa
konnichiwa means Good afternoon
こんにちは
konbanwa means Good evening
こんばんは
こ=ko
ん=n
に=ni
ち=chi
は=wa (hiragana ha)
Actually は is ha. But there is a rule for writing hiragana wa and ha. When wa is used as a particle, it is written as hiragana ha. "Konnichiwa" is now a fixed greeting. However, in the old days it was a part of sentence such as "Today is _ (Konnichi wa _)" and "wa" functioned as a particle. That's why it is still written in hiragana as "ha."
I'm going to have to show this blog to my daughter. She's going to be taking Japanese this fall in high school, but she's trying to teach herself some now. She'll love this.
ReplyDeleteSwinging through from the A to Z page. Good luck on the rest of the challenge!