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Is the "wa-particle"　in katakana ワ　or 　ハ？

(Just a quick question - I think I have seen both used, but if ワ　is correct then I have just seen the results of a computer o/p automatically using ハ)

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how could ワ be correct seriously ? – oldergod Sep 4 '12 at 0:33
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This is probably obvious, but in the modern orthography in Japanese, particles are written in hiragana. So if a particle is written in katakana, there is a special reason for it (say, the author wants to make the text hard to read), and all the rules might be thrown away because of that reason. – Tsuyoshi Ito Sep 4 '12 at 2:26
Related: Does the ー　represent a double vowel or a long vowel sound? (The title is unclear, but the linked question is about the usage of katakana in words which are not usually written in katakana.) – Tsuyoshi Ito Sep 4 '12 at 2:27
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This also is probably obvious, but there are both particles は and わ, both pronounce as wa. Hyperworm is writing about the former (topic marker). – Tsuyoshi Ito Sep 4 '12 at 2:32
@TsuyoshiIto: I think first Japanese character set encoded for computers could only produce katakana (see JIS X 0201 in wikipedia), which is why (I think) we still see them on utility bills and any narrative inserted would be in katakan. – Tim Sep 4 '12 at 5:07
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2 Answers

up vote 11 down vote accepted

ハ for the topic particle. There's no difference from hiragana.

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Thanks for quick answer. – Tim Sep 4 '12 at 5:03
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Katakana is just used for foreign words, the grammar elements are not written in Katakana.

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Katamana is not just used for foreign words. Yes, nowadays we use it for almost only loanwords, but this custom is relatively new. Here are images in a textbook before WWII gastrocamera.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2009/01/11/index.html – Gradius Sep 7 '12 at 6:07

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