波比不部保 ([B] sounds) →　はひふへほ ([h] or [f] sounds)


Hiragana (平仮名 or 平假名) has its cursive form originated from the Chinese cursive
form 草書. You can read from
<https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B9%B3%E4%BB%AE%E5%90%8D>. Also
<https://www.hana300.com/aakana.html>. My question is about the following*

波 → は

比 → ひ

不 → ふ

部 → へ

保 → ほ

which pronuncitation in Chinese Madanrin and Japanese (listed from
[Duolingo](https://www.duolingo.com/skill/ja/Hiragana-1/tips-and-notes)) are:

波 (Bo: 1st tone) → は [ha], although pronounced like [ɰa] or "wa" as a particle

比 (Bi: 3rd tone) → ひ [çi], like the h in human

不 (Bu: 2nd or 4th tone) → ふ [ɸɯ], roughly between a short "hoo" and "foo"

部 (Bu: 4th tone) → へ [he], although pronounced like [e] or "eh" as a particle

保 (Bao: 3rd tone) → ほ [ho]

My question: Are there evolutions or relations of why and how the Chinese
sounds (Mandarin or old Chinese)

> **B sounds**

evolved to the Japanese

> **h or f sounds** for these Hiragana?

p.s. For example,

安 → あ both pronounced with A sound, as 安 ("An" 1st tone in Chinese) or あ ("A"
in Japanese). So there are indeed relations. Many other Hiragana can be found
in direct or implicit relations between the two pronunciations: Chinese
(Mandarin or some old Chinese) to Hiragana.




### _On'yomi_ and Chinese: how sounds correlate

In almost* any discussion of kanji usage in Japanese, **do not** use the
Mandarin pronunciations as any kind of guide to the Japanese pronunciations.

(* The exception is any discussion of recent borrowings from Mandarin, like
[你好]{ニーハオ}.)

Much as Japanese has changed a lot in the last 1500+ years, so too has Chinese
changed. When exploring Japanese _on'yomi_ pronunciations of kanji, you'll
want to look at the Middle Chinese readings, not the modern Mandarin, and
you'll need to be aware of the Old Japanese pronunciations as well.

Here's an exploration of the five kanji you listed. The Middle Chinese are the
[Zhengzhang](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhengzhang_Shangfang)
reconstructions, as shown in the English Wikipedia entries for each kanji (as
linked).

Kanji | Middle Chinese | Old Japanese | Middle Japanese | Modern Japanese  
---|---|---|---|---  
[波](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E6%B3%A2#Chinese) | /puɑ/ | pa | fa | ha  
[比](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E6%AF%94#Chinese) | /piɪX/ | pi | fi | hi  
[不](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E4%B8%8D#Chinese) | /pɨu/, /pɨuX/, /pɨut̚/
| pu | fu | fu, bu*  
[部](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E9%83%A8#Chinese) | /buoX/, /bəuX/ | bu,
pu* | bu, fu* | bu, fu*  
[保](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E4%BF%9D#Chinese) | /pɑuX/ | po | fo | ho  
  
The items marked with * show readings classed as _kan'yōon_ , which may be the
result of influence from different regional or dialectal variations within
Chinese.

The initial consonants in Middle Chinese and Old Japanese are a match. The
vowels are _mostly_ a match, provided that we make certain allowances for
diphthongs (two-vowel sounds) in Chinese flattening into monophthongs (one-
vowel sounds) in Old Japanese.

### Sound shifts from Old Japanese to Modern Japanese

Historically, all of the はひふへほ kana in modern Japanese were pronounced more
like //pa//, //pi//, //pu//, //pe//, //po// in Old Japanese. See [this
post](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/82475/why-does-fu-changes-
to-pu-while-its-not-started-with-h/82477#82477) for a fuller explanation of
the details.

### Your question

Now that we have the background in place, we can look at your question more
fully.

> Are there evolutions or relations of why and how the Chinese sounds
> (Mandarin or old Chinese) **B sounds** evolved to the Japanese **h or f
> sounds** for these Hiragana?

  * The modern Mandarin intial //b-// was formerly //p-// for four of these characters.
  * The modern Japanese "h or f sounds" were formerly also //p-//.

The one outlier is 部, which is reconstructed with initial //b-// in Middle
Chinese. I note that modern Min Nan has initial //p-//, and subjectively, I've
noticed that the _on'yomi_ for many characters seem to correlate most closely
with this variety of Chinese. I suspect that proto-Min Nan may likewise be the
source of the unvoiced //pu// reading in Old Japanese.

### Addendum

Above, I was looking at _on'yomi_ and I didn't address 部 used as the source
for the kana へ.

Chinese of any dialect or historical stage is irrelevant in this case. へ is
not a Chinese-derived _on'yomi_ for 部, and is instead _kun'yomi_ , from the
native Old Japanese word that happened to have roughly the same meaning as 部.
This is why you won't find any clear correlation between any Chinese
pronunciation for 部 and the Japanese kana へ, even though the glyphs (character
shapes) are historically related.

* * *

Please comment if the above does not address your question and I can edit to
update.




### _On'yomi_ and Chinese: how sounds correlate

In almost* any discussion of kanji usage in Japanese, **do not** use the
Mandarin pronunciations as any kind of guide to the Japanese pronunciations.

(* The exception is any discussion of recent borrowings from Mandarin, like
[你好]{ニーハオ}.)

Much as Japanese has changed a lot in the last 1500+ years, so too has Chinese
changed. When exploring Japanese _on'yomi_ pronunciations of kanji, you'll
want to look at the Middle Chinese readings, not the modern Mandarin, and
you'll need to be aware of the Old Japanese pronunciations as well.

Here's an exploration of the five kanji you listed. The Middle Chinese are the
[Zhengzhang](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhengzhang_Shangfang)
reconstructions, as shown in the English Wikipedia entries for each kanji (as
linked).

Kanji | Middle Chinese | Old Japanese | Middle Japanese | Modern Japanese  
---|---|---|---|---  
[波](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E6%B3%A2#Chinese) | /puɑ/ | pa | fa | ha  
[比](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E6%AF%94#Chinese) | /piɪX/ | pi | fi | hi  
[不](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E4%B8%8D#Chinese) | /pɨu/, /pɨuX/, /pɨut̚/
| pu | fu | fu, bu*  
[部](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E9%83%A8#Chinese) | /buoX/, /bəuX/ | bu,
pu* | bu, fu* | bu, fu*  
[保](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E4%BF%9D#Chinese) | /pɑuX/ | po | fo | ho  
  
The items marked with * show readings classed as _kan'yōon_ , which may be the
result of influence from different regional or dialectal variations within
Chinese.

The initial consonants in Middle Chinese and Old Japanese are a match. The
vowels are _mostly_ a match, provided that we make certain allowances for
diphthongs (two-vowel sounds) in Chinese flattening into monophthongs (one-
vowel sounds) in Old Japanese.

### Sound shifts from Old Japanese to Modern Japanese

Historically, all of the はひふへほ kana in modern Japanese were pronounced more
like //pa//, //pi//, //pu//, //pe//, //po// in Old Japanese. See [this
post](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/82475/why-does-fu-changes-
to-pu-while-its-not-started-with-h/82477#82477) for a fuller explanation of
the details.

### Your question

Now that we have the background in place, we can look at your question more
fully.

> Are there evolutions or relations of why and how the Chinese sounds
> (Mandarin or old Chinese) **B sounds** evolved to the Japanese **h or f
> sounds** for these Hiragana?

  * The modern Mandarin intial //b-// was formerly //p-// for four of these characters.
  * The modern Japanese "h or f sounds" were formerly also //p-//.

The one outlier is 部, which is reconstructed with initial //b-// in Middle
Chinese. I note that modern Min Nan has initial //p-//, and subjectively, I've
noticed that the _on'yomi_ for many characters seem to correlate most closely
with this variety of Chinese. I suspect that proto-Min Nan may likewise be the
source of the unvoiced //pu// reading in Old Japanese.

### Addendum

Above, I was looking at _on'yomi_ and I didn't address 部 used as the source
for the kana へ.

Chinese of any dialect or historical stage is irrelevant in this case. へ is
not a Chinese-derived _on'yomi_ for 部, and is instead _kun'yomi_ , from the
native Old Japanese word that happened to have roughly the same meaning as 部.
This is why you won't find any clear correlation between any Chinese
pronunciation for 部 and the Japanese kana へ, even though the glyphs (character
shapes) are historically related.

* * *

Please comment if the above does not address your question and I can edit to
update.

