いは

Japanese

Etymology 1

ipa → iɸa → iwa. Compound of い (i, “emphatic marker”) and は (wa, “focus marker”). As -i was archaic even in Old Japanese, -wa was attached to supplement it.

Particle

いは • (iwa) 

1. emphatic nominative case marker
   • c. 759, Man’yōshū, book 3, poem 237:

     不敢雖謂 話礼ゝゝ常 詔許曽 志斐伊波奏 強話登言

     INA TO₂ IPE₂DO₂ KATAre KATAre to₂ NO₂RASE ko₂so₂ sipi₂ i pa MAWOSE SIPI₂KATARI TO₂ NO₂RU

     Even though I said no, [she] keeps talking and talking. When [she] talks about sipï, I talk about compelling.

2. pronominal; person or thing; one
   • 797: Shoku Nihongi (edict 45)

     此乎持伊波稱乎致之、捨伊波謗乎招都

     KO₂ wo TAMOTU ipa TATAPE₂ wo ITAsi SUTURU ipa SOSIRI wo MANEKI₁tu

     To hold this is to praise it; to throw it away is to have had a bad mouth.

See also

• いし (ishi)
• いも (imo)

References

• Kurano, Kenji (1936) Shoku Nihongi Senmyō (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Iwanami Shoten, →ISBN
• Satake, Akihiro with Hideo Yamada, Rikio Kudō, Masao Ōtani, Yoshiyuki Yamazaki (1999) Shin Nihon Koten Bungaku Taikei 1: Man'yōshū (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Iwanami Shoten, →ISBN

Etymology 2

For pronunciation and definitions of いは – see the following entries.

【伊波いなみ】 [proper noun] a surname

(This term, いは, is the hiragana spelling of the above term.) For a list of all kanji read as いは, see Category:Japanese kanji read as いは.)

(The following entry is uncreated: 伊覇.)