Before we start, if you are new to Japanese numbers, please see our lesson on TheJapanesepage.com and then come back!

When I (Clay) first started learning Japanese, I asked my Japanese friend how to say the color “white.”

“白(しろ)（しろ）,” she said.

Then—clearly worried I would forget that immediately—she added, “But there’s an easier way: ホワイト.”

“Eh?” I said. “That’s not easier. That’s longer.”

“But it’s just like English!” she said. “ホワイト!”

ホ - ワ - イ - ト!

I shook my head. “That, my friend, is not English.”

It was a brief moment when I considered reconsidering learning Japanese. 

(Spoiler alert—I didn’t.)

So, getting back to the root of my confusion, just why is there a ホ in ホワイト, when ワイト would be much closer to how most English speakers say “white” today?

It’s not like Japanese avoids words starting with wa. There’s わたし, 話題（わだい）, 和歌山（わかやま）… plenty of wa.

And even in loanwords, wa is fine: ワイン (wine) ワイド (wide) ワシントン (Washington)

So why do we get this mysterious ホ in words like...

ホワイト (white)

ホワイトデー (White Day)

ホイップ (whip)

ホイッスル (whistle)

ホワット (what)

Answer:

Could it be because the first English speaker to arrive in Japan was actually Santa Claus and he went around shouting, “Ho ho ho! Hoappy HOwhite Christmas!”

(Tempting theory. Zero historical evidence.)

The real reason is simpler—but maybe less cool.

There was a time when “wh” words in English were actually pronounced differently from “w” words.

This is what linguists call the wine–whine merger.

Today, for most English speakers, wine and whine sound the same. But they didn’t used to.

“Wh” had a little puff of air, almost like hwa.

Some people still do this:

• Scottish speakers
• Some older Southern speakers in the U.S.
• Anyone who grew up being corrected by a very particular English teacher

So:

• white sounded closer to hwhite
• what sounded closer to hwhat
• whip had that breathy start

When Japanese listeners first encountered English—especially in the Meiji era—that’s what they heard.

They heard the breath and they wrote it.

That’s where the ホ comes from.

In other words:

ワット = watt

ホワット = what

A little puff of air and we get ホ.

Even though most modern English speakers no longer pronounce the “h,” Japanese politely kept it. So, as a rule, during the Meiji period, if a word was spelled with a “wh”, it would often become ホワ in Japanese.

Except…

Here’s an おまけ (“something extra” or “bonus”).

What about ワイシャツ?

It means a “dress shirt” and comes from “white shirt.”(Some people think it comes from “Y shirt,” but that seems to be wrong.)

ワイシャツ is actually a very early loanword.

Before Meiji scholars added English loanwords en masse—and before “wh” words were neatly systematized—Japanese heard English sailors casually talking about their white shirts.

When you say “white shirt” quickly:

• The t barely exists

• “white” isn’t pronounced carefully

• Everything runs together

What Japanese ears heard was something like:

ワイシャツ

And it stuck—long before anyone came along to “fix” it with a ホ.

One last おまけ.