Etymology

handakuten

H4A1N1D2A1K5U1T1E1N1

Today it means: A semi-voiced diacritic (゜) used with Japanese kana to change a /h/ to a /p/. Full definition →

Middle Chinese 半
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The story

  1. Middle Chinese · derived from半“half”
  2. English todayhandakuten

From Japanese 半濁点(はんだくてん) (handakuten), from Middle Chinese 半 (pàn, “half”) + 濁 (ɖæwk, “muddy, voiced”) + 點 (tém, “mark, spot”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.