Where does “handakuten” come from?

handakuten (English) comes from Japanese 半濁点, from Japanese 濁点, from Japanese 点, from Middle Chinese 點 — mark, spot; dot, mark.

handakuten (English): A semi-voiced diacritic (゜) used with Japanese kana to change a to a

Definitions

  1. A semi-voiced diacritic (゜) used with Japanese kana to change a to a

Ancestry of “handakuten”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Japanese半濁点a diacritical mark, such as ゜ on ぱ, used to
2Japanese濁点a voicing diacritical mark, such as ゛ on が, used...
3Japanese点spot, dot; score, grade, mark; point
4Middle Chinese點mark, spot; dot, mark
Every word from Middle Chinese 點 →Every word from Japanese 点 →Every word from Japanese 濁点 →