Hiragana ha versys wa

The hiragana for the wa in anata wa (for example) is given as the ha sound, not the wa sound. But it is pronounced as wa. Why is there this discrepency?

Hi Roger, Good question! In the example you gave, 'wa' is used as a particle. Whenever 'wa' is used as a particle is is written using the hiragana 'ha'. This is a rule to keep in mind when you practice writing or typing Japanese. -Sayaka san

You use は for marking sentence subjects and read it as わ. You also use は for indicating the は sound when spelling things... such as spelling 花（はな）. You use わ only for spelling things with a わ sound in them... such as 電話（でんわ）. As for why the difference in the different readings of は... I don't know... I doubt Japanese people would really know the origin of this either, but if the RJ team happens to know that'd be a cool tidbit of history.