How are the noun 方【へ】 and the particle へ related? I looked up the etymology of on gogen-allguide, and found the following: > This basically says that we take the verb , conjugate it, add the , conjugate again, and finish by adding the _noun_ . This was a bit surprising to me, since I've never seen the noun myself, and was expecting the particle to show up there instead. This is obviously suggestive of some sort of relationship between the noun and the particle . So - what _is_ the etymological relationship between the noun and the particle ?

Put simply, the particle is derived from the noun {}.

Bjarke Frellesvig provides a brief explanation in his book _A History of the Japanese Language_ (page 132).

> … The noun _pye_ "side, direction" was being grammaticalized as an _allative_ case particle _pye_ , but in the Old Japanese period had not yet acquired that status.

As for pronunciation, sound changes would have likely proceeded something like *pye > *pe > *ɸe > *we > e.