ハバナ

Japanese

Etymology

Ultimately from Spanish La Habana, in turn from Taíno Habaguanex.

Japanese sources list the term as a borrowing of Havana, but do not indicate the source language.[1][2]

The term is first cited to the early 1890s.[1] This would suggest that the term was borrowed from English Havana, since the ⟨ h ⟩ in Spanish has been silent for centuries. Considering that the pitch accent is on the first mora, the borrowing was likely via the written rather than the spoken form, as the accent on the second syllable in either Spanish or English would likely result in a higher pitch on the second mora instead.

Pronunciation

Proper noun

ハバナ • (Habana) 

  1. Havana (the capital city of Cuba)

References
  1. 1988, 国語大辞典（新装版） (Kokugo Dai Jiten, Revised Edition) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan
  2. 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN
  3. 1998, NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 (NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: NHK, →ISBN
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.