Japanese edit

 
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Etymology edit

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 edit

Proper noun edit

ハバナ (Habana

  1. Havana (the capital city of Cuba)

References edit

  1. 1.0 1.1 Shōgaku Tosho (1988) 国語大辞典(新装版) [Unabridged Dictionary of Japanese (Revised Edition)] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN
  2. ^ Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 (in Japanese), Third edition, Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN
  3. ^ NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute, editor (1998), NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 [NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: NHK Publishing, →ISBN