What is the origin of エンターティナー


Some people use the word `エンターティナー` to mean 'entertainer'. I suspect this word
comes from the English word `entertainer`. But the accented vowel is "ei",
rather than "i". It would be a better approximation to transcribe it as
`エンターテイナー`. Although the latter form is used, the former one is also used. How
did `ティ` arise in place of `テイ`?

I had once thought of a possibility of hypercorrection, but am not sure.




This answer is a more detailed version of my two comments on the question.

I do not know the origin of the notation エンターティナー, but let me give a few
plausible origins.

### Hypercorrection

First, I think that hypercorrection is a pretty plausible reason. For example,
what was written as フイルム is now also written as フィルム, reflecting the
pronunciation of the original word in English better (or at least intending to
do so). If one does not know the pronunciation of “entertainer” in English,
one may well think that what is written as エンターテイナー is probably more precisely
written as エンターティナー, “analogously” to other words such as フィルム.

A cursory look at some of the search results for [["エンターティナー"
発音]](http://www.google.com/search?q=%22%E3%82%A8%E3%83%B3%E3%82%BF%E3%83%BC%E3%83%86%E3%82%A3%E3%83%8A%E3%83%BC%22+%E7%99%BA%E9%9F%B3&hl=en&ie=utf-8)
on Google seems to give enough evidence that some people indeed pronounce
“エンターティナー” with the ティ /ti/ sound.

### Non-standard use of letter ぃ

Second, some people seem to use little ぃ in a non-standard way; namely, to
denote a weak い sound instead of modifying the preceding vowel to /i/. For
example, there is a cake product called
[かすてぃら](http://www.oohara.co.jp/kasutera.html). If I am not mistaken, this
product name is pronounced as かすていら with /i/ sound or かすてーら with long /e/
sound, never with /ti/ sound. As an another example, some people write “へい” in
the Edo dialect as “へぃ”: searching
[["へぃお待ち"]](http://www.google.com/search?q=%22%E3%81%B8%E3%81%83%E3%81%8A%E5%BE%85%E3%81%A1%22)
on Google shows 213 results (by checking until the last search-result page).
For those who employ this non-standard convention, エンターティナー is pronounced as
エンターテイナー with weak イ, which reflects the pronunciation of the English word as
well as (or possibly even better than) the usual notation エンターテイナー.




This answer is a more detailed version of my two comments on the question.

I do not know the origin of the notation エンターティナー, but let me give a few
plausible origins.

### Hypercorrection

First, I think that hypercorrection is a pretty plausible reason. For example,
what was written as フイルム is now also written as フィルム, reflecting the
pronunciation of the original word in English better (or at least intending to
do so). If one does not know the pronunciation of “entertainer” in English,
one may well think that what is written as エンターテイナー is probably more precisely
written as エンターティナー, “analogously” to other words such as フィルム.

A cursory look at some of the search results for [["エンターティナー"
発音]](http://www.google.com/search?q=%22%E3%82%A8%E3%83%B3%E3%82%BF%E3%83%BC%E3%83%86%E3%82%A3%E3%83%8A%E3%83%BC%22+%E7%99%BA%E9%9F%B3&hl=en&ie=utf-8)
on Google seems to give enough evidence that some people indeed pronounce
“エンターティナー” with the ティ /ti/ sound.

### Non-standard use of letter ぃ

Second, some people seem to use little ぃ in a non-standard way; namely, to
denote a weak い sound instead of modifying the preceding vowel to /i/. For
example, there is a cake product called
[かすてぃら](http://www.oohara.co.jp/kasutera.html). If I am not mistaken, this
product name is pronounced as かすていら with /i/ sound or かすてーら with long /e/
sound, never with /ti/ sound. As an another example, some people write “へい” in
the Edo dialect as “へぃ”: searching
[["へぃお待ち"]](http://www.google.com/search?q=%22%E3%81%B8%E3%81%83%E3%81%8A%E5%BE%85%E3%81%A1%22)
on Google shows 213 results (by checking until the last search-result page).
For those who employ this non-standard convention, エンターティナー is pronounced as
エンターテイナー with weak イ, which reflects the pronunciation of the English word as
well as (or possibly even better than) the usual notation エンターテイナー.

