Why Was Jaguar Borrowed as ジャガー?


It's listed as being borrowed from English, but even if it were the case that
it had been borrowed from Portuguese, it's still pronounced /ɡwɑɹ/ and not
/ɡɑɹ/. Japanese phonology is also perfectly capable of handling this--it could
have been ジャグアー or even ジャグワー. But in every single instance I've seen, it's
ジャガー. Why did they borrow it like this?




The glide **/g w/** may have been preserved in spelling for native vocabulary
until at least the [kana orthography
reforms](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_kana_orthography), but was
completely lost in recent pronunciation. I'm thinking that when the word
_jaguar_ was borrowed into Japanese, **/g w/** was transformed into **/g/** to
fit Japanese pronunciation at that time.

This actually happened to quite a few words (mostly proper nouns):

  * _Paraguay_ , with representations

    * パラグアイ/パラグワイ (common)
    * パラグァイ (Paraguayan Embassy in Japan)
    * 巴拉圭 (probably Chinese, listed in some older Japanese documents)
    * **巴羅[貝]{がい}** (older Kanji representation; note, 貝 here uses a _kun'yomi_ reading)
  * _Uruguay_ , with representations

    * ウルグアイ/ウルグァイ (common)
    * **宇柳[貝]{がい}** (older Kanji representation)
    * 宇柳具 (copying error of 貝)
  * _Guatemala_ , with representations

    * グアテマラ
    * グァテマラ
    * **ガテマラ**
  * _guarana_ (a plant), most commonly spelt as ガラナ

  * _guanaco_ (South American camelid), with representations 
    * グアナコ
    * グァナコ
    * **ガナコ**
    * グワナコ
    * グヮナコ

[外来語の表記](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A4%96%E6%9D%A5%E8%AA%9E%E3%81%AE%E8%A1%A8%E8%A8%98),
the 1991 National Language Council report on the kana representation of
foreign words, contains the following relevant content:

> ## 「外来語の表記」に用いる仮名と符号の表
>
> [![enter image description
> here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/zHxee.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/zHxee.png)
>
>   1. 第1表に示す仮名は,外来語や外国の地名・人名を書き表すのに一般的に用いる仮名とする。
>
>   2. 第2表に示す仮名は,外来語や外国の地名・人名を原音や原つづりになるべく近く書き表そうとする場合に用いる仮名とする。
>
>   3. 第1表・第2表に示す仮名では書き表せないような,特別な音の書き表し方については,ここでは取決めを行わず,自由とする。
>
>   4. 第1表・第2表によって語を書き表す場合には,おおむね留意事項を適用する。
>
>

>
> * * *
>
> ## 外来語の表記 留意事項その2(細則的な事項)
>
>
> 第2表に示す仮名は,原音や原つづりになるべく近く書き表そうとする場合に用いる仮名で,これらの仮名を用いる必要がない場合は,一般的に,第1表に示す仮名の範囲で書き表すことができる。
>
> ...
>
>   4. 「グァ」は,外来音グァに対応する仮名である。
>
> **〔例〕** グァテマラ（地） パラグァイ（地）
>
> **注1** 一般的には,「グア」又は「ガ」と書くことができる。 **〔例〕** グアテマラ（地） パラグアイ（地） ガテマラ（地）
>
> **注2** 「グァ」は,「グヮ」と書く慣用もある。
>
>

Basically, although the orthography _prescribes_ spelling foreign loanwords
originally pronounced with /gw/ with the sequence「グァ/グア/グヮ」, from the
traditional loss of the glide in /gw/ it is valid to not pronounce this glide
at all, reflected in the accepted spelling「ガ」for some of these loanwords and
the use of「[貝]{がい}」in some older kanji representations of these loanwords.
_Jaguar_ was probably borrowed without the /gw/, fitting contemporary Japanese
phonology at the time, and just represented as such as「ジャガー」.




### Why is there no `/w/` glide in the Japanese?

Currently **unknown**.

I cannot find anything definitive describing this. I can't even find when the
term first entered the Japanese language, though presumably this can be
discovered by spending more time researching. (I _am_ finding tons of pages
about the brand of car...)

### Background

According to Shogakukan's 国語大辞典【こくごだいじてん】, the Japanese term ジャガー ( _jagā_ )
derives specifically from American English. This explains the lack of any
`/j/` glide, as in the British pronunciation `/ˈdʒæɡjuːə/`. The [Japanese
Wikipedia
article](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B8%E3%83%A3%E3%82%AC%E3%83%BC)
somewhat incorrectly notes that the term _jaguar_ derived from a South
American language term like _yagā_ , which would explain the lack of any `/w/`
glide -- except the derivation I'm more familiar with is [Old Tupi
_îaûára_](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%C3%AEa%C3%BB%C3%A1ra#Old_Tupi),
which has a `/w/` but no `/ɡ/` at all. The [entry at Merriam-
Webster](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jaguar) (currently seems
to be broken in Chrome; works in FireFox) uses the older spelling _jawára_ ,
also with a `/w/` but no `/ɡ/`, so I think the JA WP article must be mistaken.
It's worth noting that both Spanish and Portuguese have sometimes borrowed
medial `/wa/` sounds as `⟨gua⟩`.

However, all that said, the derivation of the term only deepens ...

... The Mystery of the Missing W!

`<ahem.>`

Depending on the date of initial borrowing, snailplane's mention of the shift
in Japanese from `/ɡwa/` to `/ɡa/` could be our best bet.

