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craigster
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Sorry if this seems like a stupid question, but I have seen this claim on 4 different Websites now, and I have a Japanese friend who says it is not true.
On ?akoya? vs. ?Akoya?
Doug Fiske, December 2001
From Tomoo Homma, PhD, Medical Science:
(Dr. Homma is an email friend of mine in Japan. I asked him about Japanese language usage and the origin of the word ?akoya.?)
Q: Does Japanese have proper nouns and common nouns that start with either capital or small first letters?
A:. We don?t distinguish between capital and small first letters to start Japanese nouns. But if the nouns originate in things like locations or human names, we use initial capital letters when we write in English.
Q: Is ?akoya? the common-noun name of a saltwater oyster that produces pearls? The pearls themselves are also called ?akoya? or ?akoyas? when plural.
A: ?Akoya? originated from the location name where this pearl oyster was collected in the distant past. Long ago, Akoya pearls were found in large quantities at Akoya-No-Ura in Aichi prefecture. This pearl came to be called Akoya pearl. So, in this case, we might use ?Akoya,? not ?akoya.? But now ?akoya? pearls have become widespread, so I think ?akoya? might be better.
From Osamo Fukumoto, citing Wakunnoshiori, a Japanese dictionary written by Kotosuga Tanigawa (1709-1776) and published in 1805:
(In March 1998, a GIA librarian asked Mr. Fukumoto about the origin of the word ?akoya.? I took the following from his reply.)
?Ako? is old Japanese; we don?t use it any more. Definitions of ?Ako? are ?my baby,? ?my child? and ?you.? ?Ya? is a suffix after someone?s name or a pronoun to express affection, and it is still a current usage.
[Mr. Fukumoto] imagine that because pearls were so highly prized and treated tenderly, ancient Japanese people started calling pearls Akoya, like their children. And then it became a name of the Akoya oyster.
[Alternate derivation:] From an ancient place name ?Akoya? located in Chita peninsula, Aichi prefecture Japan. The name is not on current maps.
(more)
Notes and Interpretation:
Dr. Homma did not cite his source regarding ?Akoya? being a place name, but it?s interesting that his explanation agrees with one that Mr. Fukumoto found in Wakunnoshiori. Neither man suggested that the place name might have arisen from the ?my child? meaning of ?ako? with the addition of the ?ya? suffix, but I think that?s a reasonable proposition.
It?s worth noting that Mr. Fukumoto uses a capital letter on ?Ako,? a word English speakers would call a common noun.
It?s also worth noting that capital and lowercase letters don?t exist in Japanese, but when Japanese people correctly write English versions of Japanese words, they use caps as we do. In other words, caps are a concession to English.
Some might support capping ?akoya? because it perhaps derived from an ancient location name. I think that would be a stretch because the derivation is uncertain. Moreover, there are no caps in the Japanese language. And if the location-name derivation were presumed, capping ?akoya? would contradict English usage of ?andalusite,? ?brazilianite,? ?californite,? ?ceylonite,? ?labradorite,? ?ozarkite,? ?tanzanite,? and the like.
These publications use ?akoya? rather than ?Akoya?:
? Gem Market News
? GIA?s Colored Stones course
? GIA?s Pearls course
? JCK
? Jewellery News Asia
? Modern Jeweler
? National Jeweler
? Pearl World
? Professional Jeweler