Re: Origin of 'hoomu'

John W. wrote:
> [...]
> So a century or so ago (I assume) when the word came into being, so to
> speak, was フォ not in use that much, so instead ホー was used?

Even half a century ago, "f" was a foreign sound that not all Japanese
were willing to try to produce. Kind of like an American saying
"tsunami" or "Ryukyu."

In the '80s I was subtitling a TV program in which one of the characters
had a dog (I think that's what it was) named "UFO," but she called it
ユーホー rather than the proper ユーフォー her daughter always said.

Bart
.