Hacker News Reader

Even the popularization of the latin name Marijuana (Mary Jane) was to associate cannabis with latin American immigrants. In Spanish it's mostly called marihuana or mariguana.

View on HN

Where exactly do people say Mariguana? Not in Mexico. If you over-pronounce Spanish the J catches in your throat a bit, but it's still an H sound.

It's a sound that English often renders as “ch” from other languages.

Isn't Marijuana pronounced like "marihuana"?

In Spanish? Not at all. The J has a very strong sound.

There is considerable regional and subcultural variation, but, even when pronounced strongly its not /g/.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com