海豚

Native formation, attested abundantly in the Classical era. Also 海豨 (hǎixī, literally “sea-pig”), 江豚 (jiāngtún, literally “river-pig”). Semantically compare English mereswine (“porpoise or dolphin”, literally “sea-pig”).

海豚

1. dolphin

From Old Japanese. Attested in the Kojiki of 712 CE with the phonetic spelling 入鹿魚.[1]

Further etymology Uncertain. One of the possible native-Japanese theories is that this was originally a compound of Old Japanese elements 魚 (iwo, “fish”) +‎ 食 (uka, “food, something used as food”), with the following sound shifts.

/iwo uka/ → /iru uka/ → /iruka/

Another possibility is that it was a borrowing from Ainu. Compare Sakhalin Ainu リク (riku), イリク (iriku), or Kuril Ainu リカ (rika, “whale”).[2][3] Given the unlikely sound shift required for the Old Japanese derivation and the lack of cognates in the Ryukyuan languages (see Proto-Ryukyuan *peto), an origin from Ainu seems more likely.

The spelling 海豚, which literally means “sea pig”, is an orthographic borrowing from Chinese.

• (Tokyo) いるか [ìrúká] (Heiban – [0])[4][5]
• IPA^(key): [iɾɯ̟ᵝka̠]

海豚(いるか) or 海豚(イルカ) • (iruka) 

1. a dolphin or porpoise (the mammal)

• As with many terms that name organisms, this term is often spelled in katakana, especially in biological contexts (where katakana is customary), as イルカ.

• 鱪(しいら) (shīra), 鱰(しいら) (shīra): a dolphin fish, a dorado fish

• Shōgaku Tosho (1988) 国語大辞典（新装版） [Unabridged Dictionary of Japanese (Revised Edition)] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN

From Proto-Ryukyuan *peto (“dolphin”). Cognate with Okinawan 海豚(ふぃーとぅ) (fītu).

海豚(ふぃとぅ) or 海豚(ぴとぅ) (fitu or pitu) 

1. dolphin

From Proto-Ryukyuan *peto (“dolphin”). Cognate with Okinawan 海豚(ふぃーとぅ) (fītu).

海豚(ひーとぅい) (hīthui) 

1. dolphin

From Proto-Ryukyuan *peto (“dolphin”). Cognate with Okinawan 海豚(ふぃーとぅ) (fītu).

海豚(ふとぅ) (hutu) 

1. dolphin

From Proto-Ryukyuan *peto (“dolphin”).

海豚(ふぃーとぅ) (fītu) 

1. dolphin

From Proto-Ryukyuan *peto (“dolphin”). Cognate with Okinawan 海豚(ふぃーとぅ) (fītu).

海豚(ふとぅ) (hutu) 

1. dolphin