What's the origin of words ending in the letter "j"?

Question

• What's the origin/etymology of these words? The only one that I know and it is common is reloj.
• Are there any others recognized by the RAE?

Answer 1

"Reloj" originally comes from latin "horologium".

I've read that the "j" ending is a result of Catalan "relotge".

I can think of another word ending in "j", "carcaj" which means "quiver", as in the container used to carry arrows. Apparently this comes from French "carcais".

In this website they list some words ending in "j" although I would say only "reloj" and "carcaj" are actually used.

Answer 2

There are few words in Spanish that end with "J", and some of them are derivations of foreign origin: reloj (Greek "ωρολογιον"), boj (Catalan "boix"), carcaj (Greek "καρκάσιον"). There are other rarely used examples.

One thing you should keep in mind: the pronunciation of the letter "J" has changed through the passage of time. These are the phonetic representations of "J" in Spanish:

• medieval Spanish => /ž/
• during XV century => /š/
• from XVI - XVIII century => /x/ (south) /š/ (rest of the Iberian peninsula)
• since XIX century => /x/

But there are also regional differences and it isn't uncommon to find places where it sounds like an aspirated "h" or /h/.

In Spanish the word "reloj" was originally "reloje" or "reloxe", but later the "e" was dropped and the words "reloj" or "relox" appeared.

Another example of two words that still coexist is the name "Jimena", that is often found as "Ximena", towns like "Xixona" or "Jijona" (the first in Valencian), etc.

Answer 3

There are fewer than 30 words ending in -j in Spanish, most of which were inherited from Arabic at a time when j in Spanish represented /ʃ/ (i.e. the English sound 'sh'). The rest come from a variety of different origins:

Arabic

word	alt. orthography	etymology
alioj		Hisp. Arabic yašb ← Aramaic yašpe ← Acadian [j]ašpū ("jaspe")
almiraj		Arabic المعراج (mi'raj)
almofrej		Arabic ﺍﻞﻣﻔﺭﺺ (almafráš)
almoraduj	almoradux	Hisp. Arabic almarda[d]dúš ← Arabic marzanǧūš ← Greek ἀμάρακος
erraj	herraj	Hisp. Arabic ﺍﺭﻎ (arráhǧ, "polvo")
balaj	balaje	Arabic ﺑﻠﺨﺸﻲ (balaẖš ← balaẖšī, "badajshaní")
borraj	bórax	Arabic ﺑﻭﺭﻖ (bawraq) ← Persian bure
cambuj	gambuj, gambux, gambox	Hisp. Arabic ﻛﻨﺒﺶ (kanbúš, "capuchón") ← Late Latin caputium

Latin and apocopy of Old Spanish verbs

word	alt. orthography	etymology
dij	dije	? Latin dĭgĭtus uncertain
relej	releje	relejar
rebalaj	rebalaje	resbalar
pedicoj		Latin pes, pedis ("pie") + cojo
maniblaj		? uncertain

French and Gothic

word	alt. orthography	etymology
troj	troja, troje	? Gothic thraughs ("arca") uncertain
carcaj	carcax	Old French carcais ← Byzantine Greek καρκάσιον (karkásion)
gambaj	gambax	Old French gambais ← Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌼𐌱𐌰 (wamba, "vientre")

Catalan and Aragonese

word	alt. orthography	etymology
boj	boje	box ← Catalan/Aragonese boix ← Latin buxus2
reloj, contrarreloj		Old Catalan relotge ← orollotge ← Latin hōrologium ← Ancient Greek ὡρολόγιον (hōrológion)3 4

Onomatopoeia

word	alt. orthography	etymology
aj	ax, aje		ax
puaj		— (compare with French ¡pouah!)

Foreign religious terms

word	alt. orthography	etymology
Aj		Egyptian Ꜣḫ (Akh)
sij		English Sikh ← Punjabi ਸਿੱਖ (sikkh) ← Sanskrit šisya1
Pésaj		Hebrew פֶּסַח (pésach, "salto")

American peoples

word	alt. orthography	etymology
chuj		Spanish exonym for the Chuj people, language
itzaj	itzá, Itza'

All of these (with the exception of Aj, almiraj, gambaj, rebalaj, Pésaj, and puaj) have entries in the RAE, and 11 of them have alternate forms with a terminal -je or -x.

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Notes:

1. _{The RAE introduced this orthography by analogy with other transliterations of the group kh, corresponding to words of Slavic origin so transcribed in English. However, in Punjabi the sound of the word does not correspond to /x/, being on the contrary much closer to /k/, and the choice is therefore deceptive and unjustified etymologically; Much more reasonable alternatives are sik or simply sikh.}

2. _{ix is pronounced /ʃ/ in (Eastern) Catalan, and when this word was first loaned to Spanish the letter j represented the same sound.}

3. _{The current form of the word may partly be a back-formation of relojes, plural of obsolete reloje, which better conforms with the Catalan source and would explain the final "j", which is rare in Spanish.}

4. _{Compare with:
     • follaje from Occitan follatge
     • peaje from Catalan peatge or French péage
     • lenguaje from Old Spanish lenguage, borrowed from Old French language or Old Occitan lenguatge, lengaje}
     • metraje, fuselaje, sabotaje, paisaje from French métrage, fuselage, paysage (comp. Catalan paisatge |