Aýna, Spain
Village in central Spain
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Aýna[1] (Spanish pronunciation: [aˈina]) is a small village and municipality in the southern region of the province of Albacete, in the Spanish autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha. It is a popular summer vacation destination due to its pleasant scenery and climate. It has a population of over 900 inhabitants, which has declined between 1950 and 2000. Aýna is referred to as "Manchegan Switzerland" due to its location between two mountain ranges.
Aýna | |
|---|---|
|
Coat of arms | |
 location in Albacete | |
| Country |  Spain |
| Autonomous community | Castilla–La Mancha |
| Province | Albacete |
| Comarca | Sierra del Segura |
| Judicial district | Hellín |
| Demonym | Ayniegos |
| Time zone | UTC+1 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+2 (CEST) |
| Postal code | 02125 |
| Website | Official website |
Name
The name of Aýna is derived from the Arabic عَيْن (ʕayn) meaning 'spring' or 'source'.[1] The spelling of the town preserves an archaic[2] use of the letter ⟨y⟩ – in modern Spanish this letter is used almost exclusively before vowels and at the end of words, but Old Castilian frequently also used it after vowels, and even as a vowel itself.
Historically, the name of the town was spelt Ayna, without any accent marks.[1] This changed in 2010 when the Royal Spanish Academy recommended that an acute accent be added to the letter ⟨y⟩, to indicate that the ⟨y⟩ not only makes a full vowel sound (rather than forming a diphthong with the preceding ⟨a⟩), but is in fact part of the stressed syllable.[3][1][4] The spelling is notable for being one of very few examples of the use of the character ⟨ý⟩ in Spanish, otherwise only seen in old-fashioned spellings of personal names.[1]
