Canyon is Spanish with the tilde filed off. The Mexican Spanish word is cañón, an augmentative of caño, "a tube," from Latin canna, "reed" — so a canyon is a big pipe, which is a fair description of a narrow valley between cliffs. English had no ñ and no intention of acquiring one, so it did what it usually does with foreign letters: approximated. The ny in canyon is an English attempt at a Spanish sound, the same substitution behind jalapeno and pinata as most English speakers write them.
The word entered English in 1834, and it belongs specifically to the American West. The Century Dictionary noted that this use of cañón was peculiar to the United States, rare in Mexico and unknown in Spain or Spanish South America — a reminder that borrowings often travel in one direction and describe a landscape the donor language never needed a word for.
canyon (n.) "narrow valley between cliffs," 1834, from Mexican Spanish cañon , extended sense of Spanish cañon "a pipe, tube; deep hollow, gorge," augmentative of cano "a tube," from Latin canna "reed" (see cane (n.)). But earlier spelling callon (1560s) might suggest a source in calle "street." This use of the word cañon is peculiar to the United States, it being rare in Mexico, and not at all known in Spain or in Spanish South America. [Century Dictionary] also from 1834
canyon came in through Later and wider borrowings, and its spelling follows that family's conventions.
How that family writes these sounds
| /nj/ in a Spanish loan | ny, standing in for ñcanyon |
What gives it away on the page
| -o/-a endings, ll, rr, ny for ñ | Spanish — much of it from the Americas.tornado, cargo, plaza, armadillo, guerrilla, canyon, mosquito |
Placing it without the spelling
| the Americas — ranching, weather, food | Spanishtornado, canyon, chocolate, tomato |
Later and wider borrowings in the spelling guide · guess another word's family