Why not カザクスタン ? The Cyrillic word does have a k (but I am not sure whether is is actually pronounced).
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I would assume it's adapted from the Russian word, which seems to have /x/ (a voiceless velar fricative), which can sound rather /h/-like to people who lack that phoneme.– AngelosCommented Sep 24, 2019 at 10:17
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2forvo.com/word/… I don't hear a "k" sound at all...– narutoCommented Sep 24, 2019 at 10:55
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1 Answer
At least in the last few decades, when Japanese people katakanize foreign words, they do so based on the sound of the original language, not on how it was adopted in English. For example, Eiffel Tower is エッフェル塔, not アイフェル塔, because its French pronunciation is closer to エッフェル. Johann Sebastian Bach is バッハ, not バック nor バッカ, because its German pronunciation is like バッハ. I know nothing about Russian, but according to the Russian pronunciation of Kazakhstan , I think カザフスタン is reasonable.
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2Note that Kazakhstan has its own language of Kazakh, which does have a sound (a /q/) where the kh is, and the word ‘Kazakh’ indeed comes from that language and its Turkic roots, so ‘original language’ may not be entirely accurate here. Commented Sep 25, 2019 at 12:48
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@DariusJahandarie Thank you, before posting this I confirmed Russian is the predominant language in Kazakhstan, but I didn't check the pronunciation in Kazakh.– narutoCommented Sep 25, 2019 at 17:07