Aýna () 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.
Name The name of Aýna is derived from the Arabic () meaning or . The spelling of the town preserves an archaic use of the letter – 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. This changed in 2010 when the Royal Spanish Academy recommended that an acute accent be added to the letter , to indicate that the not only makes a full vowel sound (rather than forming a diphthong with the preceding ), but is in fact part of the stressed syllable. The spelling is notable for being one of very few examples of the use of the character in Spanish, otherwise only seen in old-fashioned spellings of personal names.
References
Bibliography
External links Main page of Aýna in Spanish Tourist website with some information of the village in Spanish