pron: When the word junta was borrowed into English from Spanish in the early 17th century, its pronunciation was thoroughly Anglicized to (ˈdʒʌn tə) The 20th century has seen the emergence and, esp. in North America, the gradual predominance of the pronunciation (ˈhʊn tə) derived from Spanish (ˈhun tɑ) through reassociation with the word's Spanish origins.

The 20th century has seen the emergence and, especially in North America, the gradual predominance of the pronunciation

At the turn of the seventeenth century, there was in Spanish an ongoing simplification of the sibilant inventory: in both Old Spanish and Old Portuguese, junta would have been pronounced with an affricate /ʤ/ as [ˈʤunta] (as it still is in Italian today) or with a simple fricative as [ˈʒunta].