doug@terak.UUCP (Doug Pardee) (10/02/85)
With the great number of Japanese brand cars, cameras, and
consumer electronic goods that come into the U.S., I'd like to know
the correct pronunciation for the brand names.
I've been given to understand that the letter "i" is typically
un-accentuated in Japanese names, whereas the American pronunciation
often accentuates it. For example, Matsushita is usually pronounced
Mat-soo-SHEE-tuh by Americans but I've heard that the correct
pronunciation is more like mat-SOOSH-tuh (the "i" virtually
disappearing).
And I can't believe that Nikon is really pronounced NY-kahn; I've
never heard of a Japanese equivalent of English's long "i".
Anyone able to help?
Suggestion list: Mitsubishi, Nissan, Nikon, Matsushita, Hitachi,
Fujitsu, Toshiba, Casio, NEC (oops, got carried away :-)
--
Doug Pardee -- CalComp -- {calcom1,savax,seismo,decvax,ihnp4}!terak!dougbarryg@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Lee Gold) (10/05/85)
The Japanese I (pronounced to write with "key") and U (pronounced to rhyme with "boo") are indeed often unaccentuated. In creating Japanese versions of foreign words, other vowels may also be swallowed so that "sutoraiki" (strike) is pronounced to rhyme with "nigh-key." Matsushita is syllabified as Ma-Tsu-Shi-Ta and pronounced Mats(u)-sh'ta. Nikon would be Nee-kohn (rhymes with keytone). Nissan is Nees-sahn. Hitachi has the first syllable almost swallowed and is pronounced Hee-tah-chee. Fujitsu (Fu-ji-tsu): Fu is written as part of the H-line and pronounced with rounded lips rather than a labiodental. It's Foo-jee-ts(u) Toshiba is toe-she-bah All of these are even-stressed, with no syllable accentuated. --Lee Gold
edwards@uwmacc.UUCP (mark edwards) (10/05/85)
In article <747@terak.UUCP> doug@terak.UUCP (Doug Pardee) writes: >With the great number of Japanese brand cars, cameras, and >consumer electronic goods that come into the U.S., I'd like to know >the correct pronunciation for the brand names. > >I've been given to understand that the letter "i" is typically >un-accentuated in Japanese names, whereas the American pronunciation >often accentuates it. For example, Matsushita is usually pronounced >Mat-soo-SHEE-tuh by Americans but I've heard that the correct >pronunciation is more like mat-SOOSH-tuh (the "i" virtually >disappearing). > >And I can't believe that Nikon is really pronounced NY-kahn; I've >never heard of a Japanese equivalent of English's long "i". > >Anyone able to help? > >Suggestion list: Mitsubishi, Nissan, Nikon, Matsushita, Hitachi, >Fujitsu, Toshiba, Casio, NEC (oops, got carried away :-) >-- >Doug Pardee -- CalComp -- {calcom1,savax,seismo,decvax,ihnp4}!terak!doug Beleive it or not Japanese names are actually easier to pronounce then English names. Execpt when they borrow them from other languages. But thats another topic. To start with you got matsushita as well as any Japanese. (??) But words like Nikon are pronounced just the way they look. "o" is "o" not "a". They are as follows: Nikon (knee cone) casio (ka shi o ) the si is really pronounced shi Toshiba (Toe shi ba ) Fujitsu (Fuu jee tsu ) Nissan ( Nees san ) Hitachi ( Hee ta chi ) As you can see there is no "si" only "shi" another company "citizen" is shi tee zen . Interestingly enough the company with brand names of Panasonic and Technics is called National. They also have the Technics label too, but no Panasonic. As a rule then : i = e as in knee e = a as in hay a = ah as in what o = o as in cone u = ou as in who This knowledge comes from 4 years of Japanese and 2 years living there. ======================================================================= As always any errors should be ignored and are mine opinions alone. Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tryed before. -- Mae West
mls@husky.uucp (Mark Stevans) (10/09/85)
In the referenced article, Doug Pardee writes: > With the great number of Japanese brand cars, cameras, and > consumer electronic goods that come into the U.S., I'd like to know > the correct pronunciation for the brand names. > > I've been given to understand that the letter "i" is typically > un-accentuated in Japanese names, whereas the American pronunciation > often accentuates it. For example, Matsushita is usually pronounced > Mat-soo-SHEE-tuh by Americans but I've heard that the correct > pronunciation is more like mat-SOOSH-tuh (the "i" virtually > disappearing). > > And I can't believe that Nikon is really pronounced NY-kahn; I've > never heard of a Japanese equivalent of English's long "i". > > Anyone able to help? > > Suggestion list: Mitsubishi, Nissan, Nikon, Matsushita, Hitachi, > Fujitsu, Toshiba, Casio, NEC (oops, got carried away :-) > -- > Doug Pardee -- CalComp -- {calcom1,savax,seismo,decvax,ihnp4}!terak!doug In Japanese, you tend to drop "i" or "u" between unvoiced consonants. The vowels should of uniformly clipped length, pronounced as follows: "a" as in "cot", "i" as in "key", "u" as in "do", "e" as in "bet", "o" as in "so". The only ones on your list that have deleted consonants are 1. "Matsushita", pronounced "Matsush'ta" or "Mats'sh'ta", and 2. "Hitachi", pronounced "H'tachi". The sound of "h'ta" is difficult to pronounce for native English speakers. Just try to say "hita" with vowels as described above, and then leave out the "i" sound. It should sound sort of like "sh'ta", but not quite. "Casio" is not a legal word in Japanese, because: 1. "c" is not in the language. "k" or "s" must be substituted, as appropriate. 2. "s" before "i" is always pronounced "shi". So, "Casio" must turn into "kashio". Of course, maybe the brand name is something totally different in Japanese, and "Casio" was picked for American marketing because they thought it sounded good in English. Mark Stevans ritcv!husky!mls
ludemann@ubc-cs.UUCP (Peter Ludemann) (10/10/85)
In article <1529@uwmacc.UUCP> edwards@maccunix.UUCP (mark edwards) writes: >In article <747@terak.UUCP> doug@terak.UUCP (Doug Pardee) writes: >>With the great number of Japanese brand cars, cameras, and >>consumer electronic goods that come into the U.S., I'd like to know >>the correct pronunciation for the brand names. > > Fujitsu (Fuu jee tsu ) (the "F" is actually almost an "H" here) (the final "u" is often barely audible) I would suggest the rule: the vowels pronounce similar to those in almost every language *except* English. Doubled vowels and consonants are pronounced longer. Try to avoid using a stress accent (Japanese uses a pitch accent which varies according to dialect - the standard way of accenting a word in the Tokyo area is almost guaranteed to be the opposite of the way used in the Kobe-Osaka-Kyoto area). -- -- Peter Ludemann ludemann@ubc-cs.uucp (ubc-vision!ubc-cs!ludemann) ludemann@cs.ubc.cdn (ludemann@cs.ubc.cdn@ubc.mailnet) ludemann@ubc.csnet (ludemann%ubc.csnet@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA)
yuhan@ellie.UUCP (Albert Hanyong Yuhan) (12/30/85)
> The Japanese I (pronounced to write with "key") and U (pronounced to > rhyme with "boo") are indeed often unaccentuated. In creating Japanese > versions of foreign words, other vowels may also be swallowed so that > "sutoraiki" (strike) is pronounced to rhyme with "nigh-key." > > Matsushita is syllabified as Ma-Tsu-Shi-Ta and pronounced Mats(u)-sh'ta. > Nikon would be Nee-kohn (rhymes with keytone). > Nissan is Nees-sahn. > Hitachi has the first syllable almost swallowed and is pronounced > Hee-tah-chee. > Fujitsu (Fu-ji-tsu): Fu is written as part of the H-line and pronounced > with rounded lips rather than a labiodental. It's Foo-jee-ts(u) > Toshiba is toe-she-bah > > All of these are even-stressed, with no syllable accentuated. > > --Lee Gold For borrowed words and foreign names, it is, in general, not only futile, but also harmful to attempt to be loyal to the pronunciation of the word in the original language. Every language has, again in general, a phonemic system different from other languages. Importing foreign words with forced foreign readings contributes to mess up the host language. Note that, in English, we do not read Paris [p'aRi]. There is no phonological rule that even lets us suspect that the reading of "Nikon" would be /Nee-kohn/. We have to understand that, no matter what our reading for "Nikon" is, it is going to sound weird to Japanese native speakers anyway. "Nikon" should be plainly Nikon in America. In Japan, they say Coffee [kohi], and they are not wrong in doing so. Along the same line, I argue that we should stop reading "J"s as if they were an "h" whenever it is found in a Spanish-origined words unless we re-spell such words to preserve the original readings rather than the letters. -- -------------- UUCP : {cmc12,hao,harpo}!seismo!rochester!rocksvax!sunybcs!yuhan ...{allegra,decvax,watmath}!sunybcs!yuhan CSNET : yuhan@buffalo ARPA : yuhan%buffalo@csnet-relay BITNET : yuhan@sunybcs --------------