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From: doug@terak.UUCP (Doug Pardee)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Pronouncing Japanese brand names
Message-ID: <747@terak.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 2-Oct-85 11:25:33 EDT
Article-I.D.: terak.747
Posted: Wed Oct  2 11:25:33 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 6-Oct-85 05:09:40 EDT
Distribution: net
Organization: Calcomp Display Products Division, Scottsdale, AZ, USA
Lines: 20

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


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