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From: edwards@uwmacc.UUCP (mark edwards)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Pronouncing Japanese brand names
Message-ID: <1529@uwmacc.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 5-Oct-85 13:22:42 EDT
Article-I.D.: uwmacc.1529
Posted: Sat Oct  5 13:22:42 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 7-Oct-85 05:17:36 EDT
References: <747@terak.UUCP>
Reply-To: edwards@maccunix.UUCP (mark edwards)
Distribution: net
Organization: UWisconsin-Madison Academic Comp Center
Lines: 67

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