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From: mls@husky.uucp (Mark Stevans)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Pronouncing Japanese brand names
Message-ID: <218@husky.uucp>
Date: Tue, 8-Oct-85 17:54:10 EDT
Article-I.D.: husky.218
Posted: Tue Oct  8 17:54:10 1985
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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