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03/26/2008 08:13:23 AM · #1 |
I've seen videos and tutorials that are quite interesting. What I'm not understanding is why these professionals are not pronouncing the name properly. The reason I bring this up is simply because I want to know how many on here say nee-kon and how many say n-eye-kon
Remember it's a Japanese company
Audio of how to pronounce it
Video of a Japanese man doing a review
Message edited by author 2008-03-26 08:14:07.
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03/26/2008 08:24:35 AM · #2 |
I've said this to many people that say N-eye-kon. I lived in Japan for 9 years and used to shoot nick-on
You are right, but the masses will never change.
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03/26/2008 08:31:26 AM · #3 |
| My friend is Japanese and in Japan, it is "Nee-Kon". |
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03/26/2008 08:58:42 AM · #4 |
Originally posted by MAK:
I've said this to many people that say N-eye-kon. I lived in Japan for 9 years and used to shoot nick-on
You are right, but the masses will never change. |
Absolutely not, and I don't imaging Nikon really cares. They've built brand recognition, in the US at least, as N-eye-kon. Call any phone number for Nikon US and that is how they answer, not with the "proper" pronunciation. Most products that are global have subtle differences in pronunciation or naming in different markets.
It would be interesting to know how it got started for Nikon, though. I could see it if "Nee-kon" were difficult for westerners to pronounce, but it isn't. Odd.
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03/26/2008 09:10:48 AM · #5 |
I defer to Mr Simon.
... I got a N-Eye-Con camera, gonna shoot a photograph... |
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03/26/2008 09:12:24 AM · #6 |
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03/26/2008 09:15:05 AM · #7 |
Originally posted by Falc:
Kaa-non! |
Beat me to it !! :-P
I have always known it as Nick-on
Message edited by author 2008-03-26 09:16:08. |
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03/26/2008 09:22:31 AM · #8 |
Originally posted by MikeOwens:
I have always known it as Nick-on |
That's coz us brits are sensible and pronounce things properly ;o) Seems like USers just don't say the japanese 'ni', hence neeesan and neyekon, rather than ni!san and ni!kon :)
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03/26/2008 09:38:35 AM · #9 |
In the U.S. generally, the phonetic rules for this type of word calls for n-eye-kon. The "I" becomes long because it precedes a single consonant followed by a vowel. Nissan however has a double consonant, negating the rule. Granted, we yanks have decided, mostly in the last forty years, that all aspects of the English language are subjective. And rules of pronunciation, spelling, even definition are relative.
This is just one small corner of my "Hell-in-a-handbasket" theory. I love my country fiercely, but she's no longer the nation our Fathers envisioned.
Oops- got on a rant there. Sorry.
Please say n-eye-kon or nick-on as you like. I'll say n-eye-kon for love of country. |
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03/26/2008 10:00:40 AM · #10 |
Originally posted by Manic:
Originally posted by MikeOwens:
I have always known it as Nick-on |
That's coz us brits are sensible and pronounce things properly ;o) Seems like USers just don't say the japanese 'ni', hence neeesan and neyekon, rather than ni!san and ni!kon :) |
I resent being lumped in with the US...lol... as part of the comonwealth we align our selves much more to your side I would say... but we still say n-eye-kon, really I do'nt think that the americans came up with this differnce anyway... that's giving way too much credit :) |
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03/26/2008 10:13:10 AM · #11 |
Originally posted by thomaspeople:
This is just one small corner of my "Hell-in-a-handbasket" theory. I love my country fiercely, but she's no longer the nation our Fathers envisioned. |
All due to alternate pronunciations? Wow, things are bad.
Anglicization is not really the indicator of stupidity that people think it is. It may be very cosmopolitan to say "Neekon", but it in English, as thomaspeople pointed out, it's incorrect, or at least non-standard. Consider that we say "et setera" instead of "et ketera"; the latter is in fact the "correct" pronunciation.
If you want to bitch about something, bitch about "nucular", "eksetra", "is is", and the like. :-P |
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03/26/2008 10:17:53 AM · #12 |
Like  MAK I lived in Japan for a considerable length of time. My college major was Japanese and I worked as a cultural liaison at the Embassy of Japan in DC for three years as well as an occasional translator, interpretor, etc. There are a lot of Japanese words we tend to mispronounce. Karaoke is actually kah-rah-oh-kay, with a slight emphasis on the "oh". It means 'empty orchestra'. Bokeh is boh-keh, almost like bouquet, but with less emphasis on the second syllable. Nikon is "Knee-kohn", Canon is "Kah-nohn", Honda is "Hohn-dah" with a long "o", etc. etc. However, even the Japanese diplomats I worked with often pronounced words such as Nikon and Honda in the Americanized fashion, just as I introduced myself as "Kya-sah-rin" for Catherine to those Japanese who hadn't learned to pronounce English (Japanese is almost entirely lacking in consonants, so it can be very difficult for Japanese to wrap their tongues around such sounds as "l", "th" and "r". "N" is the exception - the only consonant in the Japanese syllabary.)
I myself promote the idea of pronouncing languages as the natives do, despite my willingness to butcher my own name in Japan (I'm not so sure I would do so now). However, I still find myself referring to my camera as a Can-non, though I would not do so if speaking to a Japanese national.
PS - that drink you enjoy with sushi is sake, pronounced sah-kay, not sah-kee. :-) And the little, shaped trees are bonsai, not banzai. I always get a chuckle over that one, as banzai is a Japanese war cry. |
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03/26/2008 10:24:26 AM · #13 |
My boss is Japanese. I will ask him how he pronounces it.
Message edited by author 2008-03-26 10:24:35. |
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03/26/2008 10:55:18 AM · #14 |
So it seems we must choose to pronounce a word based on either its origin or our own location/nationality.
As I recall from my college days many years ago, the French would drop the final consonant for pronunciation but would then add an odd form of the "O" (imagine saying "eee" but with your lips down in a tight circle) - I can't even begin to write that out phonetically.
Of Course, the Germans would need to add a few more consonants at the end just to make it readable.
And as I learned recently while in Prague, the Czechs would add that special back-of- the-throat sound for which there are no letters (and if you're not Czech you don't bother trying).
We Americans will say whatever we feel like saying, and if we're southern, we'll add a few unwritten syllables to prove we're not like those silly New Yorkers who just don't know how to talk right.
Apparently it's all relative.
Hell in a hand basket.
I wonder how Chuck Norris pronounces it?
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03/26/2008 01:35:23 PM · #15 |
Reminds me of the Photoshop seminar I was at yesterday. The presenter, Dave Cross, moved to Florida from Canada and told us he initially had big problems speaking to people referring to him as "y'all" (e.g. "Y'all got a nice kneekohn there" (had to throw that in)) because he was the only one being spoken to, and kept looking around to see where everyone else was (the "all" part of y'all). He finally broke down and asked someone how they addressed multiple people, to which he received the response, "Why all-y'all, of course!" (e.g. "All-y'all are wasting too much time talking about kneekohns and not shooting with them.") :-)
Steve
Message edited by author 2008-03-26 13:39:58. |
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03/26/2008 01:49:34 PM · #16 |
I prefer to pronounce it as "EEE", "oh", "ess"
:-)
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03/26/2008 02:03:12 PM · #17 |
Originally posted by Manic:
That's coz us brits are sensible and pronounce things properly ;o) Seems like USers just don't say the japanese 'ni', hence neeesan and neyekon, rather than ni!san and ni!kon :) |
Yeah, like they way you guys pronounce aluminum! |
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03/26/2008 02:05:00 PM · #18 |
Originally posted by fir3bird:
Originally posted by Manic:
That's coz us brits are sensible and pronounce things properly ;o) Seems like USers just don't say the japanese 'ni', hence neeesan and neyekon, rather than ni!san and ni!kon :) |
Yeah, like they way you guys pronounce aluminum! |
I think you mean "aluminium", which would be the correct spelling. :-P |
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03/26/2008 02:06:00 PM · #19 |
Hmmm, when I travel overseas to south east asia, or anywhere for that matter I don't get all bent out of shape when they can't pronounce my first name correctly...
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03/26/2008 02:18:01 PM · #20 |
Tomato, tomato. Looks the same, pronounced different, but it's still the same thing. I think people in the US tend to pronounce brand named products by how they're advertised. The Nissan commercials pronounce in Neesan, so that's how it's known.
I agree with Jayson, people in other countries can't pronounce my name very well, it's always Yeaaaassica.
Back to the OP's question, I pronounce it Neyekon as well, because that's the way I learned it. If I went somewhere where they pronounced it otherwise I would try my best to adapt. |
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03/26/2008 02:24:34 PM · #21 |
Originally posted by Louis:
Originally posted by fir3bird:
Originally posted by Manic:
That's coz us brits are sensible and pronounce things properly ;o) Seems like USers just don't say the japanese 'ni', hence neeesan and neyekon, rather than ni!san and ni!kon :) |
Yeah, like they way you guys pronounce aluminum! |
I think you mean "aluminium", which would be the correct spelling. :-P |
aluminium was called aluminum when Humphry Davy first isolated it.
Nikon gets the ee as in free sound from me (sort of half way to the i sound as in in), so well done to anyone who manages the same. If you call IKEA eye - key - ya though, then I'm afraid you'll have to surrender all the brownie points you got for saying nikon properly. IK (as in nikon, if you say it right) E = ay (as in 'ay for 'orses) A = a (as in a man-walked-into-a-pub-with-an-elephant). |
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03/26/2008 02:29:14 PM · #22 |
Originally posted by raish:
[Nikon gets the ee as in free sound from me (sort of half way to the i sound as in in), so well done to anyone who manages the same. If you call IKEA eye - key - ya though, then I'm afraid you'll have to surrender all the brownie points you got for saying nikon properly. IK (as in nikon, if you say it right) E = ay (as in 'ay for 'orses) A = a (as in a man-walked-into-a-pub-with-an-elephant). |
Again, watch tv for a few minutes and wait for an IKEA ad to come on, they pronounce it eye key ah. Let's face it, the companies don't care how we pronounce it, as long as we buy it! |
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03/26/2008 02:29:37 PM · #23 |
Originally posted by raish:
Originally posted by Louis:
Originally posted by fir3bird:
Originally posted by Manic:
That's coz us brits are sensible and pronounce things properly ;o) Seems like USers just don't say the japanese 'ni', hence neeesan and neyekon, rather than ni!san and ni!kon :) |
Yeah, like they way you guys pronounce aluminum! |
I think you mean "aluminium", which would be the correct spelling. :-P |
aluminium was called aluminum when Humphry Davy first isolated it. |
Actually, he first called it "alumium", not "aluminum". |
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03/26/2008 02:36:27 PM · #24 |
Originally posted by icu1965
Again, watch tv for a few minutes and wait for an IKEA ad to come on, they pronounce it eye key ah. Let's face it, the companies don't care how we pronounce it, as long as we buy it! [/quote:
Right about that.
[quote=Louis]
Actually, he first called it "alumium", not "aluminum". |
So he did, yes, and it would seem that all but the pukkah aluminium version were prior to successful isolation. You win then. :) |
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03/26/2008 02:45:13 PM · #25 |
Since we are now comparing cultural differences in language and vocabulary, why do some other countries (besides the U.S.), call the trunk of a automobile, the "boot"? Or the windshield of a car, the "wind screen"?
"Screen", to me, seems like a porous object, like a sieve. "Shield", to me, seems to protect (against the wind).
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