How do you pronounce Nikon in your part of the world?

Nikon decided, according to the article, that 'Nikon', not a Japanese word but a made up brand name, is correct in all regional variations around the world. If you search The Official Way to Pronounce Nikon, you will find the entire brief piece.

ny con noze

Nikon decided, according to the article, that 'Nikon', not a Japanese word but a made up brand name, is correct in all regional variations around the world. If you search The Official Way to Pronounce Nikon, you will find the entire brief piece.

Thanks Sandy.

 

According to the article (link): "...And Nikon’s rule is that all regional pronunciations around the world are equally correct."

 

Haha, just as we discussed. Smart marketing! :D

As I learned from watching baseball games (with imported players), Japanese names have no accent. That is, no stressed syllable. Uniform stress through the whole name.

 

Yes, and not just names. It's quite possibly the largest reason Japanese sounds so foreign to American ears, but most Americans do not notice this distinction. All Japanese, on the other hand, notice the highly stressed nature of English.

 

While we're on the subject, the thing that Japanese and other East Asians tend not to notice about English speech is how very important the lengths of vowel sounds are for distinguishing words. Most Japanese may never notice that "dock" and "dog", like many other such word pairs, differ only in the length of the vowel. And so that is the main way they tend to get English pronunciation wrong.

Yes, and not just names. It's quite possibly the largest reason Japanese sounds so foreign to American ears, but most Americans do not notice this distinction. All Japanese, on the other hand, notice the highly stressed nature of English.

 

I could believe that. My understanding is that Asian languages are often also highly tonal (the pitch of syllables matters); I claim very little expertise in this despite working for a Korean company. Also, I'm tone deaf.

 

While we're on the subject, the thing that Japanese and other East Asians tend not to notice about English speech is how very important the lengths of vowel sounds are for distinguishing words. Most Japanese may never notice that "dock" and "dog", like many other such word pairs, differ only in the length of the vowel. And so that is the main way they tend to get English pronunciation wrong.

 

Huh? "Dock" and "dog" should be varying by whether the final plosive is voiced, not the length of the vowel, surely? I don't think I vary the vowel. Most East Asians famously struggle with the r/l distinction ("berry" vs "belly") - including in writing, for at least one of my managers. But that's extraordinarily subtle if you're not brought up with it. Which may tie in to the way "Nikkor" ends in various regions.

 

I did some reading up on internationalisation and localisation (i18n and l10n, in the lingo), including configuring font systems to be able to cope with the direction of text varying part way through a sentence, and in the end decided that this was one area I was prepared to cede to the experts.

 

(snip on "dock", "dog", and vowel length)

 

Huh? "Dock" and "dog" should be varying by whether the final plosive is voiced, not the length of the vowel, surely? I don't think I vary the vowel.

 

 

I never would have thought about this, but I said "dock" and "dog" a few times, and I suspect it is right.

 

Well, first, I suspect that if you are near water, and you say "It is at the end of the dog", someone

will go to the end of the dock, and if you are in class and say "my dock ate my homework" the

teacher will known your meant your pet at home. No thought about the consonant.

 

But now try to say them with a fake New Yock accent, and see how different they sound.

The attempt to change the voicing of the consonant, at least for me, changes the sound

(not just the length) of the vowel.

 

Well, I live in Seattle, near where the UW Huskies play, commonly known as "dawgs" and

pretty much never "dogs". It should be the consonant, but it isn't.

 

I can't even figure out how to say "dawk" without a funny accent.

 

From the discussion yesterday, I realized that some people I know pronounce "moon"

more like "mewn". But everyone knows what it means, as there is rarely a mewn

in the sky at night, but often enough, a moon.

Huh? "Dock" and "dog" should be varying by whether the final plosive is voiced, not the length of the vowel, surely? I don't think I vary the vowel.

 

Yes, it's true that the final consonant is sometimes voiced differently between the two words. But try saying these two sentences:

 

"Please dock the boat at Pier 39."

"Please dog the hatch before debarking."

 

If you are like me, and pay close attention to how you voice those verbs, you should notice that the final consonants aren't really distinguishable. If that's the case, it's the length of the vowel that makes the distinction. Try flipping the two words, so that the duration of the "o" in "dock" is as long as it is in "dog", as vice versa.

Got to say, I tried saying "dock" and "dog" to myself in case I was missing something, and I swear there's absolutely no difference in the length of the "o" for me, it's all in the final consonant. But I suspect that's my (floating English) accent - I can imagine several accents in which "dahg" would be the pronunciation but you wouldn't say "dahk" (because it would sound like "dark").

Got to say, I tried saying "dock" and "dog" to myself in case I was missing something, and I swear there's absolutely no difference in the length of the "o" for me, it's all in the final consonant. But I suspect that's my (floating English) accent - I can imagine several accents in which "dahg" would be the pronunciation but you wouldn't say "dahk" (because it would sound like "dark").

Interesting!

Got to say, I tried saying "dock" and "dog" to myself in case I was missing something, and I swear there's absolutely no difference in the length of the "o" for me, it's all in the final consonant.

 

Dog vs Dock according to Emmasaying.com

 

PS: Note the site says the hardest English word to pronounce is Sorry (not Nikon). :eek:

Edited September 12, 2018 by Mary Doo

Yup, that's roughly what I'm saying, a little less effeminately. I can imagine a long "dawg" with a Texas drawl, though. I don't say "hound dog" with both words the same length, but clearly Elvis did.

 

Interesting list (give or take the Elton John reference). I think it was Benedict Cumberbatch who claimed not to be able to pronounce "penguins". On the other hand, I had no idea that "squirrel" could be one syllable until I saw Up. And in one of the British accents I definitely don't have but Hollywood probably thinks I do, "hello" rhymes with "ear".

 

(I'm pretty sure nobody in the UK still has the city urchin artful dodger accent, but I still hear actors trying it in TV shows. The south London accent of Vinnie Jones and Danny Dyer really exists though. There was a joke that if Scotland split from the UK, we'd only let them keep the currency if they pronounced it "yer English paaaahnds".)

 

For what it's worth, "Mary", "merry" and "marry" are all different to me. I actually just had to fill in a survey for work saying what accent I have (because Bixby), and I've no idea. I think I can narrow it to southern England, but there's a long way between Cornwall and Norfolk, with Windsor in between.

 

Now, does anyone not pronounce "Canon" the same as "cannon"? It helps that it's already a word, of course. In fact, without resorting to something like "Laowa" or "Mitakon", I think most other camera companies have clear pronunciation. Or have I heard "Sony" pronounced "sonny" instead of "so-knee" and blotted it out?

 

I call "Huawei" "who are we?" (along the lines of the Fukawi tribe of pygmies), but then I work for a competitor and reserve the right to a little light-hearted joshing. And mostly not where it could cause offence.

I call "Huawei" "who are we?" (along the lines of the Fukawi tribe of pygmies), but then I work for a competitor and reserve the right to a little light-hearted joshing. And mostly not where it could cause offence.

 

That's okay, Westerners have no idea how to pronounce Samsung either. ;)

That's okay, Westerners have no idea how to pronounce Samsung either. ;)

 

I've not really noticed that, but I may be oblivious. I did once have a problem staying in Suwon (where the Samsung "digital city" has over 35,000 employees and is about half a square mile) with the following exchange with a taxi driver:

 

"I'd like to go to the West Gate of the Digital City, please".

 

"West gate?"

 

"Um, Digital City."

 

"Digital City?"

 

"Samsung?"

 

"Samsung?"

 

Fortunately the hotel concierge helped me out. But I don't think it was me...