Nikon name

[httpwww.photo.netphoto1664877429]

I am in South America and some times we having trouble with the

pronunciation of Nikon. Europeans and Japanese pronouns Nikon like

in nickname but in North America you pronounce it like in Nike. I

know that it is silly, but some one has and idea about this history?

[dan_brown4]

I believe that in Japan it is pronouced "nee-con" without any emphasis on either syllable.

In the US, we pronouce it like Paul Simon did on the song Kodachrome", which is "Nigh-

con", emphasis on the first syllable.

[arnabdas]

We in India say "Nee-kon" same as EU/Japan I guess

[akira]

I think that the Latin people (Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Brazillian, etc.) will pronounce "Nikon" virtually the same way as we Japanese pronounce this brand name, which means that you can just pronounce it as romanized word.

 

Here's the rule of thumb: in Japanese, we never pronounce any single spelled vowl as diphthong.

 

Hope this helps.

[gaius1]

My reasoning is thus: There are two ks in Nikkor, which means it's a hard Nikk, to rhyme with chick. Therefore, as they are the same people really, the Nik in Nikon should be pronounced the same way. If there was one k in Nikor then it would be Ni to rhyme with fly.

[errol young]

a rose by any other name would cost the same.

 

Errol

[fernando_libenson]

The name "Nikon" is an abridgment of "Nippon Kogaku", the original name of the cameras' manufacturer. Therefore, pronouncing "Nikon" like the Japanese and Europeans do, is correct.

Pronouncing it the other way as in the U.S.A. is applying an English pronunciation rule to a Japanese word.

[lachaine]

The name Nikon also originally was meant to sound like a major German manufacturer of the time, when Nikon was still looking for recognition and respect. That was of course, Zeiss-Ikon. Put the "N" from Nippon in front of Ikon and you've got Nikon. Now, how should we pronounce the german Ikon? :)

 

It's irrelevant anyway, as it depends on the language. Icone in French is pronounced with a short "i", but icon in English is pronounced with a long "i". When you go to a third or fourth language that "borrowed" the word, so to speak, it could go either way, because by that point, it's a borrowed foreign word.

[hansley_yunez]

How do u pronounce "nikkor"? Or "zeiss"?

[arnabdas]

nik-cor and jhh-a-iss.

[terry_scott]

Back 20-30 years, in Modern Photography magazine, someone got very definitive about how "Nikon" is pronounced. Came out much like some contributors here already have it: "Nee-kohn" (Japanese), "Nye-kon" (American), "Nikkon" (British). Which is correct? Surely the Japanese version. Now, whether it had anything to do with "Ikon" is another matter. In German, that is pronounced mainly "Ee-kohn" or "Ee-konn".

[jim_mcbride]

I'm with Errol.

[lex_jenkins]

I finally disciplined myself to pronounce the OM-series lenses "ZWEE-koh" instead of "ZOO-koh". Darned if I'm gonna start saying "NEE-kon" instead of "NIGH-kon".

[luis triguez]

My God

[richard_cochran]

When I went to the Nikon school of photography many years ago,

the Nikon-trained instructors addressed this issue. FWIW, the

instructors were native born US citizens who spoke American

English without any regional accent that my midwestern ears

could notice.

<p>

<table border cellpadding=5 align=center><cols=2>

<tr>

<td>Nikon</td><td>N eye con</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>Nikkor</td> <td>Nick or</td></tr>

<tr><td>Nikkormat</td> <td>Nick or Matt</td></tr>

</table><p>

 

I don't claim that's the "correct" pronunciation in any region

other than the US, and it's probably not the only accepted

pronunciation even here. But fits the patterns of normal

English phonics, ignoring the pronunciation

rules in the original Japanese.

<p>

We tend to do that in US English when we borrow a word

from another language. We even pronounce place names

like "Quebec", "Paris", and "México" according to our own

rules instead of the rules of the languages of their origin (and we

usually leave off the accent mark in "México", too).

[ccrevasse]

I would exclaim "Me God" or better yet "Me Gods."

[jonathan_halterman]

Dang. Here I was happily enjoying photography but now I feel like I should switch to KAH-non. ;)

[gaius1]

By Crom's Beard!

[dan_brown4]

I thought it was "kay-none"?!?

[sergio_leal]

"Wee culd rit a buk" with all that.

[SolaresLarrave]

IIRC, in linguistics, words from one language incorporated into another tend to follow the pronounciation patterns of the host language. Hence, it's perfectly fine to pronounce "Nye-Kohn" for Nikon, instead of following the Japanese pronounciation.

 

Now... is it true that Minolta pronounced in Japanese sounds like [mee-noh-roh-ta]?

 

Just food for thought...

[mfeetham]

As a global company, I'm sure Nikon's marketing people use several different pronunciations, depending on the region. The argument that as a Japanese company, the ultimately correct version would be nee-kon makes the most sense to me. For what it's worth I just watched a new Nikon TV commercial(in Canada), and the voice-over clearly pronounced it nigh-kon.

[Matthew Currie]

This thread is more fun that "digital vs. film," at least.

 

I figure it depends on whether we consider "Nikon" to be a foreign word or an English one. Many foreign things, such as place names, are translated into English even though they retain their original spelling. It would be pretentious for an American to insist on calling our southern neighbor "Me-hee-co," or the capital of France "Par-ee," because "Meck'-sico" and "Par'-iss" are the correct pronunciations of these English words which happen to be spelled the same as their foreign counterparts. So if we assume for the moment that in the US the registered American trademark "Nikon" is a translation into English of the Japanese "Nikon," it's perfectly rational to pronounce it as English rules would have it: since there is a single K, the preceding vowel is long (not, as I recall, considered a diphthong in English). If one wished to create an English word that was pronounced "nick-on" or "nee-kon" it would require two K's or some other respelling.

 

Thats my story anyway, and I'm sticking to it.

[tim_ross]

I'm with Paul Simon on this one. He's the reason I want an F2, even in the digital era.

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But is funny how British pronouns it Nee-kon

This was a very interesting thread