How to pronounce Leica

[ike k]

Damn I already miss my Liek UH or Leik car...

[mo_larricese]

I guess you'll need help with didyalookstew.

[Rob F.]

Lye-ka. Like-ah. Or: "I like a Leica" (so it rhymes).

[winfried_buechsenschuetz1]

"Schneider-Kreuznach" might even be more difficult to speak for native english speakers. It should sound similar to "shnaider-kroytsnakh" where the "kh" represents a sound similar to the "x" in spanish words.

"Optische Werke" should be spoken like "optishe weirker".

 

BTW I remember some dumb germans think that pronounciation of foreign languages is so difficult because "they do not speak the words the way they are written". Many Germans think that german pronounciation is the real one and forget about the many rules and clues of german spoken language, and english and french pronounciation is just as straight forward (or complicated) as the german one.

[nzdavid]

Easy, in German, always pronounce the second vowel in a dipthong (not wearing a

dipthong? Never mind). Meine Leica! As for lenses:: SUMM-ee-cron, SUMM-ee-lux, etc.

 

This may help:

 

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the

official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other

possibility.

 

As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had

some room for improvement and has accepted a 5-year phase-in plan that would

become known as "Euro-English".

 

In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c".

 

Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy.

 

The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of "k". This should klear up

konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter.

 

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when

the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words

like fotograf 20% shorter.

 

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be

expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are

possible.

 

Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have

always ben a deterent to akurate speling.

 

Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent "e" in the

languag is disgrasful and it should go away.

 

By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing

"th" with "z" and "w" with "v".

 

During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords

kontaining "ou" and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensibl

riten styl.

 

Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza.

 

Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.

 

Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.

 

If zis mad you smil, pleas pas on to oza pepl.

[colin_elliott]

"Optishe Weirker"

 

Would that not be more correctly "Optisher Veirker"?

 

With the German dipthong ei rule, one should correctly pronounce Rollei as Rolleye.....yet so many refer to it as Rollee and that has always concerned me.

[charles_stobbs3]

Thank goodness for Kodak, Argus, and Ansco.

[bill_thorlin]

David Killick - now that our much loved government has given English away to the EU this will save about one billion quid on translation costs so do you think we can get our rebate back ?

[evan_litvin2]

Like-Uh

[deecy]

>>But the quesion now is: is "Leitz" pronounced "light-z" or "leet-z"??<<

 

There's a description of super-punctilious people who, when you ask them what time it is, tell you how to make a watch.

In German, "EI" is pronounced eye, and "IE" is pronounced ee as in "eel". Leica is pronounced in German (and in English), "like-a".

Case closed, for Heaven's sake!

 

Merry christmas to all!

 

Tom

[dan flanders]

There used to be a firm in San Francisco named A. LIEtz that purveyed engineering supplies and equipment . I have often had users of an A. Lietz surveyor's transit vehemently insist that it was made by the same outfit that makes the famous camera; and it was especially confusing after Wild (who also made surveying equipment) bought E. Leitz, GMBH.

[nzdavid]

Bill, I am actually in New Zealand (often pronounced New Zild). I've also lived in the UK and

Germany, and a US friend sent me the Eurospeak guide. What an international lot we are!

[andy_piper2]

Lei-Ca comes from the phrase LEItz CAmera, so if you know how to pronounce Leitz, Leica is

easy.

 

Leitz is pronounced as in the Hollywood cry: "Leitz(lights), Camera, Action". Which would

have been a good advertising headline for the concern back when Leitz was still part of the

equation.

[colin_elliott]

Andy

 

"L.C.A" That would be the "Leica A" I presume?

[yong_shin1]

I was greeted by a receptionist at a hotel in Australia. She was wearing a name tag with "Leica" engraved on it. I was so intrigued and took a snapshot (of course with her permission). She pronounced her name "Lisa" contrary to my preconception.

 

As for the "Leica" leica, you can ask anyone who have some basic knowledge about German language, to read it (don't forget to tell him/her that it is a German word.)

[Rob F.]

"SUMM-ee-cron, SUMM-ee-lux," David? OK, maybe in German. Brian Bower says, "Sue-MY-cron, Sue-MY-lux."

 

You say, SuMM-ee-cron, I say, Summ-ih-cron. Let's call the whole thing off.

[frank uhlig]

Pronounce Leica as you would formica ... countertops ...

[mukul_dube]

Given the well known origin (which Dan has explained again) of the name, there should be no doubt. I have, however, heard the mysterious but tempting "Leaker" more than once. Besides, if you look around you will often find the spelling "Lieca"; not that I know how that should be pronounced. If, like many males, you associate femaleness with beauty, the obvious answer is "Like Her".