Correct pronunciations?

[andykowalczyk]

<b>Rokkor DiMAGE</b>

<p>

I have never heard either of these names spoken - so I can only guess

at the correct pronunciation.

<p>

I pronounce Rokkor as "Rocker". (sounds like a rock and roll maven).

<p>

DiMAGE throws me for a total loop. If I start with the American

English "image" then it sounds too much like "dim-wit" or "damage".

<p>

If I give it a French spin "dimm ahzh" then it reminds me of getting

my stomach pumped <a

href="http://cancerweb.ncl.ac.uk/cgi-bin/omd?query=lavage&action=Search+OMD">"lavage".</a>

[will_perlis]

I go for "Di" as in dead princess and "Mage" as in Harry Potter.

[yance_marti]

I always though Rokkor should sound like the tv personality "Al Roker" and DiMage was pronounced like your french version.

[christian deichert]

I'm with Yance: ROW-core and dee-MAHJ. Then again, I very rarely ever actually speak to people when I converse about Minolta products; normally I'm typing here or on one of the Minolta mailing lists!

[peter_williams2]

I've always said rock (as in large stones) ore (as in mining).

The DiMAGE is a funny one, I say dimage as if it was damage.

I think it is a joining of DIgital and iMAGE so that makes sense to me. I'm an Aussie and some people round the world reckon we talk funny though ;-)

[john_meehan2]

Dimage is like your French pronunciation. I never say Rokker because I only shoot Ay-Ef len-zes. ;)

[rokkor fan]

I'm for rock-ore and dim-arge. At least we are not Pentax users - how do you pronounce <a href="http://www.pentaxusa.com/products/cameras/camera_overview.cfm?productid=18981">"*ist D"?</a>

[brian_chandler]

Ah, the reading of Japanese proper names is one of the True Mysteries of the Orient.

 

"DiMAGE": Here's the Minolta spec page, with it read as <dimaaju>. It starts with a short 'di' (or 'Dee'), a long 'Ma', and a short 'ju', perhaps expected to be just 'j'.

This is the _Japanese_ pronunciation: foreigners (who are all assumed to be Americans) are assumed to be genetically programmed to know the correct "English" pronunciation, whatever it is.

 

http://konicaminolta.jp/products/consumer/digital_camera/dimage-7_5/spec.html

 

"Rokkor" is a bit easier - here's a bit of history -

http://www.rokkorfiles.com/Lens%20History.html

 

It's named after Rokkou-zan, the mountain in Kobe, with the -or ending that makes it look like a lens name*, so the Japanese pronunciation is <rokko-oru>. If this were the standard katakana version of an English phrase, the phrase would be "rock-core", if that helps.

 

(Incidentally, I've always said "Nick-core", for example. My stiff upper lip prevents me calling them "knickers.")

 

Brian Chandler

 

* As in the "Chandlor", of course

http://imaginatorium.org/stuff/chand95.htm

[larry h.]

Didn't Minolta advertise on USA TV in the 1970's? I seem to remember they did. And I always pronounced the lenses row-core and must have gotten it from somewhere. Was it from TV?

[wyverndude]

Brian: Hey! That's cool! Thanks for the info.

 

If the Japanese pronunciation is "Dee-Mah-ju" then the anglicization of that would be "Dee-Mahj".

[john falkenstine]

I remember Jaguar advertising the Vanden Plas models as being pronounced "Van den Plah" which I found hugely entertaining, inasmuch as "Van den Plas" is a Flemish Name meaning something that could be related to urinating......

[andrew robertson]

Imagine you are playing Dungeons and Dragons, and you encounter an evil wizard. What

would you scream?

 

"Die, Mage!"

 

But since Minolta is a Japanese company, let's apply their rules for pronouncing relevant

words...

 

Minolta = Mi no ru ta

 

rokkor = ro (pause) ko ru (like the above poster said "Rock Ore" but with a 'ru' on the end)

 

dimage = dee ma gay. Dee as in John Dee, the famous medium, as in mama, gay as in

cheerful.

[brian_chandler]

<p>Andrew Robertson writes:<br>

<i>

But since Minolta is a Japanese company, let's apply their rules for pronouncing relevant words... </i>

 

<p>Uh, no. These are not "Minolta's rules" for anything; you are talking about (standard) ways of romanizing Japanese.

 

<p><i>dimage = dee ma gay. Dee as in John Dee, the famous medium, as in mama, gay as in cheerful.</i>

 

<p>That is how "dimage" <i>would</i> be pronounced if a "Japanese" name. But Minolta do not perceive it as a Japanese name; they clearly intend the 'image' bit to be, or be derived from the English/French/etc. word "image". In fact, if you look at the webcite above (if you can read Japanese) you'll see that it is, er, as I said before: 'di - maa - ju' (in standard romanization).

 

<p>Typically, the Japanese approach to writing names in Roman letters is that of a jackdaw on hallucinogenics. Jumble up anything that takes your fancy, add accents, confuse things a bit, chop the descenders off (<a href="http://imaginatorium.org/words/descend.htm">http://imaginatorium.org/words/descend.htm</a>), and never put a proper character set declaration on your web page... On this Minolta page <a href="http://konicaminolta.jp/products/consumer/digital_camera/dimage-session/">http://konicaminolta.jp/products/consumer/digital_camera/dimage-session/</a> you'll see there's a photographer called Ozawa, whose given name is written as "Cyukyo". Not part of any standard system of romanization, so how do you suppose it's read?

[seth_hosler]

To put it simply, if the Japanese are pronouncing it "dimaaju", then it is obviously derived from the French pronunciation of Dimage and not the English pronunciation. I guess that's the answer.

 

The standard English pronunciation (i.e. "dimmage"), always sounded like a bad product name anyway, because who wants to use the word "dim" when talking about a device designed to capture light?

[brian_chandler]

Probably the same people who (around 10 years ago) were boasting that their video cameras had "Fuzzy focus".

 

(Our washing machine at the time said "Neuro & Fuzzy".)

[andykowalczyk]

<a href="http://www.atip.org/public/atip.reports.91/fuzzy-ds.91.html">

JAPANESE ADVANCES IN FUZZY SYSTEMS AND CASE-BASED REASONING </a>

Daniel G. Schwartz

<blockquote>

Numerous commercial products using fuzzy technology are currently

available in Japan, and a few are now being marketed in the US and

Europe. Canon uses a fuzzy controller in the autofocus mechanism of its

new 8mm movie camera. Each of Matsushita, Hitachi,

Sanyo, and Sharp now have their own "fuzzy washing machine,"

</blockquote>

[andrew robertson]

Brian, as somebody who knows Japanese, I assure you that I know about romanization.

[seth_hosler]

Andrew Rpbertson,

 

Perhaps, but "Dimage" is not a Japanese word, remember...

 

(I apologize if you were joking when you suggested that "Dimage" should be pronounced "di - ma - ge"; it's sometimes difficult to detect humour on message boards.)

 

Really, the addition of the syllable "di" to Japanese is a pretty recent development--you could be REALLY old school and call it "ji - ma - ge". hee hee

[douglas_green1]

FYI, Andrew is correct that the Japanese pronunciation of Minolta is in fact: Mee no ROO ta.

 

However, their marketing department anglicanized it so that it was pronounced: Mee NOL ta

 

in their english language commercials.

[seth_hosler]

Douglas,

 

Not just for the commercials, but for the company name as well! Otherwise the logo on your camera would say "MINORUTA". Thank God it doesn't.

 

I'm curious--what's the story behind the name "Minolta" anyway?

[seth_hosler]

I just found the answer to my own question:

 

http://www.righttitle.com/camera/minolta/

 

I hope you all read Japanese!

 

The word "Minoruta" comes from the verb "minoru"--to bear fruit; and "ta"--field/paddy. Fruit-bearing field...not the exciting answer I was hoping for, but pretty typical of Japanese company names.