How do you pronounce.....?!?!?!?!?!

[Alex_B]

For instance, we really don't have a "ts-" sound for "Zeiss" like there is in German. So it takes the American "zzzz" sound, which is a bit more drawn out. Zz-ice.

Yes, but this is often the case that names are mispronounced. And we are trying to find the correct pronounciation, not the most common mispronounciation

Edinburgh, Salisbury and Dartmouth are usually violently mispronounced by
Germans, not to speak of the French ... but still there is a more or less correct pronounciation (in all its local variations of course).

Or take Milngavie near Glasgow :mrgreen:

 

[frXnz kafka]

I think, for application purposes at least, the way the people around you pronounce a word is more important than the actual pronunciation.

For example, I've never met any that didn't pronounce Nikon with an "eye" sound. If I started saying Nee-Kon, I'd be sure to get some weird looks.

 

[Alex_B]

If I started saying Nee-Kon, I'd be sure to get some weird looks.

Which does not hurt, does it?

For those words for which I know the pronunciation, I try to do it right. No matter if I get strange looks by Germans, Americans, Brits, or whomever... I even enjoy it and people usually know what you mean. Sometimes they even start thinking.

 

[LaFoto]

So.....................!
All those who plan to travel to the Germany Meet-Up next year in May (in six months from now!!!), get prepared to us saying "Nee-kon", whenever we speak the word. And please, train your faces already. And don't give us funny looks THEN. You are being warned: Nee-kon is our way of pronounciation :greenpbl:

And Ts-ICE.

And Lie-car. Heehee

 

[shundaroni]

I'm going to say that the "correct" pronunciation is defined by regional standards. Those pronunciations may not be the original ones, but introducing strange sounds to a dialect in an effort to conform to the original language might just hedge on being pretentious. Haha.

But, that's generally the case when someone has to preface a correction with the phrase, "Well, technically..."

I think there is definitely a difference between "correct" and "original" though. Unless, of course, Nikon has only copyrighted the pronunciation "Nee-kon" and Zeiss "Ts-ICE."

 

[Alex_B]

OK, lets put it this way, my name is Alex(ander) in the German pronounciation. This is my name, and there is only one correct and/or original way to pronounce it.

Of course, however, I will never complain if people pronounce it English or even French. I really don't care. And when speaking English myself I even happen to pronounce my name English.
So it is certainly acceptable and OK and does no harm, but it is not correct strictly speaking.

 

[Alex_B]

but introducing strange sounds to a dialect in an effort to conform to the original language

If you know the pronounciation, then that will not happen, then you will just pronounce it approximately right

Of course I would not advise anyone pronouncing brand names like Voigtländer correctly because for most that would end up in utter failure

 

[Stranger]

American here, I also go with N-eye-con

 

[pantherlax]

In Japanese its pronounced:
Ni-kon.
bo-keh, which is right, but the pronouciation should techinically be spelled "bo-ke" with an accent thing over the "e", like how they have it in Pokemon. lol.

I think. I'm Japanese and fluent, but more in English...

 

[ZedU54]

...I'm American, too, but I am one of those people who tries to remember where a name comes from and pronounce it accordingly. Although I, too, am used to the Americanized pronunciation of 'Nikon', I wouldn't have a problem pronouncing it the other way. You would also hear me pronounce 'Zeiss' with the beginning ts-sound, because it is, after all, a German name, and I can speak passable German. (In the same vein, but outside the realm of photography, you would also hear me pronouncing the brand name 'Braun' as in German, in other words, similar to 'brown', rather than the Anglicized 'brawn'.) And 'Zenit', being Russian, I would pronounce something like 'ZEH-neet' (or perhaps 'ZYEH-neet').

...'jeder Topf hat seinen Deckel'...

 

[plentygood]

I'm American and I've always thought it was n-eye-con because that's even how the commercials here say it, but I guess that could just be an americanization they realize they can't defeat.

 

[castrol]

N-eye-con.

Changing that would get me the same looks as when I attempt to use the
words, boot and bonnet.

 

[Alex_B]

N-eye-con.

Changing that would get me the same looks as when I attempt to use the
words, boot and bonnet.

I just wonder why you are all so afraid of looks! :mrgreen:

 

[jstuedle]

I just wonder why you are all so afraid of looks! :mrgreen:

Alex, if your avatar has A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-g to do with your appearance, then "looks" wouldn't be an issue for me either.

 

[JerryPH]

So do all the Canadian photographers I work with or encounter.

Yup, same as I always heard it here. In Japan, I heard it only pronouced as "NEE-KON" and "NEE-KORE". Since it is their product, I've kinda adopted that way now.