65 Pronouncing Japanese names (Motorsport Pronunciation Guide)
Description
This article is from the Motorsport FAQ, by A H Henry bspahh@midge.bath.ac.uk with numerous contributions by others.
65 Pronouncing Japanese names (Motorsport Pronunciation Guide)
In Japanese, the family name is spoken first followed by the personal
name. The most important thing to remember, though, is that there is
no stress in Japanese, and that each letter -- ma, tsu, shi, ta --
must get the same amount of time. (Otherwise you run into problems,
like calling your aunt (obasan) an old woman (obaasan).)
Hiro Matsushita | mahtsoo-shtah (very faint "oo") he-row
Hiro is the grandson of the industrialist that started Matsushita
Industries. Their products, when not OEM'd, are marked as
mah-tsoo-shee-tah worldwide. When he started in ICs, Hiro tried to
explain to people that the pronunciation used to market the
products was different that what they actually called themselves in
the family, and that his name should be pronounced mah-tsoo-shtah.
Panasonic asked him to tell the press that no, it should be
pronounced mah-tsoo-shee-tah. Hiro then told Paul Page to pronounce
it however he liked to. Personally, I like Derek Daly's version:
mah-<spit all over Bobby Unser>-ta. ]
Ukyo Katayama | kah-tah-yah-mah oo-kyohh
|
Aguri Suzuki | sooz-kee ahg-ree
|
Nissan | Kneess-ahn (American). Niss-ann (British).
| Kneessss-ahn (Japanese).
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