Re: pronunciation of Toyota

On 17 Jul 2008 11:53:58 -0700, R H Draney <dadoctah@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

RCK@xxxxxxxxxxx filted:

Is the explanation perhaps that the Japanese sound represented with a
'y' in this romanization is a consonant, while many English speakers
see it as the second half of a diphthong? All of the responses to
this question I have seen so far are something like "toy-oh-ta", with
no consonantal y in the second syllable at all. But perhaps some BBC
and CNN announcers actually say something more like "toh-yoh-tah". I
don't speak Japanese, but I'm suspecting that this might be a bit
closer to the Japanese pronunciation than "toy-oh-ta".

I do know that the second kanji character in "Toyota" is sometimes
romanized as "ta" and sometimes as "da", so there may be something in
the English pronunciation of the final 't' that doesn't sound right to
Japanese ears either.

I think we've pretty much hit on a number of things that would make the North
American pronunciation of "Toyota" unrecognizable in its land of origin...to
recap:

1. Eng "toy-o" vs Jp "to-yo"
2. second "t" reduced to something like "d"
3. schwa for final vowel
[...]

There's an American joke about a "toy Yoda" that gives an idea of
their pronunciation. Other English speakers would have more of a "T"
sound for the almost-"D".
--
Richard Bollard
Canberra Australia

To email, I'm at AMT not spAMT.
.

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