Pronouncing "Zuiko" correctly

[Pete_CSCS]

About 10 or more years ago on Four Thirds forum there was a thread discussing this topic. a lot of people jumped in to give their opinion, and the consensus concluded that the correct pronunciation of Zuiko was zoo-WEEK-co (three syllables - accent on the second). I've been pronouncing it that way ever since, in front of Olympus sales reps etc. and nobody has corrected me.

Now I just started watching this new video and the Asian model corrects the photographer on how to pronounce the name. Watch at about 1:10 into it.

Now it's two syllables and the accent is on the 1st? Is this correct? What say you?

--

'When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at
his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it.
Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two,
and I know it was not that blow that did it,
but all that had gone before.'
-- Jacob Riis (1849 - 1914)

Stay Well,
Pete K.

 

[nick webster]

About 10 or more years ago on Four Thirds forum there was a thread discussing this topic. a lot of people jumped in to give their opinion, and the consensus concluded that the correct pronunciation of Zuiko was zoo-WEEK-co (three syllables - accent on the second). I've been pronouncing it that way ever since, in front of Olympus sales reps etc. and nobody has corrected me.

Now I just started watching this new video and the Asian model corrects the photographer on how to pronounce the name. Watch at about 1:10 into it.

Now it's two syllables and the accent is on the 1st? Is this correct? What say you?

Should it rhyme with the english word for bottom - ar$e or the yank word - a$$ ? Or somewhere in between ?

Depends where you come from

I've always pronounced Zuiko as zweeko but I don't speak Japanese - just recall it being pronounced like that many many years ago - back in the '80s ;-)

Nick

 

[Pete_CSCS]

Maybe it's like the name "Nikon." The Japanese and most of the world pronounce it one way, and most in America pronounce it a different way.

 

[D Meredith]

Maybe it's like the name "Nikon." The Japanese and most of the world pronounce it one way, and most in America pronounce it a different way.

I was just thinking that. I remember a Financial Times staff photographer getting upset at my reference to his Nikkors (pronounced knickers). It was a wind up after he corrected my reference to his NickOn.

He used NiKores

 

[Pete_CSCS]

Maybe it's like the name "Nikon." The Japanese and most of the world pronounce it one way, and most in America pronounce it a different way.

I was just thinking that. I remember a Financial Times staff photographer getting upset at my reference to his Nikkors (pronounced knickers). It was a wind up after he corrected my reference to his NickOn.

He used NiKores

We all have the "kon" part the same.

 

[pannumon]

Maybe it's like the name "Nikon." The Japanese and most of the world pronounce it one way, and most in America pronounce it a different way.

Short answer: Zuiko and Nikon are pronounced as they are written.

Some explanation:

For the most of the people the (more or less) living in Western countries, the correct pronunciation is trivial. The thing is that in English language the written alphabets do not correspond to the phonetic alphabets in similar way than what most of the languages of the Western world. Also, I believe that in the English the correspondence is irregular. This makes it difficult for English speakers to pronounce these words properly.

In the case of Japanese words being written with Latin alphabets, it's logical that they are written as they are pronounced, and vice versa. I believe that English the words were originally written as they are said as well. However, the spoken language has changed a lot since, while the written language has not. This explains the discrepancy.

 

[windsprite]

About 10 or more years ago on Four Thirds forum there was a thread discussing this topic. a lot of people jumped in to give their opinion, and the consensus concluded that the correct pronunciation of Zuiko was zoo-WEEK-co (three syllables - accent on the second). I've been pronouncing it that way ever since, in front of Olympus sales reps etc. and nobody has corrected me.

Now I just started watching this new video and the Asian model corrects the photographer on how to pronounce the name. Watch at about 1:10 into it.

Now it's two syllables and the accent is on the 1st? Is this correct? What say you?

It's actually four syallables -- zu - i - ko - u, and the Japanese don't really accent their words the same way English speakers do; theoretically, there should be equal emphasis on all four syllables, but it doesn't necessarily sound that way to us.

Saori in the video is Japanese. She pronounces it correctly at 1:19 but then she chops off the final "u" at 1:26, maybe because she thought it would be easier for Jimmy to pronounce it that way. Anyway, if you want the correct Japanese pronunciation, it's at 1:19.

If you say it as two syllables, zwee - koh, putting a slight accent on the first syllable and stretching out the second, that should get you pretty close.

Julie

 

[tiksom]

It sounds natural (the way it is written), not americanized (nigh-con, ay-key-ya, lone-gee-ness...).

If how the lady says it is the original pronunciation, people should use it out of respect to the original language. It is nevertheless important to communicate even if pronunciation suffers (I would probably say "nigh-con" while in USA, or risk not being understood).

 

[jeffharris]

zoo-EEkoh

Or Olympus.

 

[mostlyboringphotog]

Maybe it's like the name "Nikon." The Japanese and most of the world pronounce it one way, and most in America pronounce it a different way.

Maybe, it should have been spelled Nikkon...

Let's just not start "less filling; more taste", though ;-)

 

[jeffharris]

Maybe it's like the name "Nikon." The Japanese and most of the world pronounce it one way, and most in America pronounce it a different way.

Maybe, it should have been spelled Nikkon...

its pronounced nEE-kōn. In the US, it’s NIGH-con

Let's just not start "less filling; more taste", though ;-)

Really…

 

[Pete_CSCS]

About 10 or more years ago on Four Thirds forum there was a thread discussing this topic. a lot of people jumped in to give their opinion, and the consensus concluded that the correct pronunciation of Zuiko was zoo-WEEK-co (three syllables - accent on the second). I've been pronouncing it that way ever since, in front of Olympus sales reps etc. and nobody has corrected me.

Now I just started watching this new video and the Asian model corrects the photographer on how to pronounce the name. Watch at about 1:10 into it.

Now it's two syllables and the accent is on the 1st? Is this correct? What say you?

It's actually four syallables -- zu - i - ko - u,

And to my ears it sound like her pronunciation is two syllables.

and the Japanese don't really accent their words the same way English speakers do; theoretically, there should be equal emphasis on all four syllables, but it doesn't necessarily sound that way to us.

Saori in the video is Japanese. She pronounces it correctly at 1:19 but then she chops off the final "u" at 1:26, maybe because she thought it would be easier for Jimmy to pronounce it that way. Anyway, if you want the correct Japanese pronunciation, it's at 1:19.

If you say it as two syllables, zwee - koh,

I thought she said, Zoo-koh but then I don't know Japanese.

putting a slight accent on the first syllable and stretching out the second, that should get you pretty close.

Julie

 

[bobn2]

Maybe it's like the name "Nikon." The Japanese and most of the world pronounce it one way, and most in America pronounce it a different way.

Maybe, it should have been spelled Nikkon...

its pronounced nEE-kōn. In the US, it’s NIGH-con

The capital double 'E' overemphasises the stress and length of the 'i' sound. It's like 'nick' not like 'knee'. As Julie pointed out, in Japanese there are no stressed syllables.

 

[Chris Noble]

Now I just started watching this new video and the Asian model corrects the photographer on how to pronounce the name. Watch at about 1:10 into it.

Now it's two syllables and the accent is on the 1st? Is this correct? What say you?

She says "Zoo-ee-ko" twice, with a slight accent on the "zoo" and a stronger accent on the "ko".

It's a bit subtle because accenting in Japanese is somewhat flexible, depending on the intention of the speaker.

I've spent a lot of time in Japan, saying words constructed that way and having them said to me.

 

[Jacques Cornell]

I lived in Japan for 12 years and speak Japanese fluently. Background: Japanese does not stress syllables with increased volume the way English does. All syllables are spoken with the same volume. It does, though, have rising and falling pitch. In "Zuiko", the "i" has an elevated pitch, which, to American ears, will sound like added stress.

"Zuiko" is technically three syllables but is commonly spoken as two syllables - "Zui" and "ko". The "Zui" is abbreviated to "Zwi" or "Zwee" where the "ee" is not drawn out as it would be in English. The "o" sound in Japanese can be short or long. The long version is written in the Roman alphabet as "oh" or "ou". The latter is more appropriate because the elongated "o" sound ends with a "u" or "ooh" sound, where the lips form a tight circle. However, the elongated "o" is still spoken as a single syllable, just slightly longer.

For native speakers of English, it may be helpful to think of "Zuiko" as "Zwee" and "koh". That'll get you close enough.

 

[windsprite]

About 10 or more years ago on Four Thirds forum there was a thread discussing this topic. a lot of people jumped in to give their opinion, and the consensus concluded that the correct pronunciation of Zuiko was zoo-WEEK-co (three syllables - accent on the second). I've been pronouncing it that way ever since, in front of Olympus sales reps etc. and nobody has corrected me.

Now I just started watching this new video and the Asian model corrects the photographer on how to pronounce the name. Watch at about 1:10 into it.

Now it's two syllables and the accent is on the 1st? Is this correct? What say you?

It's actually four syallables -- zu - i - ko - u,

And to my ears it sound like her pronunciation is two syllables.

and the Japanese don't really accent their words the same way English speakers do; theoretically, there should be equal emphasis on all four syllables, but it doesn't necessarily sound that way to us.

Saori in the video is Japanese. She pronounces it correctly at 1:19 but then she chops off the final "u" at 1:26, maybe because she thought it would be easier for Jimmy to pronounce it that way. Anyway, if you want the correct Japanese pronunciation, it's at 1:19.

If you say it as two syllables, zwee - koh,

I thought she said, Zoo-koh but then I don't know Japanese.

I think she told him it's not "zoo-koh" and then she went on to demonstrate the correct pronunciation.

putting a slight accent on the first syllable and stretching out the second, that should get you pretty close.

Julie

 

[Pete_CSCS]

 

[Pete_CSCS]

... for me at least!

I got "A"s when I took German in high school and college, but I still felt like I struggled with it and never really learned it. I did better writing it (I'm more of a visual person) than I did speaking it or listening to it.

Thank you for your input which is pretty much in line with Julie's. I guess Olympus & Nikon sales reps don't care how you say it as long as you're interested in buying it.

 

[BostonC]

If you copy/paste ズイコー into http://www.bing.com/translator and click the "speaker" symbol in the link, you can hear the correct pronunciation. The Japanese sound of "ko" at the end has a hard stop to it, unlike English. The google translator does it much worse interestingly.

 

[Walt Palmer]

Maybe it's like the name "Nikon." The Japanese and most of the world pronounce it one way, and most in America pronounce it a different way.

I was just thinking that. I remember a Financial Times staff photographer getting upset at my reference to his Nikkors (pronounced knickers). It was a wind up after he corrected my reference to his NickOn.

He used NiKores

We all have the "kon" part the same.

Actually not. I have a good friend, Midwesterner raised in Taiwan until mid teens. I asked and she said I should put a "g" on the end. Its pronounced Knee-Cong.