Tamiya pronounciation

[Petrolhead 0]

Ok, so do you guys pronounce tamiya tam-e-ya or ter-me-er. I say it the first way, but most people in my lhs prononce it the second way. Just curious.

[racingdowantheM64 0]

I pronounce it tam-e-ya

[scoobs 0]

I say:

TAM-ee-er

Although both me dad and the american voice-over dude on the old 80's Tamiya promotional vids say:

ta-MEE-er

But then me dad also says: soo-BAR-oo so what does he know..! []

[Jeckler 1]

I used to pronounce it Tah-my-ya, now I say Tah-me-ah. Not sure why an err sound would be used.

[Jeckler 1]

I just found this while bored. Makes the second way sound correct:

quote:On Romanizing Japanese: One problem we always face is how to convert names in the credits into English. While Japanese has fewer sounds than English, it is often impossible to write them in English so that an English-speaker will be able to read and pronounce them properly. Over the years, many Romanization Systems have been developed and promoted. The system we use in the credits is one that borrows from many of the better ones, and aims to make pronounciation as easy as possible, but also keeps typographical elegance in mind.

Our experience in Japan has been that the Japanese go to great lengths to try to pronounce our names properly, so we thought we would try to help return the favor by including this short primer on Japanese sounds. What follows is a very general quick-and-dirty guide; there are many subtleties that are beyond its scope.

Japanese syllables consist (with one exception, the terminal consonant "n") of consonant-vowel combinations. So, for example, there is no sound consisting of just an "r," and "Verdandi" becomes "Ve-RU-da-n-di" in Japanese. Each syllable takes the same amount of time to pronounce, and is almost always pronounced the same way, unlike English where each letter can have several pronounciations (the famous joke being that "Ghoti" is pronounced "Fish" -- as in "enouGH", "wOmen" and "FicTIon").

There are 5 vowels, romanized as "a," "i," "u," "e," and "o." They are pronounced roughly as follows: "a" as the "a" in "fAther," "i" as the vowel in "bEAt," "u" as the vowel in "bOOk," "e" as in "Edward," and "o" as in "gOal." Think of the vowels as having a little tiny "h" on the back of them.

Once you pronounce the vowels correctly, you'll almost certainly do a reasonable job with the consonants that preceed them. Although the Japanese consonants are in general not as strong as English ones, the sounds are similar. There are some irregularities; in these cases the initial consonant becomes two consonants when romanized as a guide to the proper pronounciation.

The famous Japanese "r" is actually midway between the English "r" and "l," and the Japanese have trouble telling the difference between the two (thus the infamous "flied lice"). In almost all cases, we use "r" to represent this sound, unless the owner of the name has expressed a preference.

The only consonant that stands by itself is "n," which has several different but similar sounds based on the context in which it appears. It is transliterated as either "n" or "m," whichever is more appropriate.

One thing to be aware of is that Japanese makes frequent use of long vowels; these are double-length syllables with the vowel sound extended. In our romanization, these are represented as a double vowel, although occasionally we will represent "oo" as "ou" for esthetic reasons. When you see one of these long vowels, just let the vowel hang in your throat a little longer than you think you should and you'll probably get it right.

Japanese people never expect English-speakers to get long vowels right, so your effort will be noticed.

Putting it all together, "Fujishima Kousuke" is pronounced "Fuh-jee-shee-mah Kooh-sue-keh."

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[tarznatz 0]

I say "Ta-my-ah" and will never change no matter what anyone says![]

[Floyd 2]

Same with me tarznatz . From the first time I saw the name it has been Tah-my-ah and thats how I will say it to the day I die [].

[Stefan(2) 89]

ta-mie-ja .... mmm a well, everybody usually understand what

i am trying to say [8D]

[Petrolhead 0]

floyd and tarznatz, when you say the my, is it pronounced like the word my?

[Scorchio 139]

Tam-e-ya here but I've heard Tam-ya down the LHS. I notice the guy in the old videos sais Tar-mi-yar.

[Martin71RS(2) 0]

Ta-me-a(h)

does it for me....

[8)]

guess it all depends on where you are from......

[jozza 1]

Tam-eeh-ya. But then I'm from Essex, of Cockney parentage so I don't s'pose my pronunciation's quite like what it should be []

[Scorchio 139]

quote:Originally posted by jozza

Tam-eeh-ya. But then I'm from Essex, of Cockney parentage so I don't s'pose my pronunciation's quite like what it should be []

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LOL We ave the same roots and more than likely accent too, but its me spellin what aint proper. []

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Interesting working in a University language school, you can grab a proffessor in Japanese []

True western pronounciation should be TA-MI-YA (almost TAMYA) litterally quick as you like, he read this and said we are wrong to use AHs & ARs as that would imply to a Japanese person that the word has double A and they would write it TAAMIYAA or TAAMIYER (I.E. Japanese for computer is computaa). Oh I hope I said that right, any Japanese members to confirm this? But I don't think the Japanese would be offended by anybodys pronounciation of it, after all I get called FIRIP every day.

[jimbob4000 0]

i say tam - ee - a

Adam

[Floyd 2]

quote:Originally posted by petrolhead

floyd and tarznatz, when you say the my, is it pronounced like the word my?

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Yes []

[fury_dice(2) 0]

quote:Originally posted by jimbob4000

i say tam - ee - a

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'Let's call the whole thing off...'

[][]

[RedFrits 0]

I usaly pronounce it as: "ki-o-show" but most people understand me better when I just say Tamiya [] []

[jimbob4000 0]

quote:Originally posted by fury_dice

quote:Originally posted by jimbob4000

i say tam - ee - a

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'Let's call the whole thing off...'

[][]

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Have you got something against me[]

[fury_dice(2) 0]

quote:Originally posted by jimbob4000

quote:Originally posted by fury_dice

quote:Originally posted by jimbob4000

i say tam - ee - a

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'Let's call the whole thing off...'

[][]

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Have you got something against me[]

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LOL - not at all []

It was a reference to a (very old) song - 'you say tomayto, I say tomato' etc. which ends with the line 'let's call the whole thing off'. Seemed humorous at the time...

'I'll get me coat...' []

[Petrolhead 0]

is that another end to another old song? ill get me coat? []

[c_a_r_t_e_r 0]

quote:Originally posted by Scorchio

Tam-e-ya here but I've heard Tam-ya down the LHS. I notice the guy in the old videos sais Tar-mi-yar.

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Potato Potata! []

Tam-e-ya for me too, but isn't the guy in the old videos American? They say Jag-waar anyway, so there's no hope there! [)]

Tim

[El Mexican 1]

TAH-MEE-YA

[mymonsterbeetleisbroken 16]

tam-ee-a is the way i say it...

this topic could last forever! [][]

[mr_pushrod 5]

Tam-e-ya for me too but I know I'm probably very wrong. To me it just sounds the best out of the possible pronunciations although my boss at my LHS insists on Tam-i-ya.

[Wireless 34]

Very interesting. UKClaire asked this very question whilst at the Tamiya HQ and the correct pronunciation is tah-mee-ya rather than t'meeya. Only ever heard the t'meer used in the USA - must be solely an Americanism.

Interestingly, Kyosho is pronounced Kee-oh-sho and not kye-oh-sho.