Thanks to all of you for some very interesting input on my question. I think we're just going to ditch any idea of correcting our salesman's idea as to the way Toyota is pronounced. We're just going to call it "THE" car until we find a suitable name for our new 2006 silver Prius, which we'll pick up after Jan. 1, 2006. It will be a name that reflects its purr-sonality, of course... Assuming others out there name their automobiles, any suggestions for our new baby?
I work for Panasonic now, but we used the Matsushita name until this year. It was always confusing for us and our customers, but the common pronunciation was similar to "Maht-soosh'-da." fd
haha, 25%- i am a yankee doodle dandy... i didn't know they also said 'bubbler' in MA. thought it was only a WI thing!
Shi is pronounced as shh in Japanese. It's a soft vowel that seems silent in English. So mat-sushh-da. Mitsubishi is mit-su-beesh. etc.
Nu-Shrike, you know your Japanese well. My wife is from Japan and she is always teaching me thr correct way to pronounce certain words. She thinks I should know more because I'm Japanese American. Well, I'm born and raised in the U.S., so of course my Japanese will be a bit strange.
Actually, the "u" is normally the silent vowel, "i" is always pronounced, just short and soft.. The Anglicized pronunciation of Japanese leaves a lot to be desired, but that's because English speakers simply don't know what to do with silent vowels and the fact that most Japanese words are accented on the first vs. last/middle syllable.. For instance, Toyota is two characters: "Toyo" and "da" (ta), so the proper pronunciation TOYo'da, with accent on the first syllable.. Matsushita is quite often phonetically spelled "matshita", reflecting the silent "u', which I see a lot in Panasonic's own tech notes and things.. Mitsubishi is similarly pronounced with the silent "u", but audible "i"'s
I think I probably say Toyoda, in three syllables, with the accent on the middle one. I think a lot of us turn the T into a D without even noticing it.
