Where did No-KI'-a originate?

[Guest]

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Where did the pronunciation of Nokia with an accent on the second syllable
come from? Every Finn I've consulted confirms that the correct accentuation
is NO'-ki-a, and Nokia personnel in the U.S, seem to know that. The city of
Nokia, Finland is much older than the company. Verizon personnel seem to
universally pronounce the name incorrectly. Others seem to be divided on
which syllable to accentuate. At least the pronunciation can be set
straight on this newsgroup.

 

[Guest]

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Slobby Don <reply@thru.ng> wrote:
> Where did the pronunciation of Nokia with an accent on the second syllable
> come from? Every Finn I've consulted confirms that the correct accentuation
> is NO'-ki-a, and Nokia personnel in the U.S, seem to know that. The city of
> Nokia, Finland is much older than the company. Verizon personnel seem to
> universally pronounce the name incorrectly. Others seem to be divided on
> which syllable to accentuate. At least the pronunciation can be set
> straight on this newsgroup.

Americans don't know how to pronounce the name. Most Americans also think
Nokia is a Japanese name.

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[Guest]

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Steven J Sobol wrote:
> Americans don't know how to pronounce the name. Most Americans also think
> Nokia is a Japanese name.

Also, many Americans don't realize that first syllable accentuation is the
norm in Japanese! Yet, I've never heard anyone say To-KI'-o instead of
TO'-ki-o. It works both ways I suppose. In the movie Tora! Tora! Tora!,
the Japanese said NE'-va-da when referring to the U.S.S. Nevada.

 

[Bohica]

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"Slobby Don" <reply@thru.ng> wrote in message
news:Wysqc.501$Io1.7@twister.socal.rr.com...
> Steven J Sobol wrote:
> > Americans don't know how to pronounce the name. Most Americans also
think
> > Nokia is a Japanese name.
>
> Also, many Americans don't realize that first syllable accentuation is the
> norm in Japanese! Yet, I've never heard anyone say To-KI'-o instead of
> TO'-ki-o. It works both ways I suppose. In the movie Tora! Tora! Tora!,
> the Japanese said NE'-va-da when referring to the U.S.S. Nevada.
>


And people from other countries/cultures pronounce American names and words
correctly? Doubt it...

 

[Guest]

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BOHICA wrote:
> "Slobby Don" <reply@thru.ng> wrote in message
>> Also, many Americans don't realize that first syllable accentuation is
the
>> norm in Japanese! Yet, I've never heard anyone say To-KI'-o instead of
>> TO'-ki-o. It works both ways I suppose. In the movie Tora! Tora! Tora!,
>> the Japanese said NE'-va-da when referring to the U.S.S. Nevada.
>>
> And people from other countries/cultures pronounce American names and
words
> correctly? Doubt it...

You're right they don't. If the phonemes exist in the foreigners' language
there is really no excuse. When they don't, the entire word can be messed
up. "Lingerie" is probably the most terribly pronounced French word in
American English where the vowels are usually screwed up. The Brits are
more likely to get it right. Spanish speakers tend to accent the last
syllable on foreign words whether it belongs there or not. "El Canadá" for
example.

"Nokia" is a different situation. About half of us pronounce it correctly.
I've even heard people use both pronunciations in the same sentence!

 

[Guest]

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"Slobby Don" <reply@thru.ng> wrote in message news:Wysqc.501$Io1.7@twister.socal.rr.com...
> Steven J Sobol wrote:
> > Americans don't know how to pronounce the name. Most Americans also think
> > Nokia is a Japanese name.
>
> Also, many Americans don't realize that first syllable accentuation is the
> norm in Japanese! Yet, I've never heard anyone say To-KI'-o instead of
> TO'-ki-o. It works both ways I suppose. In the movie Tora! Tora! Tora!,
> the Japanese said NE'-va-da when referring to the U.S.S. Nevada.
>

There's almost no accenting at all in Japanese.
With limited exceptions, all syllables receive equal stress.
That's unnatural for native English speakers.
It causes us to hear something like "NE-va-da" when the speaker
actually omits accents, saying something more like "NE-VA-DA".

Further, Tokyo is a two-syllable word, not three.
Try to say "TO-KYO".
---JRC---
..

 

[Guest]

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John R. Copeland wrote:
> "Slobby Don" <reply@thru.ng> wrote in message
> news:Wysqc.501$Io1.7@twister.socal.rr.com...
>>Yet, I've never heard anyone say To-KI'-o instead of
>> TO'-ki-o. It works both ways I suppose. In the movie Tora! Tora! Tora!,
Ok, TO'kio. But wait a "y" sound is a semi-vowel. A dipthong is counted as
a single syllable, even if it ony slightly sounds as two run together

> There's almost no accenting at all in Japanese.
> With limited exceptions, all syllables receive equal stress.
> That's unnatural for native English speakers.
> It causes us to hear something like "NE-va-da" when the speaker
> actually omits accents, saying something more like "NE-VA-DA".
>
That's true of French also, but there is a bias toward finals. Equal accent
is a linguistic improbability unless the language is monosyllabic. There
will always be a bias. Nevada, Sapporo, Nagano all have a bias towards the
first in Japanese. The language would sound much flatter than it does if
there were no accent at all. Those trisyllables definitely sound more like
"cupola" than "payola" Speakers of languages where all words with the same
syllable count are accented pretty much the same probably don't even realize
there is a bias built into their speech.

 

[Guest]

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"Slobby Don" <reply@thru.ng> wrote in message news:YvWqc.1068$Io1.299@twister.socal.rr.com...
> John R. Copeland wrote:
> > "Slobby Don" <reply@thru.ng> wrote in message
> > news:Wysqc.501$Io1.7@twister.socal.rr.com...
> >>Yet, I've never heard anyone say To-KI'-o instead of
> >> TO'-ki-o. It works both ways I suppose. In the movie Tora! Tora! Tora!,
> Ok, TO'kio. But wait a "y" sound is a semi-vowel. A dipthong is counted as
> a single syllable, even if it ony slightly sounds as two run together
>
> > There's almost no accenting at all in Japanese.
> > With limited exceptions, all syllables receive equal stress.
> > That's unnatural for native English speakers.
> > It causes us to hear something like "NE-va-da" when the speaker
> > actually omits accents, saying something more like "NE-VA-DA".
> >
> That's true of French also, but there is a bias toward finals. Equal accent
> is a linguistic improbability unless the language is monosyllabic. There
> will always be a bias. Nevada, Sapporo, Nagano all have a bias towards the
> first in Japanese. The language would sound much flatter than it does if
> there were no accent at all. Those trisyllables definitely sound more like
> "cupola" than "payola" Speakers of languages where all words with the same
> syllable count are accented pretty much the same probably don't even realize
> there is a bias built into their speech.
>
>
Germanic and Romance languages (of which English is a splendid blend)
both are heavily accented.
In fact, my Italian skiing buddy "insists"to me that Italian and English
are really the same language, except that English puts accents near
the front of words, whereas Italian puts accents near the end of words.

But my Japanese friends all assure me that most Japanese words are
completely unaccented. We whose ears are attuned to accented syllables
are tricked into believing we hear "odd" accents when all syllables
are spoken with equal emphasis.
---JRC---

 

[Guest]

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John R. Copeland wrote:
> "Slobby Don" <reply@thru.ng> wrote in message

> But my Japanese friends all assure me that most Japanese words are
> completely unaccented. We whose ears are attuned to accented syllables
> are tricked into believing we hear "odd" accents when all syllables
> are spoken with equal emphasis.

As I said THEY believe that because all words are accented the same to them.
You can't go by what the Japanese believe about their own language, but have
to look to the outside to determine where the emphasis really is. When
compared to OTHER languages there is a strong bias toward the initial
syllable in many Japanese words. It is the Japanese ears that are tricked
into believing in equal emphasis. Initial emphasis is common also in
Finnish and some of the Slavic languages. BTW, Italian has no particular
bias towards final syllables, penult and antepenult are common.

--
Slobby Don