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Re: "karaoke" Reader Poll
Posted By: Adam Bomb, on host 129.237.2.82
Date: Thursday, June 14, 2007, at 14:29:53
In Reply To: "karaoke" Reader Poll posted by gremlinn on Wednesday, June 13, 2007, at 04:33:56:

> I had to answer "Kare-ee-OH-kee" because that's what an online lookup suggested. There should have been a choice such as "kah-rah-oh-kay" which would be close to how the word is said in Japanese, the "kay" being kept short.
>
> It's an interesting word, the "kara" part being Japanese and the "oke" being an abbreviated loanword from the English "orchestra". We don't pronounce that as "ore-kee-stra" (as far as I know), and it's weird how it got changed by being imported and then passed back to English speakers.
>
> Or maybe it's not so weird. We did the same thing to "kamikaze" ("kah-muh-kah-zee"). Yet "anime" is not "ani-mee" -- why not?

I have been hearing Japanese and Japanese-sounding names mispronounced on TV a lot recently. I've heard "Naruto" pronounced "Nuh-ROO-to", "Hanako" pronounced "Hanna-ko" and "Garu" pronounced "Gare-u". Sometimes it bothers me that they do that.

Incidentally, one of my favorite movies is Princess MOH-NOH-NOH-KAY.

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