Pronunciation: Let's start with Fresnel, Lavalier and Hirose

[Matt Davis]

I hit a bit of an awkward moment a while back. Since I was but a tiny little thing, amateur dramatics, film school, work experience et al, Fresnel lamps were called 'FREZ-nel'. And now I'm finding people who say 'fre-NELL' - WTF? Yes, of course. The latter is probably correct.

Let's skip on a decade and what I called a 'tie-clip' mic has now been renamed according to US conventions as a 'Lavalier' or 'Lav' mic - which of course causes much mirth for us Brits - Lav! So scatalogical.

But hold on - is it 'Laval-EAR' or 'La-VAL-ear'? My Francofone friends would probably say 'La-VAL-ee-yeh' - I'm all for applauding American pronunciation for preserving C18th English, but right now I'm thinking 'tie clip' as we can be agreed with the pronunciation and the positioning.

So, talking about microphones, I hit another 'Boggle' moment today, regarding our dear connection friend, the humble Hirose connector.

Since before I can remember, Hirose was pronounced 'High Rose'. Becuase I am a UK based person in the South East of the UK, Richmond Film Services is a regular haunt, and they talk of 'High Rose' as do all people I have met in UK and European trade shows.

So, what's with this 'Hee-ROSH-ee' thing? Never heard this until today. I checked on the all-knowing ever-trusted Google, and also heard 'HEE-ross-ee'.

Any other words we can't agree on how to pronounce?

[Mike Beckett]

Sachtler. :)

[Matt Davis]

Yup - So many say 'SATCH-ler'

I'm in the CH = Loch (as in Loch Ness) camp rather than CH = Match... but I'd say Paris is 'PAR-is' not 'pah-REE' so that destroys that argument. LOL

[Richard Gooderick]

La Cie or Lacey?

[Jonathan Levin]

Le-vin or Li-vin ;-}

[Warren Kawamoto]

Nikon. Lots of people say Nigh-kon, but it's actually knee kon...the name originating from Nippon Kogaku. Here's the correct pronunciation spoken by a Japanese person.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...2/29/Nikon.ogg

Karaoke. It's kah rah oh keh, not carry okay.
http://itsdifferent4girls.com/wp-con...ce-karaoke.mp3

[Bill Davis]

It's as disconcerting a mess as the fact that the same device or cable can be commonly referred to by one name on the US East Coast and have a different common name on the West Coast!

Groups commonly morph pronunciations - and even fundamental meanings of technical terms - all the time.

I get that Lavillier comes from the jewlery the French king gave his mistress, Mme. LaVallier - and that in french her name was obviously said as La-val'-eee-ay. But when it hit the US, it became lav-uh-leer to us. And since hereabouts "lav" caused exactly no one to think about the bathroom - it simple made sense to shorten it.

I live in the southwest US where so many terms derive from cross cultural exchange from south of the border that we just understand that Gila is "Heel-la" and NOBODY really knows or cares whether Coyote comes out as Kai-YOTE-ee or is Kai Yote - (like vote)

I remember one dear friend from New Jersey who came out here - and after a couple of years, took one free class at a local museum when a professor was lecturing and then tried to correct me that the indian spirit dolls widely known as Kachinas that every single person in my family after two generations in the southwest had called (Ka-cheen-ahs) were actually supposed to be pronounced Cat-Seen-ahs.

All I could do was shrug my shoulders and sigh. The pronunciation might be "technically correct" on a strictly linguistic basis - but it STILL marks you as a total OUTSIDER if you insist that you're more correct than the standard and practice of the specific community you're working inside.

At some point, you just say it like you learned it and if somebody pushes back - you smile, shrug, and just keep working.

My 2 cents anyway.

[Brian Drysdale]

Here's a piece on pronouncing tomato: Tomayto or Tomahto?

You do get other pronunciation variations, both within a country and internationality, another word that comes to mind is scone.

[Charles Papert]

I've pronounced Hirose as "Hih-ROH-See" for 20 years--occasionally I hear it as "Hih-ROH-Shee" but never as "High Rose". I would have never realized that was the same connector if I had heard it pronounced that way. The easiest way to avoid all of it is to call it an HRS connector!

[John Nantz]

Yes, Tomato is a good one.

Originally Posted by Brian Drysdale

You do get other pronunciation variations, both within a country and internationality, another word that comes to mind is scone.

And with regard to the scone, we have Victoria, Canada, just a few miles to the north. A great sailing destination just a hop across the Strait of Juan de Fuca (better get that last word pronounced correctly!) with the first port of call in front of the Empress Hotel. To celebrate a good crossing we have to have English "Tea". Ah, yes. And one doesn't have "tea" without some scones.

Besides the proper pronunciation, there is the proper way to put your clotted cream and strawberry jam on. The majority say they put the cream on first and then the jam but there are some that are adamant that the jam goes on first. Including my Mum. (And you don't argue with your Mum! )

Then there is the pronunciation of the word "dog". Huh? What's so difficult about that, you say? Well hang on!


While I was working my way through school I had a summer job with a co-worker from Tennessee, pronounced, if I remember it correctly, TEN-a-see. This was quite some time ago so the memory has faded a bit. Kinda like the neighboring state of Meh-sur-UH.

This was about our second day on the job and we were on a country road in the mountains near Lake Tahoe. I was driving and he was a passenger in the co-pilots seat.

Here we are, a late spring day traveling down a country road, brilliant sunshine and blue sky (its California, not Washington), the wild flowers are blooming, the pine trees have their young growth started, snow on the mountain peaks, what could be nicer. All of a sudden my partner shouted "Watch out fur dat dawg!"

I swerved and missed the dog, then after a pause I asked "What's a dawg?"
He replied, "A dawg (pronounced like a question, kinda like dow-UG?) is a .. fur .. legged .. critter." (longer space/time between the words to provide emphasis)

Me, thinking….. I've had a couple days of this now so I think I've got him this time.
"Okay, … How do you spell dawg?"
He replied, "Dawg? (pronounced as if it is were a question, see above), is D-A-W-G. Dawg!"

The whole summer went like that. It was a good summer.

[Paul R Johnson]

Us Brits and those in the states have had very different views on pronunciation and spelling for ever, it seems.

Even going to the manufacturer doesn't always work. I can live with most manglings, but the one that causes me awkwardness is the lighting manufacturer Robe. Robby, robe (as in the cloak) are common, but the manufacturer uses the clearing the throat noise - huggghhhhhh-obay. I must admit to doing verbal gymnastics to avoid any pronunciation of this make.

For Fresnel and Lavaliere it seems rude to not pronounce it as the French would.

[Matt Davis]

Originally Posted by Paul R Johnson

For Fresnel and Lavaliere it seems rude to not pronounce it as the French would.

LOL! +1 on that, but that does include a bit of catarrh/mucus for Fresnel, a merest hint of glottal flapping on the 'r' sound. All for that.

On the other hand, always liked 'Freznel' and its ilk for being a bit 'Fred Dibnah'.

[Colin McDonald]

How about Bose?

Since I can't afford their stuff myself, (and always quickly change the subject when friends who can are about to talk about their latest Bose acquisition), I have rarely, if ever, actually heard how other people think it should be pronounced. I imagine that since it is expensive stuff, nothing short of "Bos-é" would seem proper.

It all reminds me a bit of the Bang & Olufsen hype in the 1960/70s but perhaps I have missed the point.

[Paul R Johnson]

As an ex-performing arts teacher, I was always hard on people who misspelled Fresnel, and anyone who pronounced it frez-nell got a short sharp verbal slap. I still visit schools who put stuff on the walls spelled wrongly! Grrrr.

[Seth Bloombaum]

I worked with a pro narrator a few years ago who could not pronounce nuclear as I've heard it all my life.

Which would be new-klee-ur. I think it's common in Texas to say new-cue-lar, and we spent 15 minutes on a single word... which hurts when you're laying down a 15-minute script in a planned one-hour session.

Did I mention pro - he really was, pro narrator, AFTRA member, etc. But it was almost impossible to get him to say "nuclear" as the rest of the country (world?) would understand it.

I think I heard the same pronunciation from Pres. Bush the younger. But when you're president, it comes with a few privileges, and I don't think he was called out by anybody on it.