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In this country Hyundai generally gets pronounced high-und-eye. Recently on an American TV programme they pronounced it "hunday". How does the manufacturer pronounce it?
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And then there is HJ's pronunciation in the Santa Fe video. He-und-eye. There are probably a good few regional variations in the UK let alone worldwide. I use High-und-eye.
Edited by Old Navy on 17/11/2009 at 08:20
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I understand that it is a two syllable word. The first syllable is 'hyun' and the second is 'dai'.
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I understand that it is a two syllable word. The first syllable is 'hyun' and the second is 'dai'.
How do you pronounce "hyun" as one syllable?
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How do you pronounce "hyun" as one syllable?
A bit like 'hun', but with a 'yuh' sound instead of a plain 'uh'.
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I've always pronounced it "Hi-yun-die" which was also the case with the company's PR staff.
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>> How do you pronounce "hyun" as one syllable? A bit like 'hun' but with a 'yuh' sound instead of a plain 'uh'.
That would fit with the American inability to pronounce "suit" or "sue" correctly. Japanese presumably is more like English, in having syllables with tiny "i" or other sounds elided onto a straight vowal sound?
There is a fascinating article here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syllable
about what constitutes a syllable, and where the breaks between and within syllables occur.
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In this country Hyundai generally gets pronounced high-und-eye. Recently on an American TV programme they pronounced it "hunday".
Americans and pronunciation often produce strange results.
They think there is a car manufacturer called Jagwar
And a metal called aluminum
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And a fruit called a tomayto. And a vegetable called a potarto.
Let's call the whole thing off.
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And a metal called aluminum
That's how they spell it in the US of A.
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>> And a metal called aluminum >> That's how they spell it in the US of A.
Not only can they not pronounce words correctly, they can't spell them either.....!
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If we are worried about how to pronounce far-eastern names which probably can't be accurately transliterated into English, maybe we should practise the German way to say Volkswagen - with F at the beginning and V in the middle?
And IMHO Americans take a special delight in deliberately speaking foreign words as wrongly as possible. One only needs to think of Eye-rack.
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It's the old problem of using English to pronounce names which originate in a foreign language. Almost like a legacy of the Empire, where we decided how they would be pronounced. We called it Peking because that was easy for the Brits, but now we've gone back to the more-accurate Beijing. We called it Bombay, but now we've gone back to the more-accurate Mumbai.
How do the Koreans pronounce Hyundai?
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I think the closest approximation is "hee-yun-d-eye" with a short "yun" and a long "eye" based on how I interpreted the pronunciation of people in Korea when I was there a few years back.
The American "Hunday" pronunciation is, I'm led to believe, a marketing exercise so as to make it sound like "Sunday" in the minds of the religious thinking middle class midwest target market.
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>>How do the Koreans pronounce Hyundai?
www.forvo.com/word/hyundai/
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And going off-topic, here are a couple of other useful Korean pronunciations.
www.forvo.com/word/hankook_tire/
www.forvo.com/word/kia_picanto/
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I used to run one of them Sante Fe's.
There you go, didn't have to pronounce it :-)
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I think it should be shouted, very loud, in a similar fashion to Banzai
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So what about Daewoo? And (shudder) Roewe ??
Some howlers of the past which even today make me cringe almost to the point of tears are "Rennolt", "Ordy" and "Seet", though "Mitsu-bushee" also ranks quite high.
Spain is utter hell for the pedantic linguist: Particular motoring nasties include: Thitrowenn, Forrr, Rennoll, Peyot, Bolsbayen, Bolbo, Saff, Chebrolett, Robber... (sigh...)
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Spain is utter hell for the pedantic linguist: Particular motoring nasties include: Thitrowenn Forrr Rennoll Peyot Bolsbayen Bolbo Saff Chebrolett Robber... (sigh...)
Funnily enough, on Saturday I bought two tyres in Spain... made by Feeraystony, although I could have had Misheleeeen for 30 euros mas...
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"....maybe we should practise the German way to say Volkswagen - with F at the beginning and V in the middle?"
That's how I pronounce it - no more difficult than any other way.
It's curious how most people pronounce Renault and Peugeot more or less as the French do, but not Citroen.
Skoda dealers are a race apart with their 'Octarvia' and 'Farbia'. I think most of us rhyme Octavia with Saviour and say Fabia as in fabulous.
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Skoda dealers are a race apart with their 'Octarvia' and 'Farbia'.
I noticed that too, maybe they are taught to say "Octarvia" with a straight face?
I was once told by a salesman in a Ford showroom to place a box of new brochures by the wall behind the "Kay Ay"...
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Wonder whether Hyundai would consider changing the official pronunciation. Someone working for Nestle overseas didn't believe when I told her that it was still pronounced as 'Nessels', even on their adverts, not that long ago.
maybe we should practise the German way to say Volkswagen - with F at the beginning and V in the middle?
But if going for the whole group, instead of VAG, it would be Falksvargen ah gay. I can't see them using it officially.
Skoda dealers are a race apart with their 'Octarvia' and 'Farbia'. I think most of us rhyme Octavia with Saviour and say Fabia as in fabulous.
I must admit I've always pronounced Fabia to rhyme with, erm, anatomical parts. I would start Fabia the same as the name Faye.
And (shudder) Roewe
I've wondered about this. With a German sounding W, it would become Rover, getting around whoever's trademark is is now. But apparently is should be pronounced wrong-way, which is never going to work in the UK.
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Someone here said that the Ka was known as the "Kay A" internally within Ford even though the official name is pronounced "Ka" simply to differentiate between the specific of Ka and the general "car". Makes perfect sense
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I think most of us rhyme Octavia with Saviour
Wasn't Octavia a puppet in the 70s kids' programme Pipkins? Along with Hartley Hare?
www.thechestnut.com/snippets/pipkins/octavia.jpg
Edited by rtj70 on 17/11/2009 at 23:46
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She was originally, in ancient Rome, the sister of the first Emperor, Augustus, who was originally called Octavian. In fairness to Skoda dealers, the Romans would have pronounced it Octarvia, but it still sounds odd in English.
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I seem to recall a TV ad pronouncing it heeunday (the heeun bit being one sound/syllable) I might be wrong though.
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`Fiat` (as in Punto) is best of course. it`s pronounced `Ferrari`. At least while you are still asleep.. They really ought to do a bit of badge engineering on next years F1 car though.
A Punto badge on the back would really rub it in when Jenson is trying to overtake in a McLaren.
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Was it George W(?) Bush who said that, "The trouble with the French is that they don't have a word for Entrepreneur?
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I guess the safest and most accurate pronunciation of any brand or model is to emulate the version used in its country or language of origin. This of course falls down as a theory because most Brits can't be bothered to do that and indeed many of them seem to have problems with their own language leave alone other ones.
;-)
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......... Brits ......... many of them seem to have problems with their own language leave alone other ones.
Or ............ let alone other ones!
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fortunately my grasp of the word pronunciation of the word hyundai only comes up at very infrequent intervals as i know the cost of bits from their spares counters,,,,,,,,
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depends where you come from dunnit.....
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>>I guess the safest and most accurate pronunciation of Hyundai will be found by asking in New Malden. Anyone passing by on the A3 or going to B & Q or Halfords ? :-)
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Always irritates me how many times you hear people - on the radio or in the street - who pronounce the word "pronunciation" incorrectly.
They don't realise the irony of talking about the "pronounciation" of a word
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High Undie.
Volts Waggon.
Ren Alt.
Pew Got.
Sit Ron (also a rude pronounciation beginning with "Sh", containing a softening "e").
Sco Der.
Oct Ay Vee Er.
Fabe Eeya.
Do you need help with any others?
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With any luck I'll never have to say the word Hyundai in public.
It always strikes me as a bit interesting that, in the beginning, we had Japanese imports called simple things like Honda and Mazda, and pronunciation wasn't really an issue. Then - as capitalism did its usual thing - odder names appeared from places like Korea: Hyundai, Ssangyong, etc.
Fortunately, I probably won't live long enough to have to get used to whatever the Chinese come up with...
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