How is "bokeh" pronounced?

I've also wondered about the proper pronunciation of the Japanese garden tool, the ho, sometimes spelled hoe, is it just "ho" or "hoew" ?

Could we get a sound clip on say, "I took my ho[e] to the park and got me some creamy boke with my Nikkon"?

Also with "Nikkomat"?
 
I would never pronounce it at all!
Every person I know in real life would start laughing at me frantically...The usage of the term is weird enough in online forums, but totally ridiculous in face-to-face communication.

*brrrr*
 
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In Dutch especially in the Antwerp dialect Bokeh means a bouquet of flowers.

Maybe your eyes blur when handing a bouquet to the one you love, hence.....
 
coelacanth said:
OK, then how about this? What's "Summicron" pronunciation in German? We call that like "Zummicron" in Japanese, but I know It's "Summicron" in the US at least.

Even tougher one for me is "Voigtlander" It's "Foktolender" ish in Japan, but obviously it's very hard to really neil it. How do we pronounce this in the US again?
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The oig in v(oig)tlander is prounouced as in b(ouy).
 
By the way, when I wrote "fluent," I meant the speaker can have a conversation in the language at issue, without having to resort to sign language, and can read the language well enough to grasp meaning. So, I guess I overstated my daughter's ability a bit. From an academic standpoint, certainly she was not "fluent," as in able to do congruent translation, or write a novel in the language. And it has been seven years since she returned to the states ...
 
This is so cool! maybe we can get the texans to record it too :)

coelacanth said:
Here you go.

Here is one saying "Bokeh."
http://suguru.net/public_images/bokeh.m4a

This is saying "Nikon."
http://suguru.net/public_images/nikon.m4a

This one is saying "Nikkor."
http://suguru.net/public_images/nikkor.m4a

And finally, I'm saying "(I) like Bokeh of the Nikkor."
http://suguru.net/public_images/nikkor_bokeh_para.m4a


Note: Some might say the intonation is wrong/different. That's because we have different intonations, sometimes pronunciations between regions. Even within this tiny country, intonations can be "opposite" sometimes between two neighboring prefectures.
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dogbunny said:
Interestingly, boke can also mean idiot or fool. ;)
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it's all about inflection - rising or falling.
as for the bo as in bottle, that's actually バ, a different letter.

I think
bow kay
but without any w or y sounds.
 
flip said:
it's all about inflection - rising or falling.
as for the bo as in bottle, that's actually バ, a different letter.

I think
bow kay
but without any w or y sounds.
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Boke can mean "fool" originating in the meaning of Boke being "not clear, blurred." Intonation of rising and falling can be swapped between almost all same-sounding words depending on the regions so even native japanese speakers must be careful.

As for the Bo as in bottle, it's "ボ" (very close!) "バ" is "Ba" :)
 
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coelacanth said:
Boke can mean "fool" originating in the meaning of Boke being "not clear, blurred." Intonation of rising and falling can be swapped between almost all same-sounding words depending on the regions so even native japanese speakers must be careful.

As for the Bo as in bottle, it's "ボ" (very close!) "バ" is "Ba" :)
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This is a touche moment. I recognize the regional differences in Japanese (Us Kansai folks have to be aware), but these factors also apply to English. I would say the Japanese ba sound is much closer to bottle than boat. Perhaps you say boattle? ;)
 
flip said:
This is a touche moment. I recognize the regional differences in Japanese (Us Kansai folks have to be aware), but these factors also apply to English. I would say the Japanese ba sound is much closer to bottle than boat. Perhaps you say boattle? ;)
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Hmm. How would I say Jp "Ba" sound... Battle (Ba) vs Bottle (Bo). Bunny (ba) vs Bonnie (Bo) maybe.

As you know, Japanese character-sound relationship is quite "fixed" other than some (but very tricky) exceptions. So a Japanese like me has hard time understanding subtle sounds and pronunciations of many English words when you first start learning the language.

Yes, Kansai is extra tricky (sound-wise and culturally. I'm sure you know what I mean) I'm originally from Kyoto, grew up in Kochi (shikoku), then Tokyo then SF (which is like Kansai region of the US;) ) so I'm mixed but generally more of "West-side" Japanese guy when it comes to intonations in general. That's why I put that disclaimer in my sound file post. :p

But again, Japanese is more sensitive to intonation rather than pronunciation in general. Then again, as you know, dialects can make the whole thing out-of-control tricky anyway. My girlfriend is from Okinawa and I still have no idea what she's saying sometimes. :eek:
 
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So folks, explain this one to me :D

The tennis term "volley" is written ボレー

The "volley" in volleyball is written バレー

Same spelling in English but different spelling in Japanese .... what gives? :)
 
Very very good question, Master Yoda. :D

For the folks wondering what those Japanese characters are saying, Tennis term Volley is "Bole-" while Volleyball term Volley is "Bale-". :bang:

I think they ended up like that because we don't have a native sound/character for English "V" (today, we use "ヴィ" for V sound) sound so they were adopted to the closest sound starting with B. But that was done in different time by different people, ended up one becoming Bo while the other one being "Ba."

Here, the pronunciation of the original speaker matters. probably the person who brought Volleyball to Japan was pronouncing with "Valleyball" like sound.

I remember I had to tell myself again and again Volleyball is with V, Basketball is with B when I was learning English. It's silly if you are used to V sound. Many new words in Katakana now incorporate the difference between B and V today, but older folks (thus long standing adopted Katakana words) didn't really have the distinction between the two.
 
bare bo ru

bare bo ru

Which dictionary are you using? I see that google translate gives the results you've found, but I've mainly used Jim Breen's dictionaries:

ba re - for volley

ba re - bo ru for volleyball

bo to ru for bottle (or bi nn)

http://www.freedict.com/onldict/jap.html


jonmanjiro said:
So folks, explain this one to me :D

The tennis term "volley" is written ボレー

The "volley" in volleyball is written バレー

Same spelling in English but different spelling in Japanese .... what gives? :)
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ampguy said:
Which dictionary are you using? I see that google translate gives the results you've found, but I've mainly used Jim Breen's dictionaries:

ba re - for volley

ba re - bo ru for volleyball

bo to ru for bottle (or bi nn)

http://www.freedict.com/onldict/jap.html
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Volley (verb, technique) for tennis is Bo re (ボレー). I know it's funny and not making sense. :p My family is 3 generation tennis players and we all used Bo-re while my mom was also a captain of Volleyball clubs for years, we didn't even think about Ba vs Bo. LOL.

Oh, and Volley Shoot in Soccer (football) is also Bo re like tennis.
 
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Thanks Sug

Thanks Sug

So what is your favorite or preferred online dictionary for eiwa - jiten?

coelacanth said:
Volley (verb, technique) for tennis is Bo re. I know it's funny and not making sense. :p My family is 3 generation tennis players and we all used Bo-re while my mom was also a captain of Volleyball clubs for years, we didn't even think about Ba vs Bo. LOL.
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I like it!

I like it!

There are so few rules that aren't broken in Japanese, that it makes it very interesting.

I am Nihonjin, so when in Japan, I always have to explain my first name (tetsuo - kanji of iron man) or give them my meishii.

coelacanth said:
Volley (verb, technique) for tennis is Bo re (ボレー). I know it's funny and not making sense. :p My family is 3 generation tennis players and we all used Bo-re while my mom was also a captain of Volleyball clubs for years, we didn't even think about Ba vs Bo. LOL.

Oh, and Volley Shoot in Soccer (football) is also Bo re like tennis.
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