How is "bokeh" pronounced?

[coelacanth]

Hmmm, I use this one.

http://www.alc.co.jp/

You can type either Japanese (w/ japanese characters) or English, and it detects the direction (ei-wa, wa-ei) automatically. It also gives you A LOT of examples and explanations. It also give you wiki-like hyper links between english words, which can be quite handy.

Searching for "Can"
http://eow.alc.co.jp/can/UTF-8/?ref=sa

Probably many of folks here with mixed background, especially people living in a foreign country for a long time have stopped translating in your head when you say something in one language or switch to another. This can be tricky when you just can't come up with just the right way of saying something in the language you want to say it in. So dictionaries like this can help you and me a bit, but as we all know too well, you can't trust them fully. 😛 Only somethings can be "translated" and many things have to be "interoperated."

 

[ampguy]

ejiro desu, wakatta.

 

[paulfish4570]

I think this thread has turned out wonderfully. Thank you so much Sug and ampguy and others who write such beautiful English ...

 

[coelacanth]

ejiro desu, wakatta.

Yup. (edit: just noticed, it's "Eijiro" if anyone wanna search for it 🙂) This one is sticking with me over the years. It's well updated compared to many others I've tried although I'm totally open to suggestions and recommendations myself.

The problem I face now is those industry specific terminologies I only know in English. Especially computer graphics, publishing and photography/imaging related stuff are tough for me because they've developed quite deep fortress of terminologies over the years (publishing stuff going back to several handred years), katakana japanglish and traditional japanese words all mixed up.

Paul, 🙂

 

[robklurfield]

Bokeh is more pronounced at very large apertures.

sorry, couldn't resist.😉

domo arigato.

 

[ampguy]

when I did that stuff

when I did that stuff

In the '90s for asics, networking, storage, video, internet stuff, we would just use katakana phonetically from the english words if there was not already a defined industry term. In some cases, mostly acronyms, the romaji would be retained, in caps.

Yup. (edit: just noticed, it's pronounced "Eijiro" 🙂) This one is sticking with me over the years. It's well updated compared to many others I've tried although I'm totally open to suggestions and recommendations myself.

The problem I face now is those industry specific terminologies I only know in English. Especially computer graphics, publishing and photography/imaging related stuff are tough for me because they've developed quite deep fortress of terminologies over the years (publishing stuff going back to several handred years), katakana japanglish and traditional japanese words all mixed up.

Paul, 🙂

 

[coelacanth]

In the '90s for asics, networking, storage, video, internet stuff, we would just use katakana phonetically from the english words if there was not already a defined industry term. In some cases, mostly acronyms, the romaji would be retained, in caps.

Quite right. I think stuff from '90s are mostly straight forward although you gotta be careful with japanglish ones that just do not make sense in English.

Publishing stuff is the hardest of the those I listed IMO because of long long history of traditional publishing industry now mixed with newer western technologies.

Now, can anyone help us with German stuff? THAT is hard. 😀

 

[paulfish4570]

Let me rephrase: domo arigatou gozaimasu ...

 

[jonmanjiro]

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

I'm using 広辞苑 which is installed on my PC along with a bunch of other dictionaries, and accessing the dictionary data using DDwin (SOP for translators 😉).

 

[jonmanjiro]

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

Spot on, Sug! The tennis "volley" entered Japanese from British English and "volleyball" entered Japanese from American English. Solid proof that native English speakers don't spell words the way they pronounce them 😉

 

[Japan---Exposures]

Now, can anyone help us with German stuff? THAT is hard. 😀

Nah, try us 🙂

 

[dogbunny]

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.

After to years of studying towards a masters degree in applied linguistics with Japanese as a primary focus I can confidently disagree with this in an informed manner, but 沈黙は金。 😀

Cheers

 

[jonmanjiro]

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? 😉

Lemme guess ... you're an American? 😛

> Japanese ba sound is much closer to bottle

In American English ... sure. But not in, for example, British or Australian English.

 

[ampguy]

iie

iie

do itashimash!te

Let me rephrase: domo arigatou gozaimasu ...

 

[ampguy]

so desu nee

so desu nee

秋茄子は嫁に食わすな。

After to years of studying towards a masters degree in applied linguistics with Japanese as a primary focus I can confidently disagree with this in an informed manner, but 沈黙は金。 😀

Cheers

 

[xxloverxx]

I pronounce it as "bow-kay"

 

[Ch-Jaeger]

There is a pretty funny Episode on the pronounciation of Bokeh on the Martin Bailey-Photo-Podcast. The guy is from the UK but lives in Japan for many years and speaks fluent japanese.

It's in Episode #181 available here (no need to sign up or anything):

http://www.martinbaileyphotography.com/podcasts.php?ep=181#Ep181

 

[flip]

This is pretty good stuff. 😀 Honestly, I like the bouquet equivalency bor bokeh, but short of an audio clip and a regional context, there is only so much to be gained via textual descriptions of audibles.

As far as volleyball, just try to find someone in Kansai who doesn't say ba re. Just goes to show how little dictionaries agree with spoken language. When instructing, I feign confusion with ballet. But I'm cruel like that. 😉

Ps - Nobody understands their girlfriend, Okinawajin or otherwise, more than a fraction of the time. We just fool ourselves into believing it is possible.

じゃじゃ、方言とかメッチャおもろいやろう。でければちょっと沖縄口教えて下さい〜。

 

[ampguy]

haha

haha

I think non-Americans should be banned from teaching English in Japan 😉

Most confused Nihonjin with English teachers who were from outside the USA, some who've spent a good portion of their life studying English, with their life savings, come to America and can't speak or write worth a sh!te because of some whacked foreign euro accent 😉

Then again, most of the Euro folks were just looking for dates anyways, the English teaching gig was just a setup 😵 😀

This is pretty good stuff. 😀 Honestly, I like the bouquet equivalency bor bokeh, but short of an audio clip and a regional context, there is only so much to be gained via textual descriptions of audibles.

As far as volleyball, just try to find someone in Kansai who doesn't say ba re. Just goes to show how little dictionaries agree with spoken language. When instructing, I feign confusion with ballet. But I'm cruel like that. 😉

Ps - Nobody understands their girlfriend, Okinawajin or otherwise, more than a fraction of the time. We just fool ourselves into believing it is possible.

じゃじゃ、方言とかメッチャおもろいやろう。でければちょっと沖縄口教えて下さい〜。

 

[tlitody]

This is pretty good stuff. 😀 Honestly, I like the bouquet equivalency bor bokeh, but short of an audio clip and a regional context, there is only so much to be gained via textual descriptions of audibles.

As far as volleyball, just try to find someone in Kansai who doesn't say ba re. Just goes to show how little dictionaries agree with spoken language. When instructing, I feign confusion with ballet. But I'm cruel like that. 😉

Ps - Nobody understands their girlfriend, Okinawajin or otherwise, more than a fraction of the time. We just fool ourselves into believing it is possible.

じゃじゃ、方言とかメッチャおもろいやろう。でければちょっと沖縄口教えて下さい〜。

Now if everyone learnt the international phonetic language symbols, then we'd get it right. Problem is the linguists have come up with multiple sets of phonetic symbols. I guess they've got to spend their time doing something and learning the symbols is as difficult learning another lnaguage in the first place.
And once all the online dictionaries have done what the following has(to a point), then everyone will be able to get instant clarification of pronunciation.