12

In the US/Canada, I've heard Nikon pronounced as nye-con, as in n-eye-con.

When I was in Southeast Asia, I heard it pronounced as knee-con. I'm assuming everywhere else in the world would pronounce it this way as well.

Is there a correct or universal way of pronouncing "Nikon"? I got some funny looks when I pronounced it as the former during my stay in SE Asia.

spong
  • 1,487
  • 5
  • 16
  • 24
  • 2
    See also: http://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/1452/can-i-trust-the-quality-of-japanese-to-english-translation-sites – Rowland Shaw Jun 27 '11 at 08:01

3 Answers3

20

This is a regional thing - there is no universal way per se. In the UK most people pronounce it nick-on.

Considering Nikon is Japanese, however, and in Japan it's pronounced knee-con, one could argue that that is the 'correct' pronunciation. The Wikipedia article on Nikon gives the following pronunciation guide, which is very Japanese, with a palatised n at the end:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Nikon.ogg

ElendilTheTall
  • 17,891
  • 2
  • 46
  • 78
  • 9
    I don't agree that this is a regional thing. It is just wrong Americanese. Just as they butchered IKEA, SUBARU and more. – ysap Jun 27 '11 at 07:43
  • 9
    @ysap: Erm... how can it be "wrong"? Americans don't speak Japanese -- We speak English. Expecting a word to be translated faithfully in spelling as well as pronunciation is unrealistic whenever a word is borrowed across languages. English usually borrows the spelling but it rarely borrows pronunciation without at least some anglicizing . – Billy ONeal Jun 27 '11 at 08:51
  • +1 for using per_se (and in italics! :) (oh, also, a great answer ;) – AJ Finch Jun 27 '11 at 09:44
  • 3
    @ysap: this is absolutely a regional thing: it's pronounced differently in different regions. Americans pronounce I in such a position eye (v-eye-tamin), Brits pronounce it ih (vitt-amin), and East Asians pronounce it ee, as in the Japanese for Japan nihon/nee-hon. @AJ Finch: sprinkling Latin into your posts makes you sound clever :D – ElendilTheTall Jun 27 '11 at 11:54
  • @Billy ONeal Americans speak (and spell) American English, not English :) – JamWheel Jun 28 '11 at 14:00
  • @Jam: There's little difference between the two when we're comparing English and Japanese. More to the point "English English" and "American English" are the same language -- we might generally use different words and pronounce some things a bit differently, but I can go to England and be understood just fine, just as an Englishman can come to the US and be understood just fine. – Billy ONeal Jun 28 '11 at 16:17
  • @ysap It may be butchered, but the "American" pronunciation has been accepted by Nikon USA. See their TV ads. – Evan Krall Jul 03 '11 at 22:35
8

I live and work in Japan as a translator and am fully bilingual, with a number of bilingual camera geeks in my social circle (some of whom actually work for Nikon).

I can confirm that there is no "correct" way to pronounce the word. Bilinguals when speaking Japanese pronounce it ニコン, which cannot be correctly replicated with English phonemes (the i is like an "ee" sound but shorter, the o is an "oh" sound but shorter, and the final n sound just doesn't exist in English). When speaking English, we pronounce it as Nigh-kon when speaking North American English and Nick-on when speaking British English.

In conversations with North American bilinguals, many voice the opinion that it sounds pretentious to pronounce it Nick rather than Nike when speaking with a North American accent. But that's a matter of personal taste, not correctness.

Big Ben in Japan
  • 165
  • 3
0

In Japanese, the letter i (and character for it) is pronounced "ee" and it is a Jawpawneese word so, therefore, it is Neekawn just as a Toyota Celica is properly said Celica.

user67050
  • 1