I've heard this phonetic problem before with other Japanese terms. For example, in discussions of the martial arts, there's a Japanese (specifically Okinawan) style called isshin-ryu. A lot of Americans, in referring to this martial art, will say, "Ish-shin-roo." The "y" just somehow disappears. A more pedestrian term, wagyu, has entered the American English lexicon, but so many Americans are unable to pronounce it correctly: they'll say "wah-goo," again ignoring the "y." How is it that Americans have no trouble pronouncing the word you but can't say isshin-ryu or wagyu to save their lives?
Homework: practice saying tenshin shoden katori shinto-ryu.
(Thanks, Neil, for the tip about AI illustration. That's how we got the guy above.)
BONUS: watch this video (which I think I've put up before) about Scots who can't say "purple burglar alarm." There's also this and this. Hilarious.
BONUS 2: Chef Andy, a Kiwi living in Oz, can't say wagyu, either. But he can cook!
Americans also can't say "Tokyo," often pronouncing it "Toh-key-oh." For that matter, most people can't pronounce HJ's name properly, either. You don't see a y after a consonant in English, at least orthographically speaking. We do have the sound, though: cute, queue, even just the letter Q. If you can say "cute," you should be able to say "wagyu." Is it the voiced consonant plus y that is tripping people up? It's a mystery.
ReplyDeleteKee-yoto!
Delete>>You don't see a y after a consonant in English, at least orthographically speaking.<<
Cynical! Syzygy! Bygones!
Don't mynd me. Y'm just beyng dyffycult.
Fair. What I was trying to say is that you don't see a y after a consonant in English where it is actually pronounced as a y-glide; all of your examples are pronounced as an i (short or long) or an e. We do have y-glides in words like "cute" and "queue," though. But that's more just English spelling being weird, I think. The real reason why many Americans can't pronounce "wagyu" (or "Hyundai," or whatever), I think, is that their brains see it and go: "Foreign word! Aaaaaahhhhhh!"
ReplyDeleteButte, beauty, mute... just helping you refine your theory. And in some forms of British English, words like "news" and "stupid" are pronounced with a y-glide: nyooz, styoopid. Maybe the inability is specific to "ry" and "gy" sounds. Weirdly specific. But I agree with the general idea behind "Foreign word! Aaaahhh!!" That's probably pancultural.
Delete