tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30114385.post863554288792810161..comments2023-12-20T08:35:04.633+00:00Comments on Lingua Frankly: The folly of trying to pronounce a place "like the natives do"Titchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03003350618976942468noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30114385.post-12252978570601895022017-03-03T15:18:36.511+00:002017-03-03T15:18:36.511+00:00Not to take away from your main point, but it seem...Not to take away from your main point, but it seems that HEE-roh-SHEE-mah is the old US pronunciation while the second one is British. That's also how the word is approximately pronounced in some other languages. <br /><br />UK news (1940s)<br />http://www.nbcnews.com/video/here-was-once-a-city-how-british-newsreels-reported-hiroshima-498102339740<br /><br />US news reel<br /><br />https://youtu.be/a0Mh5UhJFRM<br /><br />"What I remember from growing up was the “hi-ro-SHI-ma” pronunciation. When I got to college, everyone appeared to say “hi-RO-shi-ma.” So it’s possible that the latter pronunciation was taken up by university-educated sophisticates who thought it the more authentically Japanese rendering of the name.<br /><br />That would make the pronunciation a class marker, and thus the source of people’s uncertainty and mild anxiety over the point.<br /><br />https://www.google.com/amp/www.baltimoresun.com/news/language-blog/bal-hiroshima-or-hiroshima-20150807-story,amp.html<br /><br />The way some Americans used to pronounce Hiroshima, the city where an atomic bomb was dropped in the closing days of World War II, "HEE-roh-SHEE-mah," sounds a bit foreign to the Japanese ear.<br /><br />The Japanese language generally doesn't have accented syllables — meaning each part of the word usually gets an equal weight in sound.<br /><br />These days, many people put the accent on the second syllable, which makes it closer to the Japanese pronunciation. That's the way President Barack Obama, scheduled to visit the southwestern Japanese city Friday, says it: "Hee-ROH-shee-mah."<br /><br />Daily Mail.<br />Reinekehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07698980784691138039noreply@blogger.com