Pronouncin’ Them Anime Words

For a long time, I was bothered by really inaccurate pronunciations of anime words. I can tell you of the time I was in the comic store and heard a guy remarking that there was a ton of “magna.” I’m sure you’ve seen the people talking about how Sa-soo-ke is their favorite Naruto character. Then something changed.

I’m not sure if it was the realization that as much as I’ve studied Japanese, my own language skills aren’t perfect, but at some point I realized that there’s a good deal of futility in trying to change the way people pronounce Japanese words, particularly anime ones. Even the word “anime” itself falls under this scrutiny. Some people say “annimay” because it’s closer to the word animation, others try to go full on with the Japanese pronunciation with “ah-nee-meh,” and you’ll hear variations every which way. Who’s right? Is there any need to have a right or a wrong pronunciation, as long as we understand one another? Should we be criticizing people who pronounce “karaoke” the non-Japanese way? What if you say it the Japanese way and people have no idea what you’re saying? Should we be criticizing people who pronounce any foreign word outside of the pronunciation in its original language?

English has tons of variations even within the United States, let alone the rest of the world, and while those variations aren’t as drastic as, say, the dialects in China, the result is that you get a whole slew of differing pronunciations for the same word. And then you want to throw Japanese words on top of that?

It’s crazy I tell you.

7 thoughts on “Pronouncin’ Them Anime Words

  1. Yeah, I eternally go back and forth on “annie-may” versus “ah-nee-meh,” depending on my mood and who I’m speaking to. As far as I’m concerned, since “anime” is basically just a Japanese take on the French word for animation in the first place, annie-may is as legitimate a pronunciation as the more Japanese-style pronunciation.

    That said, with Japanese people I will always use the Japanese-style pronunciation (even if I’m not speaking Japanese), and with people who are less familiar with the material in general I’ll use “annie-may” because they’re more likely to parse it correctly quicker. With everyone else, I just find myself going back and forth without thinking about it too much.

    But there are some poor pronunciations and errors that irk me. I hate when people say “animes” and “mangas” for example. One of my co-workers always pronounces manga like MAN-guh, too ;)

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  2. There is one Japanese(-derived) word you can safely pronounce only one way in English: skosh.

    I pronounce anime as in “animation” (honestly, that’s a fine way to pronounce it, as “anime” itself is short for “animeshon”) but manga as “mahn-ga”. I’ve been around the “magna” people before, and that threw me for a loop until I got used to it. Aside from that, my pronunciation is all over the board, mostly coinciding with where I heard the name relative to my understanding of Japanese pronunciation rules.

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  3. I purposefully pronounce things wrong just to see the japanophiles cringe. meyn-guh, ney-roo-toh, Zolo instead of Zoro, etc. Its so much fun!

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  4. I think it would be hilarious to criticize others on their pronunciations, and then go to Japan and hear half the people there mispronouncing the names themselves XD. Reminds me of one of my Japanese teachers who was Russian (!) and had first gone to Japan after some 7 years of college, and they put him in Aomori prefecture WAY up North and he couldn’t understand anything anyone was saying.

    Anywho, I say ‘annimay’ becaseu it’s a damn english word anyway and I feel no need to change my ways.

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  5. I switch between annie-may and ah-nee-meh, but try to use the latter more often these days. Speaking Japanese in Japan attuned me to the アニメ pronunciation, but annie-may rolls off the tongue easier when I’m speaking English.

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  6. I tolerate the variations for fans of varying ages groups, because chances are they themselves really don’t care. But I draw the line when it comes to individuals such as scholars or filmmakers (in the west) who cite anime as a profound source of creative inspiration… and ultimately end up mispronouncing a director’s name, the title of a landmark film, or something else.

    Also, I’ll never add an “s” to the terms anime and manga. I consider them irregular nouns.

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