Do the Japanese actually say Famicon.. with the N sound?

[o.pwuaioc]

They say Famicon, with an N sound. The con part actually sounds like the English word "cone".

Most English speakers pronounce it like the "com" in the word computer. They aren't exactly wrong, since Family Computer is the full official name anyway. Both ways are correct for different reasons.

Another example of this is Pokemon, which is short for Pocket Monster. The Japanese pronounce the "mon" part like the English word moan. However the English speakers pronounce it like the first part of the word monster. Since it is short for monster anyway, it isn't exactly wrong. But if English speakers want to be more consistent, they should also pronounce "poke" like the first part of the word pocket.

But then it should have been spelled "pockemon". It's not "wrong" how we pronounce it, because we're not pronouncing Japanese words. We're pronouncing English words borrowed from Japanese.

[ZenErik]

I figured they would pronounce it as "fa-mi-co-mu" (romaji) with my slight bit of Japanese knowledge. Which is rather low... And the "ooo" part of the "mu" sound would be very short so a lot of English speakers would hardly notice it.

[Inazuma]

They say Famicon, with an N sound. The con part actually sounds like the English word "cone".

Most English speakers pronounce it like the "com" in the word computer. They aren't exactly wrong, since Family Computer is the full official name anyway. Both ways are correct for different reasons.

Another example of this is Pokemon, which is short for Pocket Monster. The Japanese pronounce the "mon" part like the English word moan. However the English speakers pronounce it like the first part of the word monster. Since it is short for monster anyway, it isn't exactly wrong. But if English speakers want to be more consistent, they should also pronounce "poke" like the first part of the word pocket.

But then it should have been spelled "pockemon". It's not "wrong" how we pronounce it, because we're not pronouncing Japanese words. We're pronouncing English words borrowed from Japanese.

Yeah, pretty much. It doesn't even mean Pocket Monster in America. The full name is Pokémon here. It's gibberish. The correct way to pronounce the American game is a mishmash of Japanese and English pronunciations.

All of the Pokemon related things I consume are the Japanese versions so I always pronounce it the way the Japanese do. The name makes sense and so does the pronunciation.

[jfrost]

"Com" and "con" would be pronounced the same way in Portuguese, so it's not a Japanese-only thing.

[Hatta]

Boy, I have a hard time getting my head around that. If you have an 'm' sound, why can't you put it anywhere you want? I know English has a reputation for having lots of arbitrary rules, but that's just weird. I guess an English analog would be the habit some British people have of dropping H sounds at the beginning of words?

[ZenErik]

Boy, I have a hard time getting my head around that. If you have an 'm' sound, why can't you put it anywhere you want? I know English has a reputation for having lots of arbitrary rules, but that's just weird. I guess an English analog would be the habit some British people have of dropping H sounds at the beginning of words?

They don't have just an m sound like we do. The only sound that doesn't end with a vowel sound is "n". They have characters that represent sounds like "mu" and "ma". Romaji is the romanization of Japanese so that those who can't read kanji can read/pronounce it.

[o.pwuaioc]

They don't have just an m sound like we do. The only sound that doesn't end with a vowel sound is "n". They have characters that represent sounds like "mu" and "ma". Romaji is the romanization of Japanese so that those who can't read kanji can read/pronounce it.

Two issues with this:

1. That 'n' becomes 'm' before 'm', 'p', and 'b' (e.g. n + ma = mma, not nma). Other consonants also affect it. Wikipedia is actually accurate on this.

2. Romaji is Romanization of Japanese so that those who can't read kanji, hiragana, or katakana can read/pronounce it. The language is more than just kanji.

Just in case, I was misremembering my Japanese lessons and Wikipedia was out of date, I asked my Japanese housemate to pronounce コンピュータ, and he said "komputa" not "konputa". Likewise, the familiar "konbanwa" (good evening) is really "kombanwa".

[Inazuma]

Compared to Japanese, English is a total clusterfuck of random bullshit. With Japanese, you know exactly how a word is spelled and pronounced.

English borrows words from so many different languages, it ends up being a total mess. Yeah, we can end a word with many different consonants, but Japanese is simply a better designed language. Well, that is until you consider their 10 thousand kanji characters. >_>

[ZenErik]

They don't have just an m sound like we do. The only sound that doesn't end with a vowel sound is "n". They have characters that represent sounds like "mu" and "ma". Romaji is the romanization of Japanese so that those who can't read kanji can read/pronounce it.

Two issues with this:

1. That 'n' becomes 'm' before 'm', 'p', and 'b' (e.g. n + ma = mma, not nma). Other consonants also affect it. Wikipedia is actually accurate on this.

2. Romaji is Romanization of Japanese so that those who can't read kanji, hiragana, or katakana can read/pronounce it. The language is more than just kanji.

Just in case, I was misremembering my Japanese lessons and Wikipedia was out of date, I asked my Japanese housemate to pronounce コンピュータ, and he said "komputa" not "konputa". Likewise, the familiar "konbanwa" (good evening) is really "kombanwa".

1. You're probably correct. I have very little experience with Japanese outside of anime and messing with Rosetta Stone for a little bit.

Although there is a character with the nickname Menma in a series that I am currently watching, and it is pronounced exactly like that. Then again, it's just a nickname. But she also has the last name Honma which pronounced exactly like that as well. Not pronounced Homma. *shrug* Perhaps it's different if the kanji represents hon + ma?

2. Yes, I know that. I am familiar with all the types of characters.

[Hatta]

They don't have just an m sound like we do. The only sound that doesn't end with a vowel sound is "n". They have characters that represent sounds like "mu" and "ma". Romaji is the romanization of Japanese so that those who can't read kanji can read/pronounce it.

Well that's starting to make sense. Makes me wonder if they have any sounds that we don't.

Yeah, we can end a word with many different consonants, but Japanese is simply a better designed language. Well, that is until you consider their 10 thousand kanji characters. >_>

I wonder if there's a tradeoff there. Perhaps Japanese needs that many characters so it can be that predictable while maintaining enough expressivity. English on the other hand has fewer characters, so it needs to be able to combine them in more different ways to be as expressive. Pure speculation on my part, but I wonder if linguists have considered that before.