[Newbie1]

Just a quick question here- how are you supposed to pronounce Sennheiser? Ive always said it like SEN-HI-ZER, but my friend says it like SEN-HOW-ZER. It never occured to me that I might be pronouncing it wrong before, but seeing as how Sennheiser is probably a German word, I might be.

 

[D-EJ915]

Auf Deutsch

zen-high-zer

In English

sen-high-zer

notice the Z and S difference

if you wanted "how" in german, it would be "hau", but I've never seen that...lol

, basically, your friend is incorrect.

 

[HighwayStar]

It's pronounced like Budweiser, only different...

 

[philodox]

I sometimes catch myself saying SIGN-HIGH-ZER

its a bad habit... I know its SENN... SIGN just feels right for some reason

 

[JeffL]

In german the S is pronounced like a Z. EI is pronounced like an I. The E is often accented like an A.

I don't think it is SAIN-HIGH-ZAR though. I've always pronounced in SENN-HIGH-ZER.

Dunno.

 

[raif]

The real question is, if you post in one of these threads before its moved to certifiably inane, does it still increase your post count?

I always catch myself saying SIGN-HIGH-ZER. Oh well, luckily I write sennheiser alot more than I say it. I don't run in to many audiophiles in everyday life.

 

[D-EJ915]

"Take It Outside" and "Certifiably Inane" do not count towards your post count.

 

[Demolition]

I pronounce it as "Sen-high-zer", but I've heard others pronounce it as "Sign-high-zer". I've never figured out why, but it seems to be popular.

D.


p.s. Another weird one is "Toshiba". The correct pronunciation is "Toe-shee-bah", but I keep hearing people say "Toe-shib-ah".

 

[D-EJ915]

Kinda like Mitsubishi too...

It's mitt-tsu-bih-shee, not mit-tsu-bee-shee...

Or at least that's my aspect on it...haha.

 

[Demolition]

Quote:

Originally posted by D-EJ915 Kinda like Mitsubishi too... It's mitt-tsu-bih-shee, not mit-tsu-bee-shee... Or at least that's my aspect on it...haha.

Actually, the correct pronunciation is "me-tsu-be-she". An "i" in Japanese is pronounced as a long "e" (e.g. like the "i" in Suzuki or Kawasaki).

Not like it makes much of a difference. I suspect that most of us Westerners just can't wrap our mouths around foreign words and, a lot of the time, what we actually say/hear isn't even close to what we think we said/heard.

D.

 

[D-EJ915]

I wasn't sure about that, I was just applying my other-speak to it, I think mitsubishi sounds better anyway...I do know there is no "NG" sound so it was "ringu" in japan...lol, my friend told me that.

edit: and nice job on 100 Demolition, and nice avatar

 

[kyrie]

Well, the "i" in japanese is like the "ey" in "key" except short.

And the "s" in german is like "sz." Not quite "z" all the way.

 

[lini]

Interesting theories - and mostly not too far astray.

Anyway, when being a short one like in S_e_nnheiser (that double n afterwards makes it very short, "Sen" would be longer, and "Sehn" very long...), our e is pronounced like in your "wreck" or "pen". Our s is mostly a mixture of your s and z, while our z here would be more like a ts for you. But there are local deviations in pronounciation, anyway - for example the er at the end is often a bit shortened to an a, especially in the southern part of the country. So you'd in fact find some variations from zen-hi-za to senn-high-ser.

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini

HighwayStar: Right you are - the eiser part is pronounced exactly identical. However, the u over here is pronounced like the ou in your "you", whereas your pronounciation of bud would be written as "bad" over here.

 

[lini]

Quote:

Originally posted by kyrie Well, the "i" in japanese is like the "ey" in "key" except short.

Yup, or like the e in your "me", only shorter.

Or the ea in your "sea", only much shorter...

The Japanese guy from Mitsubishi I knew over here, seemed to swallow the t a bit though, so he pronounced it more like missu-be-she...

Oh, well...

More greetings!

Lini

 

[D-EJ915]

An easy way to do the German "Z" is to say "rats"