How do you pronounce it?

[squire5]

Me,personally,have always pronounced as it's spelt,ie Aye-ban-ez,but lately I've heard it pronounced Ee- ban- ay.Which is right,does anyone know?

[Machines]

As you stated originally is how I say it .

[Dr.Dave]

I think it's the first too

Though when I first came across Ibanez I called it i-barn-ez

And I called Schaller 'shayler'


Mind you - and this is true - for ages when I was a kid I thought Israel had a King called King Born because they made us sing 'born is the king of Israel' at school.

[bnt]

[quote name='squire5' post='208678' date='May 29 2008, 10:48 AM']Me,personally,have always pronounced as it's spelt,ie Aye-ban-ez,but lately I've heard it pronounced Ee- ban- ay.Which is right,does anyone know?[/quote]
The Japanese company got their name from a brand of Spanish guitar they were importing, [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvador_Ib%C3%A1%C3%B1ez"]Salvador Ibáñez[/url]. (Ee-ba-nyeth, I think).

However, Ibanez themselves write their name as アイバニーズ or a-i-ba-ni-i-zu. The closest I can get is something like aye-ba-knee-zu, but the "zu" is clipped to "z". (There is no real "z" in spoken Japanese.)

Edited May 29, 2008 by bnt

[geilerbass]

Ee-ba-nyeth would be correct if you were pronouncing it as a Spanish word (which it appears to be). Though I don't think it's incorrect to say Aye-ban-ez, since it's an internationally recognised brand.

Here's the same discussion on a guitarist forum: -

[url="http://www.vai.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=46561&sid=89afe5c6f6c82418e49521f714306e6d"]The Ibanez Question[/url]

I'd be interested to know how the Japanese say it...

[queenofthedepths]

[quote name='Dr.Dave' post='208683' date='May 29 2008, 10:56 AM']Mind you - and this is true - for ages when I was a kid I thought Israel had a King called King Born because they made us sing 'born is the king of Israel' at school[/quote]
Why is he the king of Israel anyway? Jesus was definitely more of a socialist

[quote name='bnt' post='208708' date='May 29 2008, 11:34 AM']The Japanese company got their name from a brand of Spanish guitar they were importing, [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvador_Ib%C3%A1%C3%B1ez"]Salvador Ibáñez[/url]. (Ee-ba-nyeth, I think)[/quote]
My mum (who speaks Spanish) insists upon pronouncing it like that

[squire5]

Yeah,I've even heard 'EEEbanez',or even 'eebanyeh',but I think the most accepted is as I first thought.There are others,by the way...........Lakland?,Aguilar,etc etc.

[queenofthedepths]

Lakeland and Aggwillar

[iain1985]

whenever i have to deal with them at work on the phone they say AYE BAN EZ. But if you go to spain ibanez is a fairly common name and its pronounced ee ban eth.

[iain1985]

oh and again whenever i have to deal with aguilar they pronunce it AAh Gwee Lar. And as far as mispronunciation of ibanez goes i think i've heard them all, Ibanny ? anyone oh yes and a Gibson Lay Paul!! Case of Hyacinth Bucket (bouquet) syndrome perhaps. The one that gets me is hartke? Is it pronounce Hart ? Hart Kay? Hartki ?

[bnt]

[quote name='geilerbass' post='208730' date='May 29 2008, 12:00 PM']I'd be interested to know how the Japanese say it...[/quote]
That's what I kinda was getting at in my post above. I took lessons a few years ago, and the way it works in Japanese, they use that special [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katakana"]Katakana[/url] [i]phonetic[/i] alphabet for foreign and weird words. Katakana (like Hiragana) is strictly phonetic: you write words as close as you can get to how you actually pronounce them, not vice versa - and after that, you read them phonetically.

I didn't know about the "knee" sound until I read the Katakana version from their website today. It's not "neh" as I would have expected, but I have to assume it is there for a reason i.e. they write "aye-ba-knee-zu" because that's how they pronounce it - or used to, back when the company was named. Today, I dunno, but that's what their website says, and it's not like English, where we deviate willy-nilly from phonetic pronounciation.

That is why foreign words get mangled in Japanese - a Katakana version of a foreign word is still limited by the Japanese language, and there are some Western sounds that just don't exist in Japanese. The famous example being how R is the same as L, but it's generally not as bad as that "Lip My Tights!" scene from [i]Lost In Translation[/i] though. Students who take English are taught that there's a difference.

edit: I wouldn't be surprised to hear Japanese people pronounce it the American way if they're dealing with Western customers, or can understand English. I was thinking of people who can't speak or read English, and have only the Katakana to go on. It's not a Japanese word anyway, so that is as close as we will get to a "native Japanese" pronounciation.

Edited May 29, 2008 by bnt

[geilerbass]

I also studied Japanese for a short while and was trying to figure out what the Katakana would be, but since I'd never heard a Japanese person say the word, or seen it written down in kana, I had no idea what it would be.

Interestingly, Spanish and Japanese are very similar in terms of their vowel sounds, so it would make more sense if the Japanese pronounced it the Spanish way... though this doesn't appear to be the case.

Edited May 29, 2008 by geilerbass

[bnt]

Have a listen to this: I think he's saying it somewhere between "aye-ba-knee-zu" and "i-ba-knee-zu" ("i" = a short ee sound, like the Spanish Ibáñez). If you look at the tags on that video, [b]both[/b] are given in Katakana. I'm guessing the pronunciation is not nailed down precisely - but he's still following the Katakana, not the American pronunciation.
アイバニーズ = "aye-ba-knee-zu"
イバニーズ "i-ba-knee-zu"

Edited May 29, 2008 by bnt

[BOD2]

Perhaps this is why people buy Fender - at least they won't risk making a fool of themselves when they ask about in a shop

[Bassassin]

[quote name='Dr.Dave' post='208683' date='May 29 2008, 10:56 AM']Mind you - and this is true - for ages when I was a kid I thought Israel had a King called King Born because they made us sing 'born is the king of Israel' at school.[/quote]
Not "[i]Our Father, who art in Heaven, Harold be thy name[/i]"?

"Eye-ban-ezz" appears to be the most common pronunciation - anyone want to try going into a guitar shop & asking about an Eee-ban-yeth, just for a laugh?

Hartke - I have no idea, I'd assume because it looks like it has a Germanic origin, that it might be "Hart-kuh" - but it's probably not!

Anyone noticed some people say "Rickenbocker", or "Rickenbarker"? Weird.

And one that's always confused me is Tokai. "Toe-kay"? "Tok-eye"? However you try & say it, it sounds wrong. Academic, because if Ebay has its way with the evolution of spelling it'll soon be "Tokia".

Jon.

[The Burpster]

Hummn Like I (after a trip to France) had the missfortune to ask for a Meesh-a-lan tyre.....


F++kin bike shop fell about laughing.!

OR

Mark (the correct way of pronouncing) Mach.

[bnt]

[quote name='Bassassin' post='208929' date='May 29 2008, 02:52 PM']Anyone noticed some people say "Rickenbocker", or "Rickenbarker"? Weird.

And one that's always confused me is Tokai. "Toe-kay"? "Tok-eye"? However you try & say it, it sounds wrong. Academic, because if Ebay has its way with the evolution of spelling it'll soon be "Tokia".

Jon.[/quote]
Actually... since Rickenbacker was originally Ricken[b]bach[/b]er, "Rickenbocker" is not that far off.

re Tokai, in Japanese it's written To-ka-i, so you say it in [i]three[/i] syllables, like Toh-kah-ee. (Toh sounds like "soft")

Edited May 29, 2008 by bnt

[geilerbass]

[quote name='Bassassin' post='208929' date='May 29 2008, 02:52 PM']"Eye-ban-ezz" appears to be the most common pronunciation - anyone want to try going into a guitar shop & asking about an Eee-ban-yeth, just for a laugh?[/quote]

A good point - it depends where you're shopping. Obviously for most people, it's going to be a shop in England, so they're going to understand the English way of saying it.

If you ever get the opportunity to go bass shopping in Tokyo and happen to have a penchant for Ibanez, then maybe you'll get a different response. But then again, you'd probably just point at the bass you want to try, rather than messing around trying to make yourself understood.

[BOD2]

Since this has gone a bit "philosophical", can I ask if there actually [i][b]is[/i][/b] a correct way to pronounce a name like that ? Is the correct way not just the "local" way ?

You could take the example of place names. We call the capital city of France "Parr - iss" whereas the French (who you'd think would know better) call it "Parr - ee". Which is correct ? If you went around this country referring to "Parr - ee" you would be accused of pretentiousness, therefore the accepted pronunciation here is "Parr - iss". But perhaps not in Europe.

So...does the correct pronunciation not depend on where you are ?

[geilerbass]

[quote name='BOD2' post='208975' date='May 29 2008, 03:36 PM']Since this has gone a bit "philosophical", can I ask if there actually [i][b]is[/i][/b] a correct way to pronounce a name like that ? Is the correct way not just the "local" way ?

So...does the correct pronunciation not depend on where you are ?[/quote]

No, Yes and Yes to your three questions.

It's contextual - if you want to be understood over here you say Pa-ris. If you want to be inderstood in Paris, it's probably worth saying Pa-ree.

If there is a [i][b]true[/b][/i] way to pronounce a name, logically it should be in the pronunciation of the language from which it was derived. But since there are different ways of pronouncing words even within a single language, a correct/true pronunciation is rarely going to be of any relevance.

Edited May 29, 2008 by geilerbass

[thebeat]

[quote name='queenofthedepths' post='208731' date='May 29 2008, 12:01 PM']Why is he the king of Israel anyway? Jesus was definitely more of a socialist[/quote]




In the same way Elvis was 'The King' but was actually a singer...HTH

[Lfalex v1.1]

As the proud owner of an SRX700, I can reliably inform you I've heard it referred to as an

EYE-BAN-EEE-ZEE!

[johnnylager]

[quote name='queenofthedepths' post='208845' date='May 29 2008, 01:44 PM']Lakeland[/quote]
Or possibly [i]Lawkland[/i] if the accent on the first 'a' is Swedish.

[Viajero]

There was a thread on this about a year ago, if I remember correctly.

I always say Eye-ban-ez, but there's a case for pronouncing it the Spanish way (as it presumably originated), either Ee-ban-eth or Ee-ban-yeth (though there's no ñ so the chance of the latter is slim).

[thebeat]

I pronounce Fender the British way : Bum-per'.