[tilt]

Originally Posted by StarrySky

I think the "en" in Renault should be pronounced as you would pronounce "en" in "entrée", for example.

Er... I am afraid not. It is as Deetjohn said. Ray-no.

Cheers

[drivebyfire]

Nice thread this! I consider proper pronunciation of foreign car brands as a differentiating factor between a car enthusiast vs someone with a casual interest.

My doubts about saying Renault are finally laid to rest with this thread.

Having some with pronunciation never hurts anyone but there is no point in taking it too seriously either - case in point, native pronunciation of Mercedes - I think I will go with how the US journos say it.

Would like to drop in this 30sec Mighty Car Mods video of how Japanese people vocalize their car companies!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l8xFCLB1m8

[StarrySky]

Originally Posted by tilt

Er... I am afraid not. It is as Deetjohn said. Ray-no.

Cheers

This video shows how I remember native French speakers pronounce the name.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyK4qVsiOLc

[Pferdestarke]

Adding a few more to the list:

Maserati: What we usually call it "mas-er-ati". Actual pronunciation should be like "ma-ze-raati"

Lamborghini: Many get this raging bull wrong. It should be "lam-ber-gini" instead of "lam-boor-ghini"

Ferrari: Call it "fur-ari" not "fer-rari"

Jaguar: Seems simple eh? This one's little tricky. The British call it "jag-you-ar" whereas Americans with their fancy accent say "jag-wahr"

[Guru_DTSi]

I honestly do not see what's the big deal in this. Enthusiasm is usually for the car, not for the native language of the region where the brand emerged.
As Shakespeare said, "What's in a name?"...

[Divya Sharan]

Originally Posted by Guru_DTSi

I honestly do not see what's the big deal in this. Enthusiasm is usually for the car, not for the native language of the region where the brand emerged.
As Shakespeare said, "What's in a name?"...

Well, it for me is important that people get the name right. It is my identity. So if someone calls me AlphaBetaGamma just because of his native language, I won't be able to respond.
We should rather imbibe this feeling of responsibility in our children from their early days so that they do the same too.
Also, this goes not just for the pronunciation, but spelling too.

[noopster]

Originally Posted by Guru_DTSi

I honestly do not see what's the big deal in this. Enthusiasm is usually for the car, not for the native language of the region where the brand emerged.
As Shakespeare said, "What's in a name?"...

Assuming your first name is Guru (or some variant thereof) doesn't it annoy the hell out of you when someone calls you "Guh-roo" or "Gooo-roo" (the first oo drawn out too long for comfort)?

Names are always special. It's always appreciated when someone takes the effort to say yours right. Since carmakers are typically associated with national pride, such discussions are always interesting (Not to mention entertaining).

Anyone has anything on Swedish names? Volvo (is it Vawl-voh or something arcane like Fulh-fuh ). And what about Saab?

[Pferdestarke]

Originally Posted by noopster

Anyone has anything on Swedish names? Volvo (is it Vawl-voh or something arcane like Fulh-fuh ). And what about Saab?

Adding Swedish marques too. But their vernacular pronunciations sound quite twisty. Hence I follow the way how Brits pronunciate them.

Saab: "saw-b" or "sah-b" The "aa" part shouldn't be drawn-out much.

Volvo: "vuhl-voh"

Koenigsegg: "kuhn-ig-zegg"

[Santoshbhat]

What about our desi manufacturers? Maruti becomes Marudee in many southern regions.

[Guru_DTSi]

Originally Posted by Divya Sharan

Well, it for me is important that people get the name right. It is my identity. So if someone calls me AlphaBetaGamma just because of his native language, I won't be able to respond.
We should rather imbibe this feeling of responsibility in our children from their early days so that they do the same too.
Also, this goes not just for the pronunciation, but spelling too.

Responsibility in children to make sure they pronounce non-native names all over the world? I would rather teach them to be courteous to all.

Originally Posted by noopster

Assuming your first name is Guru (or some variant thereof) doesn't it annoy the hell out of you when someone calls you "Guh-roo" or "Gooo-roo" (the first oo drawn out too long for comfort)?

Names are always special. It's always appreciated when someone takes the effort to say yours right. Since carmakers are typically associated with national pride, such discussions are always interesting (Not to mention entertaining).

Anyone has anything on Swedish names? Volvo (is it Vawl-voh or something arcane like Fulh-fuh ). And what about Saab?

Annoyed, yes. When a native speaker messes it up. Expecting a non-native person to pronounce names correctly would be utopian.

[sgiitk]

Originally Posted by Added_flavor

Nice one! I am surprised Škoda isn't included in the list. It is one of the most mispronounced names in India IMO.

Škoda: Almost everybody pronounces it as Sko-da. However, the correct pronunciation is Shh-ko-da.

Glad, since after their service fiascos I have always called the shh-koda, and that thymes with another word starting with sh.. Now I can continue to use the name foever. Thanks.

[VeluM]

I knew all except Lancia and Mazda. Whether I pronounce them or not is in context to whom I am speaking, because pronouncing them the way they are "supposed" to be (by a native of that language) comes across as being posh or pretentious in general conversation at home or with friends/colleagues.

Agree with sgiitk on the association benefits of calling Skoda "sh-koda"

[GTO]

Originally Posted by ariesonu

Wouldn't it be fun to find out how MARUTI, MAHINDRA, HINDUSTAN, EICHER or SONALIKA is pronounced by non-Indians.

Not too bad actually. Our brand names are much easier than the German & French ones.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2EjDHF7NUg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZUPJOSyxtA

[hemanth.anand]

Why do we pronounce foreign names differently and many times in the the wrong way? Why are Indian (or even Japanese or Korean) Brand names are better pronounced by westerners? IMO it's more to do with the script of the language (or the absence of a separate script for many European languages)

German, French, Czech do not have a separate script and use the same letters of the English Alphabet. However, many letters are differently pronounced.
In English J says Jey as in Jump
In German J (yot) says ya as in Yak
In English V says we
In German V say fou
This is where the problem comes from.

When we write everything else in an article/brochure in English, we should write brand names in English too. But we don't do that, we write in German.
for example in an English brochure if had written a sentence like Folkswagon is a good brand, no one would pronounce it in the wrong way
but we write Volkswagen is a good brand. Volkswagen is an German word. Anyone who has only the knowledge of English and does not know anything of German, will only read Volkswagen in English and pronounce how he has learnt English and his pronunciation will be vo-L-ks-wa-gen
Same thing goes for Chevrolet...Any person who knows only English will say ch-ev-ro-let

When everything in a sentence belongs to one language then there is no scope for any mis-pronunciation
Writing Volkswagen is a good brand is like writing महिंद्रा is a good Brand.
Volkswagen ist eine gute Marke is equal to महिंद्रा एक अच्छा ब्रांड है
In English it should ideally be Folkswagon is a good brand which will then be equal to Mahindra is a good brand and there is no scope for any confusion
But it is Volkswagen(german script) is a good Brand(english script) which is equal to महिंद्रा(hindi Script) is a good Brand(English Script)
Like how a person who can't read Devanagari script cannot read the second sentence correctly, any one who doesn't know German script cannot read the first sentence correctly.

But for Indian brands, When we write a word from Indian language in English, we spell as per the sound the word makes. महिंद्रा is written as Mahindra. Hence there is very less scope for any mis-pronunciation. Same holds good for other brandnames from languages which have a different script

On a lighter note, When some of my colleagues first went to Germany, their names were pronounced differently by Germans. Vijay was pronounced fi-yey and Brijesh became Bree-yesh

This problem is faced when I go to Kerala or Tamilnadu. there are places like Alappuzzha and Kozhikode. When I was young, I used to read it as al-a-poo-za and ko-zee-code. But now I know that it is pronounced in a totally different way!

[RajaTaurus]

Back in 87' I was taught in Germany by a Dutch guy how to pronounce the French car name "Renault" and it sounded "Raa-Nu". It is not Re but Raa with second 'a' half. May be a French guy would be able to say it right.!