tonto/tanto whats up?

To me, the funniest mispronounced Japanese word by Americans is hara kiri. Americans pronounce it "hairy-carry". And it's actually extremely difficult to write out how it should sound phonetically, but it's more like hah-rhah kee-rhee". Though even that's incorrect. There are no true "R" sounds in Japanese, and what I wrote as "RH" is kind of a quick, rolling sound that's impossible to precisely capture phonetically in English.

Jim
 
Heh, I always thought when someone was talking about hara kiri, that they were talking about "Hairy Carry" the old baseball anouncer... Wasn't until I heared it mentioned along with sepuku(sp?). I think it comes from Americans here that kind of, just prounounce it how they think it's supposed to be when they read it. Kind of like some guys when they saw/heard "gracias" they prounced it "grassy-ass".

stog75, don't worry even other Americans have problems understanding peple from Boston. :P Hehe I kid guys!!!

I've always heard about the phonetic differences between the letters "r" and "l" and it makes me think of what certain English words would sound like from a Japanese speaker.
 
Grassy-ass! That one is CLASSIC!
Now if you don't mind I have to go Pahhk my Cahhh. :)
 
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