Sure, the romaji spelling would lead most Americans to mispronounce it, but given that we are still using a Japanese word it only seems right to say it in the way that Japanese word is said. Don't get me wrong, I don't call people out for saying it the way Americans naturally would, and for a long time I said it wrong myself. However, once I learned a bit about the Japanese language and knew how it should be said it just seemed wrong to continue saying it in a way that is incorrect.

There's a big difference between the fact that Americans call the country Japan and that we mispronounce manga. In one case we are correctly using a word from the English language (Japan is the defined English term for that country), and in another case we are incorrectly saying a foreign word. We have an equivalent term to manga in English -- that word is comics -- when we say manga we are using a Japanese word.

Granted, in conversation with people who don't share my hobby I just refer to them as "Japanese comics" or "graphic novels" since using the Japanese word 'manga' is pretentious and/or alienating to some people who aren't already familiar with the word. In addition I'll let people call manga whatever they want (I've talked with people who refer to manga as 'anime' or 'japanimation'); it just kind of escapes me how people who know better would go on using the wrong pronunciation without making any effort to correct themselves. If you found out you were completely mispronouncing an English word would you go on making the same mistake without a care in the world? If the answer is yes, alteast you're being consistant

Last edited by Kantonata at 5:18 am, May 16 2011

If you're American, chances are high that you butcher the English language at least once a day.

My point (there is one, I swear) is that pronunciation is different according to locale. It doesn't matter if it's your native language or a foreign one.

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The correct way, aka how the Japanese say it. I'm used to it...MAN-ga sounds weird to me now.

I say it the Americanized way from habit, except during the school year during Japanese class...my habits die hard, but I'm trying to kill it.

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Haha -- while you'll get no argument from me that the way we Americans pronounce many English words is extremely ugly, I wouldn't consider us incorrect. I don't think there's any English dialect in existence that is spoken the same as English originally was, so I don't see how you can objectively say any existing dialect of English is the correct one that all speakers should be judged against. There just exists a multitude of separately evolved versions of the English language, all still evolving and changing, all equally "correct".

But to get myself back on topic, I would still argue that pronouncing an English word in a way that is correct in an established dialect but incorrect compared with The Queen's English is a wholly different thing from pronouncing manga in a way that (to my understanding) no native speaker of Japanese would say it. One is correct to a huge community of native speakers and one is correct to no native speakers.

I can see where you're coming from, but to me it's just not comparable and so the incorrect pronunciation of manga will always be just that -- incorrect.

It depends on who im talking to and the mood im it. but i pronouce it both the american way and the japenes way.




To Kantonata - most likely becouse once you get use to saing it one way then you subconsciously say it that way, that is unless its the first time you used the word.

To Turbophoenix - its true that we butcher it. especialy us texans

Pronouncing manga with a "May" sound or anime with an "Ant" sound are wrong, but passable outside of Japan. There are no hard "a"s in Japanese, but obviously not everyone knows this. But if someone says they're into anime/manga and still mispronounce, they deserve a good whack with a volume.

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I know that I should be pronouncing it "mahn-gah" but I still say "mAn-ga."

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Mango. But with an a.

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I've never had someone that is native to the language near so me and my friends who read it all say it like mango without the o too, lol.

Last edited by SerenitySuzy at 1:24 pm, Jun 2 2011

I pronounce it the Japanese way.

The way its supposed to be pronounced. Why is there a thread about this, it should be locked!

yokoso in retarded sekai....
yeah close this thread alredy....its like fist in eye

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R[̲̅ə̲̅٨̲̅٥ ̲̅٦̲̅]ution

When I'm speaking English, I say it the "whitenized" way. I say it the Japanese way when speaking Japanese. I try to say it the Japanese way when speaking English but somehow I always say it wrong without thinking. I don't have that problem at all when speaking Japanese though.

Whenever I feel guilty about pronouncing it "mango with an a", I think of engrish, and then I don't feel so bad anymore.



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