<font color=lime>Karoake, how is it pronounced? The proper way. It drives me nuts how everyone says "Karyoake". Isnt it just
Karoake? I tried searching for the pronunciation on the web, but to no avail... </font>

Actually i think its like this KarIOake

<font color=lime>Why, the E sound? </font>

i dunno its the thing i heard

ask ur Gibberlings maybe they now [img]tongue.gif[/img] [img]smile.gif[/img]

Main Entry: kar·a·o·ke
Pronunciation: "kar-E-'O-kE, k&-'rO-kE, "kä-rä-'O-(")kA
Function: noun
Etymology: Japanese, from kara empty + Oke, short for Okesutora orchestra
Date: 1981
: a device that plays instrumental accompaniments for a selection of songs to which the user sings along and that records the user's singing with the music

OK, when you borrow "foreign" words and try to incorporate them into English you run into problems, particularly when you try to "anglicize" a word that does not have an alphabet as we know it. So, you try to replicate a spellaing of a Japanese word from the original Japanese "kan-ji" (or is iit Kan-gi). Then you have to pronounce the word as close to how it is pronounced in the original language.

My understanding is that spelling is only an approximation of the spoken word and that the spoken word takes precidence.

I hope that Bardan will correct me if I am wrong on this.

Kariokee I think it is...

It's Karaoke, original Japanese. :D

While we're on the subject of nitpicking, I believe it's actually spelled "karaoke". ;)

But on the subject of how to pronounce it...
*grabs his Longman Pronunciation Dictionary*

(as I've got no idea on how to reproduce the phonetic symbols for English, I'll just try to explain it the long way ;) )
The first "a" is similarly pronounced as the a in bad and trap; the second "a" is actually pronounced like the y in happy and the first i in radiation. The "o" is pronounced like the o in no, the oa in goat and the ow in show. The final "e" is pronounced the same way as the second "a" was pronounced. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 06-15-2003, 02:28 PM: Message edited by: Grojlach ]

It drives me nuts when people admonish others on how to properly pronounce a word that they cannot spell properly ;)

Also, Reeka is right. Language is primarily a phenomenon that manifests itself in spoken forms - give precedence to the pronunciation, not the spelling. Don't complain that people do not say the word as it is spelled. Complain that the word is not spelled as it is pronounced.

In any case, people are too hung up on correct pronunciation. We use language for communication, and as long as that is achieved, there is no problem. There are plenty of words that have alternative pronunciations. Tom-ay-to, tom-ah-to. Is one the proper pronunciation, and the other improper? Not at all. We simply have two accepted tokens that both represent the same concept - a tomato. Karaoke is the same. We have 3 tokens that all represent the concept of Karaoke. One is not correct, and the others incorrect. They are all correct because they are all understood as representing the concept.

This is repeated all over the language. Anyone who tries to tell you that there is a proper method of pronunciation that is correct, and any deviations are incorrect, is just a fool.