help with a name!

Sorry Tashigae, but Japanese words are pronounced with all of the syllables equally stressed. Most Americans pronounce katana as "kuh-tana," whereas the Japanese pronounce the word as "KA TA NA". And since it is their language, guess who is in error?

Now I am far from an expert, but as I have gleaned from both martial arts, the hoards of Japanese kids at my school, and from years of anime [IMG]http://www.fightingarts.com/forums/ubb/smile.gif[/IMG], the Romanji version of an 'I' in the Japanese language (Nihon-go) is ALWAYS pronounced as an 'e'. The only exceptions are when it is preceded with an 'a' or an 'e', such as with the word 'kiai', which is pronounced as "kee i". Words like 'rei' sound like "ray".

And to answer blade's question, wakizashi would be pronounced "WA Kee ZA Shee." There is some variability on how the 'i' at the end of 'shi' in any word is pronounced. I sometimes hear the expected "shee" or I hear my sensei almost always pronounce wakizashi or kirioroshi as "Wa kee ZA Shh" and "Kee Ree Oh Ro Shh."

I have heard bushi pronounced as "Boo Shh", and I am not talking about how you might pronounce George Dubya's last name. My guess it may be like how Americans shortened "whats up" to "sup". Like Americans, they just get lazy with certain words and possibly my instructor picked up the habit.

[This message has been edited by kenjutsu n00b (edited 04-04-2005).]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by blade:
hey all,

my grand father has a set of swords that he
recently gave me , and i have not a clue how to pronounce "Wakizashi" . the the set includes a tanto, wakizashi, and a katana.
any help would be great!

p.s. this set is olny for my wall,im never going to use them[/QUOTE]

Your a lucky man,
they could be worth a fortune too? Don't let anyone handle them unless they know what there doing. You might want to get them appraised before you hang them on your wall. If they are antiques from Japan please get them looked after correctly, so many family swords just get trashed around without regard of their worth.

thanks ,

the swords are beautiful , and the hamon in the blade is beautifuly visible - well , for that matter all of them are beautiful in my eyes...........but thank you ALL for your help. i think i will get them appriased.

ps ,

NO ONE has , can ,or will touch my swords.
even if they are worth no money , my 81 year old grandfather gave them to me , and in my mind , they are priceless...
thank you all again for your help

blade

Thanks for the info on Japanese language, Kenjutsu noob; I thought French was the only language with all syllables equally stressed...

As fot the I, I think I've heard both ways to pronounce it (plus no pronouncing it at all, as you pointed out) but I thought the short lax was the correct one since as a linguist, I know that this type of vowel is much more prone to "disappear" when at the end of a word (the Japanese sound translitterated by the romanji as U obeys to this rule as well).

I would ask my first instructor, since he's Japanese, but unfortunately I won't see him in a long time because I currently live in another country than my own and won't be back to my motherland before at least one month...