# How do you say Nikon



## Daniel 78d (Sep 11, 2014)

I know it's another brand and probably a dead horse but I watched a thing on tv from the 70's and they were saying it like Ny-kon the way they say it now in the US but in Japan it's pronounced like Nee-kon. What do think about this little problem I have since I say the latter.


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## 9VIII (Sep 11, 2014)

I'll take either of those over the slang "Nik'n" (where the "Nik" rhymes with "lick").


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## mjbehnke (Sep 11, 2014)

I think it's pronounced So-knee-kon. 

That's just a guess.


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## ejenner (Sep 11, 2014)

I don't use the N-word and I don't like people around me using it either.


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## scottkinfw (Sep 11, 2014)

That is politically correct.



ejenner said:


> I don't use the N-word and I don't like people around me using it either.


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## Daniel 78d (Sep 11, 2014)

ejenner said:


> I don't use the N-word and I don't like people around me using it either.



I guess I should have started the topic with something like "How do you say N#@%" ;D


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## Omni Images (Sep 11, 2014)

it's Nik-on ... not Nyk-on
Mick ... Mike
Lick, Like .. there is no E in Nikon ... as in Nikeon


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## Steve (Sep 11, 2014)

Real Americans know that Nikon rhymes with icon.


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## Jim Saunders (Sep 11, 2014)

Steve said:


> Real Americans know that Nikon rhymes with icon.



My other answer - had you not got to this one first - would have been "only under duress."

Jim


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## pwp (Sep 11, 2014)

Steve said:


> Real Americans know that Nikon rhymes with icon.


That may be so, but elsewhere on this nice, diverse blue planet, some say Knee-con, some say Nick-on, some say po-tayto and some say po-tarto, some say toe-mayto and some say toe-marto. 

As a slight digression, in the late 1800's George Eastman knew he was on a winner with his inexpensive box camera which subsequently sold it's socks off and made George an absolute fortune. He wanted a name for his camera and film that could be easily pronounced in any language on the planet. The word Kodak is an invention.

In 1884, Eastman patented the first film in roll form to prove viable; he had been tinkering at home to develop it. In 1888, he perfected the Kodak camera, the first camera designed specifically for roll film. In 1892, he established the Eastman Kodak Company, in Rochester, New York. It was one of the first firms to mass-produce standardized photography equipment. The company also manufactured the flexible transparent film, devised by Eastman in 1889, which proved vital to the subsequent development of the motion picture industry.

So thanks George!

-pw


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## sagittariansrock (Sep 11, 2014)

You don't 8)


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## Daniel 78d (Sep 11, 2014)

I wonder if any American solders got beat up in World War II for asking what sour kraut tasted like?


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## Sporgon (Sep 11, 2014)

If you were to pronounce Nikon as an English word it is 'Ny con' because the i is followed by a single k. The i is pronounced soft (long). However the Nikkor lenses have a double k so the i is pronounced hard (short).


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## Daniel 78d (Sep 11, 2014)

Sporgon said:


> If you were to pronounce Nikon as an English word it is 'Ny con' because the i is followed by a single k. The i is pronounced soft (long). However the Nikkor lenses have a double k so the i is pronounced hard (short).



I loved language arts in school and I think your right. That actually makes sense, here I thought Nikon USA was just trying to sound big


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## ULFULFSEN (Sep 11, 2014)

Nikon is not an english company and sure not an American company.... so i prefer to pronounce it like the japanese do.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Nikon.ogg

further doubts?
this is nikon's official 90th anniversary commemorative video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFUcOrs5LrM


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## Hillsilly (Sep 11, 2014)

I use "Nick-on" (which seems confirmed in the video). But I do notice a lot of people saying "N-icon".


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## Sporgon (Sep 11, 2014)

Pronunciation of some words in the English language is a strange thing. I mentioned Nikon and Nikkor before but there is also the pronunciation of 'Canon'. Cannon ( things that go boom) is pronounced with a hard (short) 'a' due to the double n, so really Canon should be pronounced with a soft a, like 'Kay non', but it is not, and neither is a church order of canon, which is still pronounced with a hard 'a'. 

You can see where Noah Webster was coming from when he tried to change the written English word to be written as it sounded. He pretty much failed, but to this day this is still why the Americans can't spell words like 'rumour'


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## infared (Sep 11, 2014)

I say Potatoe.


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## infared (Sep 11, 2014)

:


sagittariansrock said:


> You don't 8)



LOL! That made my morning!


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## Phenix205 (Sep 11, 2014)

We Americans tend to pronounce the foreign words based on what we think sounds right without being too bothered by how they are pronounced in the native language. So we say it as in icon. It makes it sound more American English, which is smoother and more relaxing than any other English in the world. No offense to our UK or Aussie friends here. Totally personal opinion.


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## zim (Sep 11, 2014)

Paatayyytoe....... I like potatoes


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## DominoDude (Sep 11, 2014)

I say Nikk-on. I believe that I tend to stay rather close to Japanese pronunciation after spending many years in dojos. But I couldn't draw/type Nikon in hiragana or katakana even if I had a gun to my head.


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## StudentOfLight (Sep 11, 2014)

It is a Japanese name so I go with the Japanese Pronunciation: "Knee+Con"


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## madmailman (Sep 11, 2014)

Those damn Yanks have broken our language. 

There is no winning this argument just like how to pronounce the element with the atomic number 13 in my own household. The missus with her Phd in material science tries to pull rank and say it's Aluminum and I try to correct her saying it's Aluminium because what the hell does a Yank know. And yes I sleep quite comfortably on the sofa, thanks.

Actually it's either a Canon or it's the one with the sh#@y lenses (i.e. Sony, Nikon, Samsung etc etc).


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## neuroanatomist (Sep 11, 2014)

You have to really elongate the 'i' and the 'o' is shortened... "Niiiiiiiiiii-cone." 

Of course, that pronunciation only applies if you're singing about a popular brand of color reversal film that makes you think all the world's a sunny day, oh yeah. 

;D


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## Old Sarge (Sep 11, 2014)

neuroanatomist said:


> You have to really elongate the 'i' and the 'o' is shortened... "Niiiiiiiiiii-cone."
> 
> Of course, that pronunciation only applies if you're singing about a popular brand of color reversal film that makes you think all the world's a sunny day, oh yeah.
> 
> ;D



But they took it away....after I asked them politely not to...


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## sagittariansrock (Sep 11, 2014)

I used to pronounce it "Knick-on" back when I was using the delightful FM-10, the first SLR I used. Coming to US has made me change to "Ny-kon" which sounds less pleasant IMO.


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## sagittariansrock (Sep 11, 2014)

infared said:


> :
> 
> 
> sagittariansrock said:
> ...



You're welcome! 
Sorry that you have such an uneventful morning that rolling eyes at just _one_ thing makes it worthwhile...


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## justawriter (Sep 11, 2014)

Phenix205 said:


> We Americans tend to pronounce the foreign words based on what we think sounds right without being too bothered by how they are pronounced in the native language. So we say it as in icon. It makes it sound more American English, which is smoother and more relaxing than any other English in the world. No offense to our UK or Aussie friends here. Totally personal opinion.


It's true. There is a fairly large group in my area descended from the Metis and they have anglicized most of the names so you run into a lot of Doo-boys (Dubois), Bow-CHAMP (Beauchamp) and Bushies (Boucher).


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## distant.star (Sep 11, 2014)

.
Pronunciation, so fraught with danger, especially when gender politics are involved.

Many years ago I was on a date. In the Italian restaurant, she asked me how to correctly say "minestrone." I don't recall that night having a happy ending.


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## joejohnbear (Sep 11, 2014)

It's "Knee" and a short "kon." Just pronounce it right. Some people like to put their own name on things like "Cathay" or "China," referring to porcelain gained through trade on the silk road, instead of addressing the native word "zhong guo" or translated meaning "Middle Kingdom/Central State." It's kind of insensitive and ethnocentric as compared to how some other languages directly import cognates, etc, such as Japan's use of "doitsujin" for German peoples. I used to pronounce it Naaaaaiiiiiy-kOHn like good southerner until I roomed with Taiwanese and Japanese student in college.


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## unfocused (Sep 11, 2014)

The company can't seem to decide on what to call itself either. 

Depending on where you are located, looks like it can be Nike-on, Knee-con, or Knick-on. They are all simultaneously correct and incorrect, just depending on where you happen to be at the time. 

Google their commercials and you'll hear it pronounced all three ways depending on the market.


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## ULFULFSEN (Sep 11, 2014)

for me it counts how the japanese say it.

who cares how americans pronounce "münchen" or "köln".. i have yet to know one that can pronoune it correct. ;D


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## lo lite (Sep 11, 2014)

distant.star said:


> Many years ago I was on a date. In the Italian restaurant, she asked me how to correctly say "minestrone." I don't recall that night having a happy ending.



Since I am german and not american I don't get that joke. How did you pronounce it?


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## 9VIII (Sep 11, 2014)

lo lite said:


> distant.star said:
> 
> 
> > Many years ago I was on a date. In the Italian restaurant, she asked me how to correctly say "minestrone." I don't recall that night having a happy ending.
> ...



I think the punchline is that all women are "experts" on grammar and it doesn't matter what you say, you're probably wrong.
In other words... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F4qzPbcFiA
That's my guess.


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## ifp (Sep 11, 2014)

I would guess to a Japanese ear, no matter how we pronounce it, we are butchering it.


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## AcutancePhotography (Sep 12, 2014)

lo lite said:


> distant.star said:
> 
> 
> > Many years ago I was on a date. In the Italian restaurant, she asked me how to correctly say "minestrone." I don't recall that night having a happy ending.
> ...



It has to do with that pesky last letter "e". A lot of people don't know what to do with a word that ends in a vowel, especially an E.

Is it a silent E?
Or do you pronounce the E?
If you do pronounce the E, how do you pronounce the E; hard or soft?

Is the soup Min-is-tron
or is it Min-is-tron-ee
or is it Min-is-tron-a (soft e)

We here in 'merca don't like them "foureign" words much 

How do we pronounce Ministrone in 'merican?

"Vegetable soup with them noodles in it". LoL


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## Click (Sep 12, 2014)

AcutancePhotography said:


> How do we pronounce Ministrone in 'merican?
> 
> "Vegetable soup with them noodles in it". LoL



;D


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## Don Haines (Sep 12, 2014)

We pronounce it the same way people in "Dog River" pronounce "Wollerton"...

(A reference that only Canadians will get  )


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## blackcat (Sep 12, 2014)

In Australia it is pronounced "Nick-on" instead of "Ny-Kon."


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## andrewflo (Sep 12, 2014)

The Japanese Nikon is pronounced "Nee-kon"

The Nee is like the word "knee"

the Kon is pronounced not so much like "Kahn" but like "Kohn"


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## dcm (Sep 12, 2014)

Just can't get Paul Simon out of my head since this thread started... And they did take his Kodachrome away. 

http://www.paulsimon.com/us/music/paul-simons-concert-park-august-15-1991/kodachrome


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## mkabi (Sep 14, 2014)

mjbehnke said:


> I think it's pronounced So-knee-kon.
> 
> That's just a guess.



Might as well call it Sony's Con.


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## gargamel (Sep 15, 2014)

There are, at least, two threads on the DPReview forum on this topic, with some quite entertaining posts. See:

How do you pronounce Nikon?
http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/39524940

There is only one correct way of pronouncing. not several... 
http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/26898358

How do you pronounce Nikon?
http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/39514660

Correct pronunciation of Nikon
http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/19773877


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## Richard8971 (Sep 15, 2014)

Hmm, never really thought about this.

I would just say that the general accepted pronunciation is "Ni-kon" just like the vast majority of Americans say it. Maybe it's changed over the decades but does it really matter? 

"Kan-won" has changed also... Nobody seems to mind the way we say it today. 

D


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## eml58 (Sep 15, 2014)

ULFULFSEN said:


> further doubts?
> this is nikon's official 90th anniversary commemorative video:



6 minutes 20 seconds of absolute agony listening to that music, I now better understand the phrase "music to commit suicide by", definite category winner.

But at least now I also have a better understanding of how to say "Nikon", rather than how I used to say it "Nikon", which is basically just pronouncing the word the way it's spelt, as in "Nikon", appreciated, I just wasted 10 minutes of my life .


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## AcutancePhotography (Sep 15, 2014)

The bottomline is that whether you say "ni-kon" or "ne-kon", people will understand.


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## Chapman Baxter (Oct 3, 2014)

I'm just glad that George Dubya Bush is no longer continuing America's war on "tourism". I feel safer as a tourist in America now.

Anyway, IMHO Nikon is as much "Nye-kon" as Canon is "Cay-non".


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