It’s funny, I never quite know what to do about pronouncing place names correctly in the US. It’s sort of like the Latino news correspondents who pronounce their own names correctly — it often enrages viewers as sounding “pretentious” though it certainly doesn’t bug me. If I say “TO-kyo” then people kind of squint, and then I have to say, “You know, Toe-KEE-yo” and then people go “Ohhh!! Wait. How did you say that? Wait. I can’t say it that way. Wait. Is that the right way to say it? Why do you say it that way over here?”

On the flip side, I feel really strange pronouncing things with an American accent in Japan. For years my mother argued with my grandfather that “Los” was a stupid way to refer to Los Angeles because “Los” essentially means “the,” but now she’s given up. I find myself just saying “Los” without really thinking about it in Japan; people would wonder what the heck I was saying if I pronounced Los Angeles like an American.

Finally, I had a really hard time understanding one of my uncles who was trying to tell me about his trip to “Taichi.” I couldn’t understand what he was talking about and he couldn’t understand why I couldn’t understand, and finally he said, “You know, it’s an island near Guam.” And then I said, “Oh! Tahiti!” I am not sure that there is a really elegant and standard way out of these situations — you’re sort of damned if you do and damned if you don’t.

I was not so much outraged as curious as to why a seasoned news anchor based in Asia for many years, whose professional job it is is to know how to pronounce words in her or his region of the world ….. As for the average person, anything goes, and whatever people say, right or wrong, is okay with me. But i just expect MORE from a CNN anchor. I am sure she will agree, and recognize her mistake later. I emailed her and am waiting her response.

A few months ago, a different CNN anchor pronounced geisha as GEE SHA, and he is also in Hong Kong, and when i emailed him, he quickly replied and said ”yes, it should be geisha, thanks for pointing that out”.

I am sure Ms Stout will also note the correction later. a good journalist always acknowledges their mistakes.

But again, in daily conversation, East or West, people can mix things up as they wish. I was not judging anyone, just wondering how someone based in Asia didn’t have a clue. But then again, her experience has been in China and HK, and maybe she has not been to Japan very often. so i also understand how she made the mistake. Me? I mispronounce words all the time. So i know how easy it is to do it. CAPISH?

Usually, news reporters in a broadcast operation, be it radio or TV, have a pronounciation guide (sp) — is it pronounciation or pronunciation, I can never remember — so anyone working at CNN or BBC or any TV outlet should know the correct way to say all the words in a news report, and if they don’t, they should get advice from the on-air producer. I mean, CNN is a high-end top-notch big-bucks operation, so one expects them to do their job. Had it been an American or British reporter reading the news on air in the USA or the UK, no problem, everyone makes mistakes, but this was a Asia-based reporter who has made a career for herself in Asia.

She is very good, and her personality on air is professional and friendly. This was just one little faux-pas, no big deal.

Still, I just wonder if anyone at CNN cares. I emailed to ten staffers there in HK and one day later, not one reply. I guess the customer is not king at CNN. Except for Larry King.

[Sigh]

I think you have to go with what people are expecting to hear and will recognise. It’s just a general conversational politeness, isn’t it? Even if you speak the language and can pronounce the name correctly in that language, it’s often irrelevant when you’re speaking another language. Yes, I think this is a good rule of thumb and, as you point out, an example of “conversational politeness.” It’s probably also why when I was younger (and less patient) I tended to insist on proper pronunciation, but now try to be a bit more fluid. It’s less pretentious and certainly much easier on the listener.

I think that characterization of vowel devoicing is accurate, Duo; to clarify, while the devoicing described is nearly universal in normal Japanese conversation, “the devoicing of vowels is not crucial” means that it’s not crucial for understanding — to Japanese ears, “yoko-sooka” is equal to “yoko-ska” even though the former sounds funny. And the former is more understandable for most of the English audience.
This is a different sort of thing from “to-kee-o” (Tokyo), “kee-o-to” (Kyoto), and other standard English pronunciations (soo-na-mee, kari-oki, etc) which don’t map to the proper words in Japanese.

Hm, thanks for the explanation, so it’s basically understandable but bad form. I got’cha.

YOKO-SOOKA as a pronunciation is acceptable. It’s not the norm, but it’s not incorrect, certainly not to the degree that it would warrant criticism or letters to CNN.

Also, for the person who claimed not to have, as yet, met any military person who could pronounce Yokosuka correctly: your small sample must not have included any sailors or family members who were actually assigned to the US Naval base in Yokosuka (or the nearby Atsugi NAF). Out of thousands, I’ve yet to meet a single one who doesn’t conform to the standard pronunciation within the first few weeks of living there. But then your prejudice is exposed when you stroke your broad brush so casually: “living in their own continual drunken stupor”. I suggest you come out of your own cocoon.

And besides, your condescension is unworthy on the simple fact that even if, in their “stupor,” they pronounce it YOKO-SOOKA, it is still technically acceptable. (Overly accenting the ‘oo’ syllable would be the most egregious linguistic crime.)