How to pronounce 'MIIKE (Takashi)'

It seems many foreigners (especially English-speaking people) are puzzled by his family name 'MIIKE'.

So I assembled video snippets where his name is mentioned (relatively clearly).

Mostly they refer him 'Miike-san' (Mr. Miike) or 'Miike Kantoku' (director Miike).

All of these snippets are culled from the supplements of Japanese DVDs of his films,
"Sukiyaki Western Django [スキヤキ・ウエスタン　ジャンゴ]" (2007) and
"The Great Yokai War [妖怪大戦争 (Yôkai Daisensô)]" (2005).

(I hope someone could make "How to pronounce Martin SCORSESE" video.)

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Miike
• Takashi
• 三池崇史
• Sukiyaki Western Django
• The Great Yokai War
• 妖怪大戦争
• Japanese
• movie
• Kaori
• Momoi
• Teruyuki
• Kagawa
• Quentin Tarantino
• Hiroshi
• Aramata

[GummySuit]

It sounds to me like everyone in the video clip is pronouncing it MEE-kay, with the accent on the first syllable. Is that not correct? How would you spell it out phonetically? Granted, I'm American and am pronouncing it in an Americanized manner (imagine if we attempted to correctly pronounce every foreign word while speaking English... hilarious – and/or pretentious!), but I don't want to mangle it, either...

[jadow81]

@GummySuit

As I wrote, I find no problem with MEE-kay in English conversation.

But I want you to KNOW it's different enough to annoy native speakers when it's claimed to be "correct".

Japanese tend to say ZAT when they mean THAT because there's no TH sound in Japanese.

What would you say if a Japanese claims ZAT is "correct" because he can't distinguish TH an Z?

(to be continued)

[jadow81]

@GummySuit wrote: How would you spell it out phonetically?

MIIKE, really. It's a 3-syllable word and two I's are distinguished.

Say MI as in MIchigan, I as in Illinois, KE as in KEntucky.

Semantically it's MI+IKE, not MII+KE.

But I find it futile to describe pronunciation on text.

Sigh. I made the video to avoid this kind of discussion. Apparently I failed.

As I wrote in other post, search MIIKE in FORVO website and listen. That's better.

[jadow81]

I've added CC to describe Japanese words phonetically

in hoping it helps you to spot where "MIIKE" is spoken.

(Sorry for sync problem.)

BTW, there's an easier way to learn the pronunciation.

Try searching "MIIKE" in the website called called FORVO,

where you can hear native speaker's pronunciation.

(Had I known it, probably I wouldn't have uploaded this video.)

[GummySuit]

MEE kay! 

[jadow81]

@GummySuit

I uploaded this video to show it's NOT "MEE-kay".

Of course, it's completely OK for foreigners,

just like Japanese (like me) can't pronounce foreign names correctly (much worse, actually).

But I occasionally find it's claimed to be "correct pronunciation" in English-language websites.

I guess Americans would be annoyed if I say "Kay-ntucky" instead of "Kentucky".

[niedec]

To add to my comment, think of it as two "ee" sounds, and not just holding the one "ee."

When spoken fast, it sounds like you're saying "MEE-kay," but it's closer to "ME-EKAY,"

and the spelling, "Miike," tells you this.

[niedec]

I'm not sure if anyone still has a problem with it, but I figured I'd help. In linguistics, sometimes letters are used for more than sounds. They designate things. In Japanese, there's a standardization for how Japanese sounds should be written in English. One of these is that 'e' makes an "ay" sort of sound, 'a' makes an "ah" sound, and 'i' makes an "ee" sound. The use of the double-I shows that you pronounce the first "ee," and then there's a second "ee" after that.

[Araelyn]

Just sounds like a prolonged "ee" sound.

[druha10304]

i would say meek when i was younger