My turn to phonic about - nice thread for twisted heads :lol:
"Epiphone" would be from the Greek "phon" meaning "sound" and the Greek prefix "epi" meaning "above" or "additional to". Stretching it a bit, I suppose the intention was to market it as "better sound".
Problem is, English-speaking people mangle Greek and Latin so badly that there's no way of knowing what's right. I reckoned the "viva voce" oral exam was pronounced "veevah voschay" but everybody else reckoned I was a pretentious git (they called it a "vighvah"). Seeing as "telephone", "Linguaphone" etc are pronounced as they are in English, I'd say "Eh-pee-phone" is the correct guitar moniker. "Epp-i-fon-ee" is 6th January, when Catholic kids get their Christmas presents.
As for Japanese guitars, darned if we know. There's a lot of subtle nuances in pronunciation of SE Asian words. I once had a go at "Happy New Year" in Cantonese but, judging by the guy's face, I'd just said something rude about his mother. For Ibanez, I habitually say "eyeb'n'ez" but, from the little I know about Japanese, that's dead wrong. Locally, it would be more like "ee-bahn-yez". I think that individual syllables aren't emphasized in Japanese, and that "n" is a "nyuh" rather than "unnn"; enya or not. It would fit with the early history of Ibanez, as it sounds a bit like Spanish; regarded as the best makers of acoustics in those days.
"Tiesco" is a real git because vowel digraphs aren't a big feature of the language. In the (almost) words of Bing Crosby, "You say Tyes-co, I say Teas-co (atch, I say Tays-co) ... Let's call the whole thing off". It's probably Ti-esco, but who cares? Made up, stupid name anyway. "Hamer" is definitely Haymer and not Hamer because this one's got to follow simple English rules. If a vowel is followed by a single consonant; it's long (slimer, taper, sloper) and if it's followed by a double consonant; it's short (slimmer, tapper, slopper).
EKO is an Italian outfit, so I'm on firmer ground. It's more like "Echo" or "aicho" than "Eeko", for sure.
I'd be much happier if multi-lingual string-strummers looked in and passed comment, though :D
Just before Lee's train runs over his snoring body, I must mention the importance of being enya to Tim. It's quite festive, too. The "enya" is the squiggle over the letter "n" in Spanish. Can't do it here, so imagine n is the squiggly one:
"Prospero ano nuevo" = Happy New Year
"Prospero ano nuevo" = Happy New Arsehole
Big difference in the look you'll get from the paella-server when you say either of these two phrases.
My turn to phonic about - nice thread for twisted heads :lol:
"Epiphone" would be from the Greek "phon" meaning "sound" and the Greek prefix "epi" meaning "above" or "additional to". Stretching it a bit, I suppose the intention was to market it as "better sound".
Problem is, English-speaking people mangle Greek and Latin so badly that there's no way of knowing what's right. I reckoned the "viva voce" oral exam was pronounced "veevah voschay" but everybody else reckoned I was a pretentious git (they called it a "vighvah"). Seeing as "telephone", "Linguaphone" etc are pronounced as they are in English, I'd say "Eh-pee-phone" is the correct guitar moniker. "Epp-i-fon-ee" is 6th January, when Catholic kids get their Christmas presents.
As for Japanese guitars, darned if we know. There's a lot of subtle nuances in pronunciation of SE Asian words. I once had a go at "Happy New Year" in Cantonese but, judging by the guy's face, I'd just said something rude about his mother. For Ibanez, I habitually say "eyeb'n'ez" but, from the little I know about Japanese, that's dead wrong. Locally, it would be more like "ee-bahn-yez". I think that individual syllables aren't emphasized in Japanese, and that "n" is a "nyuh" rather than "unnn"; enya or not. It would fit with the early history of Ibanez, as it sounds a bit like Spanish; regarded as the best makers of acoustics in those days.
"Tiesco" is a real git because vowel digraphs aren't a big feature of the language. In the (almost) words of Bing Crosby, "You say Tyes-co, I say Teas-co (atch, I say Tays-co) ... Let's call the whole thing off". It's probably Ti-esco, but who cares? Made up, stupid name anyway. "Hamer" is definitely Haymer and not Hamer because this one's got to follow simple English rules. If a vowel is followed by a single consonant; it's long (slimer, taper, sloper) and if it's followed by a double consonant; it's short (slimmer, tapper, slopper).
EKO is an Italian outfit, so I'm on firmer ground. It's more like "Echo" or "aicho" than "Eeko", for sure.
I'd be much happier if multi-lingual string-strummers looked in and passed comment, though :D
Just before Lee's train runs over his snoring body, I must mention the importance of being enya to Tim. It's quite festive, too. The "enya" is the squiggle over the letter "n" in Spanish. Can't do it here, so imagine n is the squiggly one:
"Prospero ano nuevo" = Happy New Year
"Prospero ano nuevo" = Happy New Arsehole
Big difference in the look you'll get from the paella-server when you say either of these two phrases.