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Daisuke Matsuzaka

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Daisuke Matsuzaka
What is the pronunciation of Daisuke Matsuzaka as he would like it? Thanks.

j.brooks at xmradio d0t com
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Re: Daisuke Matsuzaka
[ Author: nanbanjin | Posted: Oct 12, 2006 11:15 AM | HAN Fan ]

I'm not an English native speaker, so I probably shouldn't be doing this but, anyway, here goes:

Daisuke: "Daisu" like "dice" - "ke" like "care" without the "r" at the end. Stress on the first syllable: DAIsuke

Matsuzaka: "Matsu" like "Matt's" - only the A would be like the one in Boston's "pahk the cah." I cannot find any similar words for "zaka" but it should be pretty straightforward, something like "zah-kah". Just remember to pronounce all the As with the same AH sound. Stress on the first and third: MAtsuZAka

Hope it helped.
Re: Daisuke Matsuzaka
[ Author: mijow | Posted: Oct 12, 2006 11:15 PM | HT Fan ]

Good explanation, but it's important not to make the vowels too long. For some reason many Americans tend to mangle Japanese pronunciation because they don't get the vowels right (even extremely fluent speakers).

So zah-kah should just be plain old za-ka. And don't overdo the stress.
Re: Daisuke Matsuzaka
[ Author: Guest: Linguist | Posted: Jul 10, 2007 7:07 AM ]

[Old Thread Warning]

English speakers have trouble with Japanese vowels because Japanese has what are called unvoiced vowels (which occur between certain consonant sounds - like s and k, whereas English does not. As a result, English speakers will tend to pronounce these vowels. Furthermore, English vowels tend to be longer than vowels in Japanese, anyway.
Re: Daisuke Matsuzaka
[ Author: mijow | Posted: Jul 11, 2007 9:31 AM | HT Fan ]

- English speakers will tend to pronounce these vowels.

Yes, but not all English speakers are the same. I'd humbly suggest that Americans tend to have more trouble getting Japanese vowels right than some other native speakers of English. Just my observation.

- Furthermore, English vowels tend to be longer than vowels in Japanese, anyway.

Are they? I think it's important to recognize the variety in English. As I said, not all speakers are the same. My long vowels in English are about the same as those in Japanese.
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