Hey if this has been done before, my apologies, but on the lighter side of things…for those new to the hobby: a pronunciation guide for the various manufacturers. Sometimes I hear new folks mispronounce a name and then sometimes unfortunately the longtimers will snicker a little so…
Let’s start with Athearn. We’re not all little Fonzies, it’s not Aaaaaythearn. No long “A.” It’s not AT-hern. Or Athrin. Or my personal fave, Atheerion (rhymes with that show car “mysterion”) The “ath” is pronounced like the ath in “math.” When I first got this store one of my distributor reps told me how every once in awhile he got to have lunch with Irv Athearn. He said that Irv pronounced his last name [like it would rhyme with math-urn] and so if that’s how Irv pronounced it, then that was good enough for him as to the proper way to pronounce it!
Bachmann: not Batchman. Bachmann ryhmes with rockman.
Same with Kalmbach: it’s not Kalmbatch. Kalm-bock
Preiser: I’ve heard Preezer (close to Weezer for you youngsters) and Presser but most folks say Pry-zer.
Kibri: Heard Kih-bree and Kirby but most folks say Kee-bree.
Kato: ah, another story. I’d always heard “Kay-toe” then I started to hear “Kah-toe” and one day I found myself at a trade show in the Kato booth. A Japanese gentleman approached me and asked if I had a question. And sure enough I did. While asking the question, I realized while I was talking that eventually I was gonna have to say the name of the company! I didn’t want to be rude and mispronounce the name…couldn’t think of a way to get out of it so I just stopped and said "I’m sorry…is it “Kay-toe” or “Kah-toe?” He looked at me sternly and said in a serious tone: “It’s KAH-toe.” But then I called Schaumburg for parts one day and the girl answered the phone “Kay-toe USA” so go figure.
Walthers: make sure the “h” gets in there. It’s not “Walters”…then again it’s not Walt-Hers either.
Peco: Most folks say “Pee-koe” some say “Pay-koe”…I’m really
OTM,
Thanks for the in-depth and entertaining guide! I have been guilty of a couple of the examples above. And there are a couple that I have not heard of, but now I at least know how to correctly pronounce their names.
Oh yeah, Jaeger brought back some fuzzy memories!! (Jagermeister)
Dave
They all look good, except for Mantua. If you say Man-two-uh, you’ll get some strange looks. The folks down here in South Jersey, in the town of Mantua, where the trains started out, pronounce it Man-chew-uh. Same thing for the Mantua section of Philadelphia.
A few hicks pronounce it Man-cha, but they are very few.
And I’ve always heard Paasche pronounced, Pa-shay.
When I was in high school, I worked in a hobby shop owned by a German who had been (Honest to God) in the Hitler Youth. He still had the accent. To him, it was Mark-lynn, Pry-zer, Kee-bree (But he kind of rolled the r a little.), and Vollmer he sometimes said Wole-mer and sometimes Vole-mer. If memory serves, he said Noch, like knock.
We pronounce it Kalm-bock; the Germans pronounce it Kaam-bock. We pronounce it Man-two-ah; the eye-tahl-yuns pronounce it Man-chew-ah. Koester is supposed to be pronouned Custer just like the colonel.
Some years back when they were having the Winter Olympics in Japan they kept pronouncing Nagato as Naw-gawToe; I had always pronounced it as Nawgaw-toe (it was a Japanese Battleship sunk in the Operations Crossroads atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll in 1946-47). I had never heard the Japanese pronounce the (ancient) name of their country as Yaw-MawToe but it, and another of those battleships, as YawMaw-Toe. Anyway, they kept pronouncing it Naw-GawToe; finally, one of the announcers came on and said that, depending on where you were from in Japan, both were correct. Try Hero-shima or hiroshi-maw; try Kaw-toe or Kay-toe. Apparently Japan has dialectic pronunciations like anyone else. Try ant or awnt on for size.
In Arizona they have a town called Ajo; ah-ho. I didn’t know how to pronounce it so, when passing through one day, I stopped at this fast food place for some refreshment and some enlightenment. “How do you pronounce the name of this place?” I ask. My inquiry brought a contemptuous glance from the girl behind the counter. “You,” she said, “are the fifth person today to ask that question. It’s pronounced Day-ree-Kween!” That’s Ajo for you! If you live in Arizona you have to have a strong sense of Yuma! Unless you live in Nowhere which is just west of Presscut or in whey which is spelled Why and is located just south of Day-Ree-Kween.
And the Tucson, Cornelia, and Gila Bend (that’s Heela Bend) never got anywhere near Cornelia, Arizona because there ain’t no such animal.
The correct German pronunciation of Vollmer sounds more like “FULL-muh.” When speaking English, I remember the German students I was with (high school exchange program) had trouble with the W sound, and since in German W is pronounced how we pronounce V, and their V is pronounced how we pronounce F, they sometimes mistakenly pronounced our V words with a W, hence your occasional Wole-mer. But for those of us Vollmers who have lived in the States for several generations, VOLE-mer is fine, though our relatives back in Germany most often use “FULL-muh.”
Oh, and Marklin (with an umlaut on the A) would be more like MAIRK-lin. Auf Deutsch, naturlich.
My wife, who is Japanese, assures me that the correct pronunciation of Kato is “kah-toe”
Many foreign words that have become part of the American vernacular have different pronunciation from their original roots. This is due to either the people using the word not being aware of the original pronunciation, or deliberately changing the pronunciation to make it easier for English speakers to pronounce. So just because an Amerian girl works for Kato USA, and pronounces it “KAY-toe,” doesn’t mean that’s necessarily the correct way. Although, I am surprised that the company wouldn’t take some measure to educate their own employees about how to pronounce the company name.
If it is German, then Noch would be pronounced with the hard O, as in “know” or “knowk” as One Track stated. Only did two semesters of German in college, but this one I’m pretty sure of.
Arizona doesn’t have a monopoly on odd pronunciations! The state capital of South Dakota is spelled like a French masculine name, but pronounced like the thing you tie a ship to, or maybe an English member of the House of Lords - (Pierre - “PIER” or “PEER”) Say “Pee-AIR” and you’re sure to get some odd looks.
Incidentally, the TC&GB actually ran from Cornelia (aka, New Cornelia Copper Co., south of Ajo) to Gila Bend. The place it never got anywhere near was Tucson.
Chuck (has family in Tucson - TWO-san, not TUCK-sun)
Wait a minute PAUL!!! Those New England pronunciations are BOSTONIAN. The rest of New England do not paaak the caaar in the garaaaage. PLEASE do not lump us with all those who live inside of route 128 ( Bostonians and their “Kennedy” accents. LOL
Mike is definitely correct about Mantua being properly pronounced as Man-Chew-uh. I used to call the factory regularly years ago and the sceretary always pronounced it that way when answering the phone. This has also been pointed out in the pages of MR but not in many years.
With regard to Japanese names, it is typical to pronounce them two letters at a time, thus Kato is Kah-toe. A vowel does not normally accentuate another vowel preceding it, as would be the case in English. However, if the name starts with a vowel, it will be be pronounced alone, as in Abe being Ah-bee or Ikeya being I-keh-ya.
Marklin is pronounced Mare-klin, according to my daughter, who takes German in college.