Pronounciation

[Maygan]

How do you say Uechi-ryu? I have absolutely no idea and I was just wondering how it is said. Luv ya all

[hwarang]

u(as in Sue)-etch(as in sketch)-ee(as in teeth)-reeu(ee as in teeth, u as in Sue). There is no strong accent on any syllable.

[hwarang]

I think, though, that some people might pronounce it in other ways. One other possible way is: u(as in Sue)-ay(as in hay)-chee(as in cheetah)-reeu(ee as in teeth, u as in Sue - some people deemphasize the ee sound so that you hardly hear it; so: u-ay-chee-r(ee)u). When people pronounce it this way, they sometimes put a slight emphasis on the "ay" syllable.

[Malcolm Wagner]

Nowhere near an expert on pronunciation, but I have heard it as "Way-she-ryu". I have also heard "Ryu" pronounced with almost a "D" sound at the start (like "drew" with a rolling "r" sound).

Side note---Okinawan's have trouble with the "L" sound and often replace it with a "D" sound. Think about it, do you know any Okinawan words that even have an "L" in it?

Mal (has trouble with Louisiana-English) Wagner

[Scott Danziger]

Way-Chee-Ru

[Bill Glasheen]

Scott's approach is the KISS approach for all you folks out there that refuse to learn the phonetics of another language. <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote

Way-Chee-Ru

Whenever I have 30 seconds to tell a TV reporter how to pronounce it, that is exactly what I write down on a piece of paper (actually Way-Chee-Roo). Most Okinawans and Japanese wouldn't fault you for that pronunciation. Hwarang's second approach is even closer. <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote

u(as in Sue)-ay(as in hay)-chee(as in cheetah)-reeu(ee as in teeth, u as in Sue - some people deemphasize the ee sound so that you hardly hear it; so: u-ay-chee-r(ee)u). When people pronounce it this way, they sometimes put a slight emphasis on the "ay" syllable

Malcolm touches on the final piece. The French, the Spanish, and the Japanese do not pronounce the "r" the same way we do in English. The French "r" in tres bien is the bane of many a student of French language, and is the cause of that obnoxious response you will get from some French people when you abuse the sound. You know...obviously we are provincial. The Spanish "r" is another sound (as in Puerto Rico), and involves rolling the tongue a bit. The Japanese "r" is like a light "d" or a heavy "t". The sound is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING LIKE the English language "r". The word geri sounds like the last two syllables in the word spaghetti.

Thus the word ryu is actually a bit difficult to pronounce until you practice it a bit. "Roo" is close enough until you listen to some language tapes and get the sound down. But the effort is worth it, as this word (which means "style") is part of the names of many Okinawan and Japanese styles (goju ryu, wado ryu, shorin ryu, etc.). Get it down right and you will be able to impress your friends at cocktail parties.

- Bill

[hwarang]

I think part of the problem is that the western tongue cannot pronounce u-e as separate sounds. So instead of u-e or u-ay, they say we or way. I think it is insulting to a Japanese person to pronounce uechi without sounding the u.

[mikemurphy]

Gary Khoury is probably the best person to ask, but my two years of Japanese language and my many years in the art has taught me the pronounciation as:

Uuu - aaaa - chee Lee - uu
(Uechi) (Ryu)

The "R" in Nihongo (Japanese) is pronounced as a soft "L"

Hope that helps.

mike

[hwarang]

I think the safest way to pronounce it is the first way I noted above: u-etch-ee-reeu. This is the way I've always said it, and I've heard Japanese pronounce it this way too. Sometimes you hear Japanese pronouncing uechi as: u-ay-chee, but I think they are getting a little cute with the language when they do this. It's okay for THEM to do this, but for an outsider I think it is better to be more conservative in the pronunciation. And I don't think you should even bother trying to pronounce an authentic Japanese r. Here again I think you can unintentionally insult a Japanese by trying to do this. That's why I think the safest pronunciation is u-etch-ee-reeu. You're safe in any company with this.

[Bill Glasheen]

My experience is that the Japanese (and particularly the Okinawans) are quite understanding. I have never witnessed a Japanese being insulted by someone attempting to speak their language.

Actually...being a gaijin gives you license to operate slightly outside the cultural boundaries. A number of karate students of mine through the years at UVa graduated and went to the JET (Japanese Exchange Teaching) program. As Americans, they were "spotted" a degree of slack because expectations are different. Some of my students would take advantage of that (dumb like a fox... ) to achieve an end. I know one student who would leave work at 5 PM because the Japanese he worked with assumed Americans were lazy and couldn't work as hard. Meanwhile, they stayed in the office many more hours but didn't get as much done because they gossiped half the day while he was serious when at work. Another female student got her hair cut in a most bizarre fashion. The Japanese women loved it. As a gaijin, she could do things that they never could.

My brother-in-law was the first non-Japanese CEO of a Sanyo subsidiary. His wife (my sister) has an exceedingly high IQ, an undergraduate degree in economics, and a law degree with a specialty in accounting. She has long red hair that goes past her rear, and she looks stunning in a short skirt. My sister was her husband's secret weapon. The Japanese assumed she was nothing more than a pretty companion. They loved her husband Jack, who looked and acted like the Marlboro Man. My sister played her role...and was actually the brains of the operation. She was pretty, sweet, smiling... When it came time to negotiate, Jack had quite the advantage that they never could figure out.

Everyone understands a proper effort. Listen to language tapes or CDs in the car on the way to work. These are available in any good bookstore. Get as close as you can. Expectations will be low. Exceeding expectations is quite disarming. And most importantly, sincerity does count with people who matter.

- Bill

[hwarang]

I've heard somewhere that another reason to pronounce it u-etch-ee-reeu (I'm not sure about this so don't bet money on it) is that u-etch-ee is the formal/high class/honorific pronunciation and u-ay-chee is the informal/low class/common pronunciation. A high class and a low class person could both be named Uechi, but the high class person would refer to himself as U-etch-ee, and the low class person would refer to himself as U-ay-chee. However, the high class person might refer to himself as U-ay-chee if he was joking around or being sarcastic. Likewise the low class person might call himself U-etch-ee jokingly or sarcastically. However, the low class person could never refer to the high class person as U-ay-chee in his presence.

For an outsider, the formal pronunciation would be mandatory. If he referred to the high class person as U-ay-chee, he would be offended. However, the outsider could not even refer to the low class person as U-ay-chee, because he would be offended that an outsider is addressing him in a common manner.