How do You Pronounce Janome Sewing Machine? (Singer, Juki)
What is in a name? A lot of if you try to pronounce a sewing machine maker’s corporate brand name. How you pronounce the terms will go a long way in communicating with others and finding the right sewing products quickly.
How do you pronounce Janome sewing machine? One of the difficulties in pronouncing a word is that different languages have different ways of saying the supposedly same letter. For Janome, in English, it would be Ja (regular J sound and short a), nom (long o sound) with the e silent. But the Japanese would pronounce the last ‘e’ and the last syllable would sound like ‘me’-- ‘ja-know- me’.
To learn how to correctly pronounce the different brand names just continue to read our article. It provides pronunciation lesson so you do not embarrass yourself when using those brand names in public.
Sewing Machine Pronunciation 101
Sewing Machine Pronunciation
One of the things you have to get used to is that when it comes to pronouncing sewing machine brand names, is that everyone may have a slightly different sound to their words.
For example, Koreans would pronounce the name, Kim as Gim, using the hard G sound. English speakers seeing the K would use the hard K sound and say Kim. The same idea is applied to sewing machine names as some sewers would pronounce Pfaff as puff.
One reason for this is that there will be people who will have trouble with the correct pronunciation of Pfaff. It is just hard for them to speak, arrange their tongue and mouth at the same time because they are not used to saying that set of letters.
Then when some people have the family name Pfaff, they pronounce it as their parents and grandparents did and it may come out like Poff. While there is a correct way to pronounce different sewing machine brand names, do not expect to hear that pronunciation any time soon.
Do expect to be confused when other people pronounce it differently. Just stick to your way of saying the names until you can master the correct sound.
Janome Sewing Machine Pronunciation
Part of the problem in pronouncing different words is how language is set up. English is set up differently than German and Japanese. Each language has its own set of grammar, spelling and pronunciation rules and the two rarely coincide.
Part of the pronunciation problem come sin how the word is spelled in its native language. For example, orange in English is spelled orangi in Korean and the Koreans use the ‘i’ sound when pronouncing the English version of the word.
Since Janome is Japanese, expect the Japanese to pronounce that brand name according to the rules of Japanese pronunciation. English speakers will follow the English pronunciation rules when they see the word written in English.
Thus the Japanese way of saying it would be Ja know may or Ja know me. The English speaker would simply say Ja nome with the ‘e’ silent and make the ‘o’ a long sound because of the rule governing the last ‘e’ usage.
Singer Sewing Machine Pronunciation
While the Singer brand name is all American, English goes back to Britain and its pronunciation will have a different influence. To hear the slight difference between the two English ways of pronouncing the word just click here.
This is one of the problems with pronunciation. Different native English speaking countries have different ways to pronounce the same English word. This will confuse many English as second language learners as they do not recognize this fact and become confused.
They also may get confused as to where to put the accent when pronouncing the term. We all know it as Sing’ - er with the accent on the first syllable. To many ESL learners, they may place the accent on the second syllable changing the sound of the brand name to sing- ER’.
Then they may see the ‘e’ after the ‘g ‘and think they need to make the ‘ge’ sound instead of the ‘ing’ sound so the term comes out singe- r. The correct way to say this sewing machine brand name would be Sing’ - er with the emphasis on the first syllable like you would be pronouncing the word describing a vocalist.
Pfaff Sewing Machine Pronunciation
This is not as difficult word to pronounce as it looks. Like many people learning English, speakers of this word will want to include extra sounds that may or may not apply.
In this case, the double f at the end of the word is spoken as one sound- the typical ‘f’ sound. The German way of saying those letters is a little shorter than the American way. The Danish way is pronounced at a higher tone than the English or the German.
It is the beginning of the word that is causing the most trouble. People want to sound the ‘p’ distinctly but that would be the incorrect way of saying this brand name.
In English, German and Danish, the ‘p’ is barely said, if it is said at all. That is how faint it is said. The emphasis is on the first ‘f’ in the word and it generally sounds like faff.
If you use the ‘p’ at all, it would be a slight sliding sound that turns into the ‘f’ sound very quickly. If you want to practice saying the word, click here to get the vocal sound of the term.
Necchi Sewing Machine Pronunciation
For this sewing machine brand, there seem to be about 4 ways you can pronounce the Brand name. The correct way to say the word would be in the Italian language as that is where the family came from.
Necchi is a family-based pronunciation so it may not always follow grammar rules but a quick check has the word pronounced with a hard first ‘c’ and a ‘ck’ sound for the second ‘c’. The ‘i’ at the end sounds like a standard long ‘i’ sound found in English and most European languages.
To hear the different ways of pronouncing this brand name just click here and here. The second link you will have to scroll down till you find the Italian pronunciation.
Juki Sewing Machine Pronunciation
Juki is another Japanese brand name that follows the same rules as Janome. Except that the sounds of the letters are much simpler to describe. If you want a phonetic style of sounding the term out, it would be joo-kee.
The last part of the term would sound like the English word ‘key’. Sometimes, the ‘kee’ may also sound like ‘kay’ in the Japanese style of pronunciation. It is pronounced quickly so it may be hard to pick up at times. You may need a practiced ear that has heard a lot of Japanese to see the difference between the two.
Find the correct pronunciation at this link, but there are 2 others included.
Sow or Sew Pronunciation
You can add the word ‘so’ in this group as all three terms sound alike, except when the former word applies to a female pig. In that case, you are using the ‘s’ sound and combining it with the ‘ow’ sound to make up sow.
When used by farmers to describe the planting of their crops, then the word sounds like ‘sew’ or ‘so’. Then when you add an ‘er’ to sew then you have 2 more pronunciations to work on. For sewing, it would be like ‘sower’ and for waste management, it would sound more like ‘suer’.
Words like these are why the English language is so hard to learn for many people who did not grow up in a native English country.
Why is Sew Spelled Like That?
This would be a very long and complicated explanation if we decided to use the technical explanation for why one word is spelled the way it is. Suffice it to say that the etymology of the term shows a change in spelling from the Olde English to the modern form.
There are many steps in between and the changes come from sometimes complicated situations or rather practical ones. It also has to do with the rules of English at the given time.
The best thing to do is accept it as it is and pronounce it as you always have.
Some Final Words
Pronunciation is not always easy. Even when in the same country. Different geographical influences have led people to pronounce the same word in different ways.
That fact make sit hard to find the correct pronunciation even for sewing machine brand names.
