poll!

[kindkit]

I haven't done a poll in ages, but I've been noticing that I pronounce "manga" differently from everyone else at work, so I need to know that I'm right which is the preferred pronunciation.

Poll #14160

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 27

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What's the right pronunciation (in English) of "manga"?

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The first a sounds like the a in "at"
6 (23.1%)

The first a sounds like the a in "father."
17 (65.4%)

Something else, which I may choose to explain in comments
3 (11.5%)

Special bonus question, now with added service kink! Pick one:

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Bunter
6 (25.0%)

Drumknott
6 (25.0%)

Jeeves
3 (12.5%)

Someone else, whom I may discuss in comments
2 (8.3%)

Your kink is not my kink, and that's okay
7 (29.2%)

Comments

[malnpudl]

You asked for the right pronunciation, which I think is pretty much indisputably your second poll option.

But I'm a Midwesterner with Chicagoan parents, so I have to work hard to remember not to flatten and broaden that first A. Or, you know, I just hear myself saying it wrong and then wince and hope nobody is judging me for it. *g*

[kindkit]

That's interesting, because I'm also a midwesterner (grew up in Minnesota) and it literally never occurred to me that the first a might be pronounced like "at" until I heard other people saying it. I think when I see a loan word, I tend to give the vowels more or less the sounds they'd have in a romance language like French--which sometimes leads me wrong, but sometimes not.

[malnpudl]

Yeah, I'd never have that problem with anything from any of the Romance languages; I got early and effective programming on that, apparently. (Thanks, Mom.)

But with Japanese I somehow don't automatically override my natural speech patterns. Entrenched brain is entrenched, but not in consistent ways. *g*