How to pronounce German camera and lens brands correctly

[Duff photographer]

Howdo all,

Difficult to place this thread, but as the names refer to a lot of analog cameras and lenses, I've placed it here.

I'm a bit of a grammar and pronunciation fanatic so I, being a non-German, found the following video VERY useful to improve my German pronunciation. It may also be useful to others (it ought to be ) who don't speak German, so without further ado, let the lesson begin...

How to pronounce German camera and lens brands correctly

(I can hear our German friends muttering "Endlich!")

Cheers,
Duff.

PS. Accents aside of course.

 

[Knorp]

Mmm, how do you pronounce ‘Lieca’ …

 

[MGrayson]

The eternal dilemma: be correct or be understood.

 

[dj may]

They are pronounced differently in different countries; just like my name.

 

[Makten]

Mmm, how do you pronounce ‘Lieca’ …

For a native english speaker; "like-a".

The hardest to pronounce camera related brand must be Voigtländer. Something like "Foktlaender".

 

[haske]

I think it is "Lai Ka"?

 

[MGrayson]

When the Italian city of Firenze is pronounced Florenz in German, (to pick a random example), I think there are no stones to be cast here. As an American, I am as guilty as they come. Looking for the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam was an exercise in humorous miscomprehension. Everyone I asked spoke English, but no one had heard of "Van Go". Finally, I pointed at the map. "Oh! You mean Fan Gockch?" (forgive my transliteration). No one spat on me. I like Amsterdam.

 

[Shashin]

That's easy: ex-pen-siv...

 

[Duff photographer]

The eternal dilemma: be correct or be understood.

The ultimate goal: be correct and be understood.

 

[MGrayson]

That's easy: ex-pen-siv...

A very funny video "Things Leica Photographers Say" has a woman wandering around a suburban street on a drizzly morning. She's singing to herself "Leica virgin. Broke for the very first time."

 

[anyone]

As a German native speaker there is probably a slight advantage here. But I agree that Voigtländer must be the most difficult

But since not all camera brands are German, a few questions to the neighbours:
Hasselblad - I spoke with a Swedish friend, and he pronounced it as Hasselblod ;-) How is it rightly pronounced?
Cambo - for the Dutch people here?

 

[MartinN]

For english speakers hassel-blood you probably mean. Hassel like hassle but with a prounounced e. My mother tongue is swedish.

 

[Makten]

The "a" in "blad" really has no exact match in english that I know of. It's kind of similar to "blood" but with the mouth slightly more rounded. Also, swedish "L's" are not "thick" as they are in english, with the tounge closer to the teeth.
The most tricky part is probably the stress and intonation of syllables, because it's very different from most other languages. Hass-el-blad has stress on the first and last syllable (edit: it also depends on where in a sentence the word is located), and the melody is sort of up-down-up in intonation.