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komitsuki (Offline)
Busier Than Shinjuku Station
 
Posts: 997
Join Date: Feb 2009
09-20-2009, 05:40 AM

Quote:
Originally Posted by trunker View Post
theres a zurich insurance advert on tv right now which pronounces zurich as choorihi in japanese.

so i'm wondering if it might be that the pronunciation was appropriated from a culture that doesnt pronounce zurich as zookrikh.

any ideas?
The Japanese uses the German pronunciation of Zurich, which is exactly the opposite of dodgy "Anglicism".

Warsaw = "Warushawa" (Warszawa in Polish) for Japanese
Seoul (same as "soul") = "Souru" for Japanese

You get the idea when Japanese and some other languages discourage their own independent conventions of naming other places. This is why English is sometimes called the "mystery language" because of way too independent conventions.


JapanForum's semi-resident amateur linguist.
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