30 ms·

Hmm did they release their April 1 joke too early by mistake?

by agrafix 6y ago

MattGaiser 6y ago
Mistake? Look at all the coverage they are getting when they would otherwise be lost in a crowd.
- minxomat 6y ago
  Maybe they grew tired of Americans pronouncing it wrong (most V are still pronounced as F, Vettel, Volkswagen etc.) ;-) Edit: This German apologizes for an attempt at a humorous / sarcastic comment and will revert to work-machine state at once. Beep boop.
  - protomyth 6y ago
    They most certainly did not want Americans pronouncing it in German when they came to the US after WWII. Hell, they called them Victory Wagon at first.
  - pantalaimon 6y ago
    Reminds me of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rA-BSuog7o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rA-BSuog7o
  - sillyquiet 6y ago
    Americans are pronouncing it perfectly correctly as most of us speak English and not German.
    - tchalla 6y ago
      It is respectful to at least attempt to pronounce names from different cultures. In many cases, I totally understand it is difficult. In those cases, an attempt is great. In this case, the syllable F exists in Latin and I don't see why it. I must say, I have seen many many times a lack of interest to even attempt to pronounce of even write a name properly. One example which comes to my mind is Ghandi instead of Gandhi.
      - sillyquiet 6y ago
        To re-iterate my point, it's not about 'respect' (respect for whom, exactly and why?) it's about communication. If I were trying to say the word 'Volkswagen' to a German speaking person, I would do my best to pronounce it in a way they would understand. As most of the time I ever say the word 'Volkswagen' out loud it's to my fellow English speakers, pronouncing it in the expected English way seems way less pretentious and way more effective.
        mixedCase 6y ago
        >seems way less pretentious Or you could help do your part in normalizing pronouncing things correctly instead of perpetuating the perception that it's somehow "pretentious".
        sillyquiet 6y ago
        The pronunciation is already normalized in English, and most people already pronounce it correctly in English for other English speakers. Expecting non-German people to speak with German pronunciation is plain arrogant.
        fastball 6y ago
        They're speaking English. The correct pronunciation of a "V" is in fact to make the english "V" sound.
        Bud 6y ago
        Nope. Proper nouns are to be pronounced in whatever way is dictated by the country of origin. Also, no, English is not very reliable when it comes to spelling vs. pronunciation. (Former diction teacher, here.)
        fastball 6y ago
        I'm going to avoid being snarky and point out this is merely the way you taught it. There is not hard and fast rule that says you have to do it this way. Also, Vs are actually pretty consistent in English. Can't even think of a word with a V where the V doesn't sound like a V.
    - gbil 6y ago
      Pronunciation doesn't go like that but that is a big discussion for its own thread Funny remark though while watching the F1 Netflix show, Schumacher said his name like SchumaKer , hence the Engish Pronunciation which goes to show that he adapted to the audience.
      - SllX 6y ago
        > Pronunciation doesn't go like that but that is a big discussion for its own thread Honestly it kinda does. I wince every time I hear emoji pronounced like いmoji (where the e rhymes with tea) instead of えmoji (where the e rhymes with meh), or pluralize Japanese nouns (“emojis” “sushis”). That said, this is a me problem. People are going to pronounce words in whatever way makes sense to them, where the emphasis goes, how it is pronounced, which vowels get emphasized or contracted together will change over time. There is a reason we don’t all sound like Elizabethan-era Englishmen when we speak English. Even proper nouns such as names get adapted. How many different variations and pronunciations are there for the name “John” in Europe?
        themaninthedark 6y ago
        >emoji pronounced like いmoji (where the e rhymes with tea) instead of えmoji (where the e rhymes with meh) I understand your pain(and also have very similar pain when English words were put into katakana) but for that example, it does make sense as for native English speakers, my assumption was that the emo- part of the word came from emote. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/emote https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/emote https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emote https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emote
        SllX 6y ago
        Mate, that’s why I stated forthright that this is a me problem and made no bones about it. The “e” is from 「絵」and “moji” from 「文字」, transliterated as 「えもじ」, “e” + “moji” gets you “picture message”. It was a stroke of luck that it was similar enough to emoticon to neatly fit into our existing lexicon and be understood at a glance by an English speaker, at least the gist of it. A picture message is a little bit different than an emote icon if you think about it because there’s many more pictures which are not emotes per se, but can be used within a message alongside the emoting emoji. :)
    - Aldipower 6y ago
      Ei sink ju wud bi surpreist if Ei wud tok to ju leik sis. (I think you would be surprised, if I would talk to you like this.) German pronounced English. :)
      - certifiedloud 6y ago
        The text exaggerates your point a little bit. "ju" would be pronounced the same as "you" when speaking. And "Ei" would be just the same as "I". "wud" = would "leik" = like "tok" = talk "bi" = be All of the above would sound exactly the same when spoken.
        Aldipower 6y ago
        Sanx fo klarrifing. Truu!
      - theodric 6y ago
        That's an excellent representation of a Dutch accent
    - virgil_disgr4ce 6y ago
      Volkswagen is not an English word though
      - sillyquiet 6y ago
        It most certainly is an English proper noun.
      - nmstoker 6y ago
        It has been adopted to a degree. Just like you don't need to say Paris as "Pari" in an imitation of the French pronunciation (which would probably sound rather affected and twee in English if you did) Anyway, let's hope they make reliable electric vehicles (as their combustion engine cars have traditionally been) otherwise people may render it as Faultswagen
        jodrellblank 6y ago
        faultswagen.com is unregistered; anyone? https://www.namecheap.com/domains/registration/results/?domain=faultswagen.com https://www.namecheap.com/domains/registration/results/?doma...
        deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
        bloak 6y ago
        Typically the capital city has an English name, which is often not just pronounced differently but also spelt differently from the local name. But for almost every other town English speakers use the same spelling, or a transcription of it, and aim for something like the local pronunciation. So for France, there's "Paris" and "Strasbourg" and that's about it. For Germany, there's "Berlin" and "Munich" and that's about it. But for some reason loads of Italian towns have their own English name: Venice, Milan, Naples, Florence, Turin, ...
        kgwgk 6y ago
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
    - earthboundkid 6y ago
      The worst part of English orthography is adopting the writing conventions of literally every other language in the world and then expecting people to pronounce the words "correctly." If you want English speakers to pronounce something a certain way, it should be written use our spelling system. There's no point in shaming people for not knowing literally every language. But that's basically the system we have now.
      - Udik 6y ago
        That "correctly" needs an extra pair of scare quotes. The spelling bee competition is, essentially, the "guess the mispronounced foreign word" competition. Pejerrey? "Pay-ray". Lol.
      - jablan 6y ago
        Which spelling system? English is notorious for not having any spelling consistency.
      - atleta 6y ago
        This is an interesting observation. As a non-native speaker I was surprised by how many German expressions are used in English (with the correct German spelling). Even when there is a perfect (or near perfect) English equivalent. However, this is pretty different as VW is a brand name so you don't have much liberty in how you write it.
        earthboundkid 6y ago
        Toyota was toyoda in Japanese, but they changed the spelling to look better in English. It can be done. And why not? They change the names of cars all the time. Why not the brands too?
        atleta 6y ago
        Because brands have a value. And probably VW doesn't really care that much if some people call them wolkswagen instead of folkswagen (even if they could pronounce the latter). Also, I don't think FW would look better than VW ;). And well, Toyota didn't change their name to look better in English (or rather, written with the Latin alphabet). At least not according to wikipedia. Quite the contrary, it was about how it was written in Japanse: "Vehicles were originally sold under the name "Toyoda" (トヨダ), from the family name of the company's founder, Kiichirō Toyoda. [...] In September 1936, the company ran a public competition to design a new logo. Of 27,000 entries, the winning entry was the three Japanese katakana letters for "Toyoda" in a circle. However, Rizaburo Toyoda, who had married into the family and was not born with that name, preferred "Toyota" (トヨタ) because it took eight brush strokes (a lucky number) to write in Japanese, was visually simpler (leaving off the diacritic at the end), and with a voiceless consonant instead of a voiced one (voiced consonants are considered to have a "murky" or "muddy" sound compared to voiceless consonants, which are "clear"). Since toyoda literally means "fertile rice paddies", changing the name also prevented the company from being associated with old-fashioned farming. The newly formed word was trademarked and the company was registered in August 1937 as the Toyota Motor Company.[31][32][33]" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota#1920s%E2%80%931930s https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota#1920s%E2%80%931930s
    - titzer 6y ago
      Does it bother you when Germans say "zis"? German has no "th" sound, so "zis" is what they start with before they practice. It's similarly grating to Germans to hear their language mispronounced by others. And yet, English has an "f" sound. German has an extremely consistent spelling and essentially all "v"s are pronounced as "f". We share (the latin) alphabet, and English has absolutely no authority, given how inconsistent it is. Given that, I will say the voiced "V" when speaking English and the unvoiced, as necessary, speaking German.
      - sillyquiet 6y ago
        'bother' me? No, not at all, the sounds are close enough I get the meaning, mostly from context. I am not sure why there should be an emotional factor here, as expecting everybody to conform to some pronunciation ideal they have no experience with is arrogant, to say the least.
        titzer 6y ago
        Well you claimed that Americans are pronouncing it "perfectly correctly," and Germans might disagree. It's a German word which has been Americanized. The company mostly doesn't care, but there is a single correct pronunciation in their native language. Insisting you are correct mispronouncing a foreign word because the letters look a certain way is just hubris.
        simondw 6y ago
        > there is a single correct pronunciation in their native language But see, that's the point. We're not speaking German when we use a borrowed word in English. It's no longer a purely German word, despite its origins, just as "xylophone" isn't a mispronounced Greek word, nor "Handy" a misused and miscapitalized English word. That's not hubris, it's just descriptivism.
        ric2b 6y ago
        It's not just a word, it's a name. Names have a single correct pronunciation, they're not supposed to be translated.
    - NullPrefix 6y ago
      How to pronounce jalapeno?
      - failwhaleshark 6y ago
        ¿Cómo pronunciar jalapeño? ;-) Halapeinyo ;-)))
        mastre_ 6y ago
        The i in your pei shan't be there, the sound is a flat peh. All of the syllables are flat sounds, hah-lah-peh-nyo.
        failwhaleshark 6y ago
        SMH. Claramente no entiendes español. Pein, not pei. It's not "peh," it's "pān" unless you're a gringo. If you want to get technical: hæləˈpeɪnjoʊ, hä″lə-pān′yō, or xa.laˈpɛ.ɲɔ. FYI: "Shan't" means "shall not," not "should not." Maybe don't use archaic language if you don't know how to use it. ;-)
    - sorokod 6y ago
      English used to fragmented enough for v being pronounced as f as attested by the related "fox" and "vixen"
    - atleta 6y ago
      Nope. It's not about using similar phonemes instead of the actual ones a German would use. It's trying to pronounce the wrong word/name. The name doesn't start with a V but with an F. It's just written with a V. It's nothing Americans can't pronounce. If you argued that you can't pronounce 'Wagen' as the Germans do ("'vaːɡn̩", according to Wikipedia), that would be a different thing. But we're not talking about that. Indeed, the word, i.e. folk, you are not willing to pronounce happen to exist in English as well and can mean the same (or very similar) thing. "Volk" (i.e. "wolk") OTOH doesn't mean anything in either languages. (It does mean wolf in Russian, though ;) ) People's car or you could say "Folk's Wagon" (or maybe "Folks' Wagon"). Yeah, weird choice of words and won't exactly sound like it was German but close enough, kind of meaningful and nothing you couldn't pronounce. Just remember to write is as VolksWagen.
      - jfengel 6y ago
        I never did quite master what the Germans do with their "n"s. I live near Washington and can never quite master their pronunciation of that, either.
    - Bud 6y ago
      Um, that doesn't make an incorrect pronunciation correct. That's not how anything works.
      - sillyquiet 6y ago
        The point is that it is a correct pronunciation in English, as Volkswagen is also an English word.
    - CRConrad 6y ago
      OK, so Germans are now free to call all American "Piters" Peter with two actual e's, and you will staunchly defend their claims that this is the correct pronunciation? Or should we perhaps stick with the old rule that names are correctly pronounced as their owner wants them pronounced...?
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - formerly_proven 6y ago
    Folxvagen
    - Jailbird 6y ago
      Folxvahggen?
    - selimthegrim 6y ago
      Watch out Subaru.
  - reaperducer 6y ago
    Maybe they grew tired of Americans pronouncing it wrong Americans learned how to pronounce "Volkswagen" from 50 years of Volkswagen's own advertising. They didn't just make it up on their own.
  - wlesieutre 6y ago
    "Americans" here referring to Volkswagen USA's marketing department, rather than customers? https://youtu.be/kkdmz0XRrS4?t=26 https://youtu.be/kkdmz0XRrS4?t=26
  - xattt 6y ago
    It was vutile effort from the start.
  - cardiffspaceman 6y ago
    Some Americans have pronounced it "Voltswagen", not sure why. I wonder if it would be less confusing to Germans if we used "Fow Vay" to pronounce the abbreviation. Instead of "Vee Double-You." I'm not being sarcastic, but I don't think a change to the correct pronunciation is likely.
    - minxomat 6y ago
      Double-You is just ridiculous in the first place. I cringe a bit every time I have to say "AWS", but that's just because it's much smoother in German.
      - sudosteph 6y ago
        Do you actually pronounce it like "double-you" (with 3 syllables) in that context? I'm a native speaker from the US South, and hadn't realized this until I read your comment. For me, the "W" always gets shortened to "dub-you" in AWS (or "dubya" if I'm not being picky about it). Standalone, I might pronounce "W" more like "dub-a-you if I'm emphasizing it, but not usually. Anyhow, thanks for pointing this out. I will also now forever think that "double-you" is ridiculous.
        jessaustin 6y ago
        "AWS" ends up being more like "ay-dub-yes", doesn't it?
        sudosteph 6y ago
        Nearly, but unless I'm speaking with family members / other people with thick southern accent, I try to keep the "u" sound present - though it's more like the French "u" than the "you" sound. So typically it sounds like 'ay-dub-yuez", with a short pause between the "yu" and "ez". It's the sound that would be in between "Suez" (like the canal) and "swez". Replacing the "yu" sound with the "ya", does indeed end up sounding like slightly elongated "yes".
        wizzard 6y ago
  - max-ibel 6y ago
    Obligatory reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MUsVcYhERY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MUsVcYhERY Edit: more complete version.
  - henrikschroder 6y ago
    Btw, how do Germans generally pronounce "volt"? Folt? 230 fau? Or is it like wolt and we? Does the name change still make sense in German?
    - minxomat 6y ago
      No the pronunciation would be similar (english V, not F) between German and English for Voltswagen. That's part of the joke.
      - henrikschroder 6y ago
        Ok, so you'd be switching from "fau we" to "we we", which makes it make even less sense... I noticed that the German site hasn't changed anything, seems to be a US thing only.
- ChrisArchitect 6y ago
  Ya, this is like releasing superbowl ads weeks out now so they don't get lost in the flurry of activity a few days out
arcturus17 6y ago
I thought the same, it sounds completely ridiculous.
- TLightful 6y ago
  Entirely appropriate for the new direction. I dig it ... (speaking as someone who still sees their average cars as steam engine, emission test defeaters)
  - treis 6y ago
    >I dig it At least there's two of us amongst the sea of ridiculue.
    - airstrike 6y ago
      Make that 3. I'm not going to go out and buy their car, but I don't see how this is ridiculous in any way. 50 years from now, people may look back and think "yes, that was the moment that really marked their switch to EVs"
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
mc32 6y ago
Oh, darn. They could have made it WOKESWAGON for the youth of today powered by the minds of tomorrow.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
cyral 6y ago
https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/30/22357166/volkswagen-name-change-voltswagen-us-division https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/30/22357166/volkswagen-name-... > The proximity of the name change to April Fool’s Day initially raised suspicions that it was just a joke. But VW insists that it’s a real thing, so here we are.
- HenryKissinger 6y ago
  Until companies insistence that this the real thing becomes itself part of the joke.
  - spathi_fwiffo 6y ago
    Maybe the most brilliant time to rebrand; always have that "it was really just a joke" line to fall back on.
- crazygringo 6y ago
  > "The company was apparently planning to make the announcement at the end of April but accidentally published a press release about the name change early Monday afternoon, which was first spotted by CNBC before it was taken down. The proximity of the name change to April Fool’s Day initially raised suspicions that it was just a joke. But VW insists that it’s a real thing, so here we are." Sounds to me like a publicity stunt -- they "accidentally published" a press release a month early? Sorry, that doesn't happen. Seems like trying to generate buzz on social media, then they'll quietly "decide" not to change the name after all, but people associating VW with electric cars more so -- mission accomplished.
  - bellyfullofbac 6y ago
    Huh, why does the name change have to be announced 2-3 days before in your world? They would need to send new stationery and signage to dealers, so the chatter would start in the coming week or 2 anyway... Why not pre-empt that with a press release.
    - 6y ago
mortenjorck 6y ago
This is the Long Island Iced Tea Corp. to Long Blockchain Corp. stunt-rebrand, writ large. They're still called Long Blockchain; they even changed their ticker symbol to LBCC. I wonder if VW will be as committed.
zeeZ 6y ago
I've seen mention that this was initially supposed to be released on April 29 and gone out March 29 by accident, so... Yes?
troelsSteegin 6y ago
You mean like jokeswagen? http://voltswagen.com/ http://voltswagen.com/ is a parked domain, no pun intended, so I think it's all hype.
- pulse7 6y ago
  They will pay premium for not snapping the domain name first and then releasing their PR peace...
  - troelsSteegin 6y ago
    Agreed. The Post says it's no joke: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/03/30/voltswagen-volkswagen-electric-vehicles/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/03/30/voltswage...
    - devy 6y ago
      Reuters says it's a joke https://www.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-usa-name/no-vw-us-name-change-as-company-says-fake-release-was-an-april-fools-marketing-stunt-idUSKBN2BM1O3 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-usa-name/no-vw...
  - laurensr 6y ago
    Looks like the domain was already registered in 2003: https://whois.domaintools.com/voltswagen.com https://whois.domaintools.com/voltswagen.com
alexaholic 6y ago
The joke is the cars will run on electric current during lab testing, and burn fuel during normal operation
- jeffrallen 6y ago
  Ouch, that's one of those "ha ha only serious" kind of jokes.
failwhaleshark 6y ago
For the S&G of r/woosh: In the latest tz, it's currently: 05:44:48 UTC+14 Wednesday, March 31, 2021
devy 6y ago
No, it's not a joke. https://electrek.co/2021/03/29/its-not-april-fools-yet-vw-will-change-its-us-name-to-voltswagen/ https://electrek.co/2021/03/29/its-not-april-fools-yet-vw-wi...
whoisthemachine 6y ago
I think it's likely they're feeling that their EV product isn't compelling enough to stand out on its own, so they need to do something ridiculous to capture attention and hopefully gain market share in the EV market.
trey-jones 6y ago
Surely this is it. I know that the wold today can be a bit stupid, but this is too much.
dathinab 6y ago
Supposedly they insist on it not being a joke. But Voltswaken, honstely if that isn't a joke it's sad. It is basically guaranteed to be a typo crisis. I can just say have fun, to all the banks and other companies doing business with it.
- rriepe 6y ago
  They're now saying that it was in fact a joke.
  - cpach 6y ago
    Source?
    - travismark 6y ago
      https://www.wsj.com/articles/messaging-says-vw-usa-to-rebrand-itself-voltswagenheadquarters-says-not-so-fast-11617120111 https://www.wsj.com/articles/messaging-says-vw-usa-to-rebran...
rriepe 6y ago
It turns out that they did. https://nypost.com/2021/03/30/vw-says-voltswagen-rebrand-was-premature-april-fools-joke/ https://nypost.com/2021/03/30/vw-says-voltswagen-rebrand-was...
Shivetya 6y ago
they may not even have the site by the name registered
Corrado 6y ago
Their ID.4 website[0] has copy that uses Voltswagen liberally. [0] https://www.vw.com/en/models/id-4.html https://www.vw.com/en/models/id-4.html
letier 6y ago
Looking at the DNS records it's definitely a joke.
- cpach 6y ago
  How so?
  - letier 6y ago
    .com for example was only reserved today and is using a domain parking service. Things like this would have been prepared if it was a serious rebranding.
    - cpach 6y ago
      AFAICT it was registered in 2003 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26637476 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26637476
      - letier 6y ago
        You're correct. Mistake on my side.
manigandham 6y ago
The whole thing was an elaborate joke: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/30/volkswagens-name-change-of-us-voltswagen-operations-was-april-fools-marketing-prank-source-says.html https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/30/volkswagens-name-change-of-u...
- mgerullis 6y ago
  Kinda sums up their efforts so far on electrical vehicles.
  - abenga 6y ago
    How so? The Taycan (and eTron GT) is an excellent car; the ID4 is receiving okay reviews despite choosing a different space in the compromise space than other makers, and they have a large slate of upcoming cars that seem decent to great. I think that within 5 years, VW AG will be selling more electric cars than Tesla.
ricardobayes 6y ago
yes it was https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/30/volkswagens-name-change-of-us-voltswagen-operations-was-april-fools-marketing-prank-source-says.html https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/30/volkswagens-name-change-of-u...

Hmm did they release their April 1 joke too early by mistake?

MattGaiser 6y ago

Mistake? Look at all the coverage they are getting when they would otherwise be lost in a crowd.

minxomat 6y ago
Maybe they grew tired of Americans pronouncing it wrong (most V are still pronounced as F, Vettel, Volkswagen etc.) ;-) Edit: This German apologizes for an attempt at a humorous / sarcastic comment and will revert to work-machine state at once. Beep boop.
- protomyth 6y ago
  They most certainly did not want Americans pronouncing it in German when they came to the US after WWII. Hell, they called them Victory Wagon at first.
- pantalaimon 6y ago
  Reminds me of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rA-BSuog7o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rA-BSuog7o
- sillyquiet 6y ago
  Americans are pronouncing it perfectly correctly as most of us speak English and not German.
  - tchalla 6y ago
    It is respectful to at least attempt to pronounce names from different cultures. In many cases, I totally understand it is difficult. In those cases, an attempt is great. In this case, the syllable F exists in Latin and I don't see why it. I must say, I have seen many many times a lack of interest to even attempt to pronounce of even write a name properly. One example which comes to my mind is Ghandi instead of Gandhi.
    - sillyquiet 6y ago
      To re-iterate my point, it's not about 'respect' (respect for whom, exactly and why?) it's about communication. If I were trying to say the word 'Volkswagen' to a German speaking person, I would do my best to pronounce it in a way they would understand. As most of the time I ever say the word 'Volkswagen' out loud it's to my fellow English speakers, pronouncing it in the expected English way seems way less pretentious and way more effective.
      - mixedCase 6y ago
        >seems way less pretentious Or you could help do your part in normalizing pronouncing things correctly instead of perpetuating the perception that it's somehow "pretentious".
        sillyquiet 6y ago
        The pronunciation is already normalized in English, and most people already pronounce it correctly in English for other English speakers. Expecting non-German people to speak with German pronunciation is plain arrogant.
        fastball 6y ago
        They're speaking English. The correct pronunciation of a "V" is in fact to make the english "V" sound.
        Bud 6y ago
        Nope. Proper nouns are to be pronounced in whatever way is dictated by the country of origin. Also, no, English is not very reliable when it comes to spelling vs. pronunciation. (Former diction teacher, here.)
        fastball 6y ago
        I'm going to avoid being snarky and point out this is merely the way you taught it. There is not hard and fast rule that says you have to do it this way. Also, Vs are actually pretty consistent in English. Can't even think of a word with a V where the V doesn't sound like a V.
  - gbil 6y ago
    Pronunciation doesn't go like that but that is a big discussion for its own thread Funny remark though while watching the F1 Netflix show, Schumacher said his name like SchumaKer , hence the Engish Pronunciation which goes to show that he adapted to the audience.
    - SllX 6y ago
      > Pronunciation doesn't go like that but that is a big discussion for its own thread Honestly it kinda does. I wince every time I hear emoji pronounced like いmoji (where the e rhymes with tea) instead of えmoji (where the e rhymes with meh), or pluralize Japanese nouns (“emojis” “sushis”). That said, this is a me problem. People are going to pronounce words in whatever way makes sense to them, where the emphasis goes, how it is pronounced, which vowels get emphasized or contracted together will change over time. There is a reason we don’t all sound like Elizabethan-era Englishmen when we speak English. Even proper nouns such as names get adapted. How many different variations and pronunciations are there for the name “John” in Europe?
      - themaninthedark 6y ago
        >emoji pronounced like いmoji (where the e rhymes with tea) instead of えmoji (where the e rhymes with meh) I understand your pain(and also have very similar pain when English words were put into katakana) but for that example, it does make sense as for native English speakers, my assumption was that the emo- part of the word came from emote. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/emote https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/emote https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emote https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emote
        SllX 6y ago
        Mate, that’s why I stated forthright that this is a me problem and made no bones about it. The “e” is from 「絵」and “moji” from 「文字」, transliterated as 「えもじ」, “e” + “moji” gets you “picture message”. It was a stroke of luck that it was similar enough to emoticon to neatly fit into our existing lexicon and be understood at a glance by an English speaker, at least the gist of it. A picture message is a little bit different than an emote icon if you think about it because there’s many more pictures which are not emotes per se, but can be used within a message alongside the emoting emoji. :)
  - Aldipower 6y ago
    Ei sink ju wud bi surpreist if Ei wud tok to ju leik sis. (I think you would be surprised, if I would talk to you like this.) German pronounced English. :)
    - certifiedloud 6y ago
      The text exaggerates your point a little bit. "ju" would be pronounced the same as "you" when speaking. And "Ei" would be just the same as "I". "wud" = would "leik" = like "tok" = talk "bi" = be All of the above would sound exactly the same when spoken.
      - Aldipower 6y ago
        Sanx fo klarrifing. Truu!
    - theodric 6y ago
      That's an excellent representation of a Dutch accent
  - virgil_disgr4ce 6y ago
    Volkswagen is not an English word though
    - sillyquiet 6y ago
      It most certainly is an English proper noun.
    - nmstoker 6y ago
      It has been adopted to a degree. Just like you don't need to say Paris as "Pari" in an imitation of the French pronunciation (which would probably sound rather affected and twee in English if you did) Anyway, let's hope they make reliable electric vehicles (as their combustion engine cars have traditionally been) otherwise people may render it as Faultswagen
      - jodrellblank 6y ago
        faultswagen.com is unregistered; anyone? https://www.namecheap.com/domains/registration/results/?domain=faultswagen.com https://www.namecheap.com/domains/registration/results/?doma...
        deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
      - bloak 6y ago
        Typically the capital city has an English name, which is often not just pronounced differently but also spelt differently from the local name. But for almost every other town English speakers use the same spelling, or a transcription of it, and aim for something like the local pronunciation. So for France, there's "Paris" and "Strasbourg" and that's about it. For Germany, there's "Berlin" and "Munich" and that's about it. But for some reason loads of Italian towns have their own English name: Venice, Milan, Naples, Florence, Turin, ...
        kgwgk 6y ago
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - earthboundkid 6y ago
    The worst part of English orthography is adopting the writing conventions of literally every other language in the world and then expecting people to pronounce the words "correctly." If you want English speakers to pronounce something a certain way, it should be written use our spelling system. There's no point in shaming people for not knowing literally every language. But that's basically the system we have now.
    - Udik 6y ago
      That "correctly" needs an extra pair of scare quotes. The spelling bee competition is, essentially, the "guess the mispronounced foreign word" competition. Pejerrey? "Pay-ray". Lol.
    - jablan 6y ago
      Which spelling system? English is notorious for not having any spelling consistency.
    - atleta 6y ago
      This is an interesting observation. As a non-native speaker I was surprised by how many German expressions are used in English (with the correct German spelling). Even when there is a perfect (or near perfect) English equivalent. However, this is pretty different as VW is a brand name so you don't have much liberty in how you write it.
      - earthboundkid 6y ago
        Toyota was toyoda in Japanese, but they changed the spelling to look better in English. It can be done. And why not? They change the names of cars all the time. Why not the brands too?
        atleta 6y ago
        Because brands have a value. And probably VW doesn't really care that much if some people call them wolkswagen instead of folkswagen (even if they could pronounce the latter). Also, I don't think FW would look better than VW ;). And well, Toyota didn't change their name to look better in English (or rather, written with the Latin alphabet). At least not according to wikipedia. Quite the contrary, it was about how it was written in Japanse: "Vehicles were originally sold under the name "Toyoda" (トヨダ), from the family name of the company's founder, Kiichirō Toyoda. [...] In September 1936, the company ran a public competition to design a new logo. Of 27,000 entries, the winning entry was the three Japanese katakana letters for "Toyoda" in a circle. However, Rizaburo Toyoda, who had married into the family and was not born with that name, preferred "Toyota" (トヨタ) because it took eight brush strokes (a lucky number) to write in Japanese, was visually simpler (leaving off the diacritic at the end), and with a voiceless consonant instead of a voiced one (voiced consonants are considered to have a "murky" or "muddy" sound compared to voiceless consonants, which are "clear"). Since toyoda literally means "fertile rice paddies", changing the name also prevented the company from being associated with old-fashioned farming. The newly formed word was trademarked and the company was registered in August 1937 as the Toyota Motor Company.[31][32][33]" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota#1920s%E2%80%931930s https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota#1920s%E2%80%931930s
  - titzer 6y ago
    Does it bother you when Germans say "zis"? German has no "th" sound, so "zis" is what they start with before they practice. It's similarly grating to Germans to hear their language mispronounced by others. And yet, English has an "f" sound. German has an extremely consistent spelling and essentially all "v"s are pronounced as "f". We share (the latin) alphabet, and English has absolutely no authority, given how inconsistent it is. Given that, I will say the voiced "V" when speaking English and the unvoiced, as necessary, speaking German.
    - sillyquiet 6y ago
      'bother' me? No, not at all, the sounds are close enough I get the meaning, mostly from context. I am not sure why there should be an emotional factor here, as expecting everybody to conform to some pronunciation ideal they have no experience with is arrogant, to say the least.
      - titzer 6y ago
        Well you claimed that Americans are pronouncing it "perfectly correctly," and Germans might disagree. It's a German word which has been Americanized. The company mostly doesn't care, but there is a single correct pronunciation in their native language. Insisting you are correct mispronouncing a foreign word because the letters look a certain way is just hubris.
        simondw 6y ago
        > there is a single correct pronunciation in their native language But see, that's the point. We're not speaking German when we use a borrowed word in English. It's no longer a purely German word, despite its origins, just as "xylophone" isn't a mispronounced Greek word, nor "Handy" a misused and miscapitalized English word. That's not hubris, it's just descriptivism.
        ric2b 6y ago
        It's not just a word, it's a name. Names have a single correct pronunciation, they're not supposed to be translated.
  - NullPrefix 6y ago
    How to pronounce jalapeno?
    - failwhaleshark 6y ago
      ¿Cómo pronunciar jalapeño? ;-) Halapeinyo ;-)))
      - mastre_ 6y ago
        The i in your pei shan't be there, the sound is a flat peh. All of the syllables are flat sounds, hah-lah-peh-nyo.
        failwhaleshark 6y ago
        SMH. Claramente no entiendes español. Pein, not pei. It's not "peh," it's "pān" unless you're a gringo. If you want to get technical: hæləˈpeɪnjoʊ, hä″lə-pān′yō, or xa.laˈpɛ.ɲɔ. FYI: "Shan't" means "shall not," not "should not." Maybe don't use archaic language if you don't know how to use it. ;-)
  - sorokod 6y ago
    English used to fragmented enough for v being pronounced as f as attested by the related "fox" and "vixen"
  - atleta 6y ago
    Nope. It's not about using similar phonemes instead of the actual ones a German would use. It's trying to pronounce the wrong word/name. The name doesn't start with a V but with an F. It's just written with a V. It's nothing Americans can't pronounce. If you argued that you can't pronounce 'Wagen' as the Germans do ("'vaːɡn̩", according to Wikipedia), that would be a different thing. But we're not talking about that. Indeed, the word, i.e. folk, you are not willing to pronounce happen to exist in English as well and can mean the same (or very similar) thing. "Volk" (i.e. "wolk") OTOH doesn't mean anything in either languages. (It does mean wolf in Russian, though ;) ) People's car or you could say "Folk's Wagon" (or maybe "Folks' Wagon"). Yeah, weird choice of words and won't exactly sound like it was German but close enough, kind of meaningful and nothing you couldn't pronounce. Just remember to write is as VolksWagen.
    - jfengel 6y ago
      I never did quite master what the Germans do with their "n"s. I live near Washington and can never quite master their pronunciation of that, either.
  - Bud 6y ago
    Um, that doesn't make an incorrect pronunciation correct. That's not how anything works.
    - sillyquiet 6y ago
      The point is that it is a correct pronunciation in English, as Volkswagen is also an English word.
  - CRConrad 6y ago
    OK, so Germans are now free to call all American "Piters" Peter with two actual e's, and you will staunchly defend their claims that this is the correct pronunciation? Or should we perhaps stick with the old rule that names are correctly pronounced as their owner wants them pronounced...?
- deleted 6y ago
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- formerly_proven 6y ago
  Folxvagen
  - Jailbird 6y ago
    Folxvahggen?
  - selimthegrim 6y ago
    Watch out Subaru.
- reaperducer 6y ago
  Maybe they grew tired of Americans pronouncing it wrong Americans learned how to pronounce "Volkswagen" from 50 years of Volkswagen's own advertising. They didn't just make it up on their own.
- wlesieutre 6y ago
  "Americans" here referring to Volkswagen USA's marketing department, rather than customers? https://youtu.be/kkdmz0XRrS4?t=26 https://youtu.be/kkdmz0XRrS4?t=26
- xattt 6y ago
  It was vutile effort from the start.
- cardiffspaceman 6y ago
  Some Americans have pronounced it "Voltswagen", not sure why. I wonder if it would be less confusing to Germans if we used "Fow Vay" to pronounce the abbreviation. Instead of "Vee Double-You." I'm not being sarcastic, but I don't think a change to the correct pronunciation is likely.
  - minxomat 6y ago
    Double-You is just ridiculous in the first place. I cringe a bit every time I have to say "AWS", but that's just because it's much smoother in German.
    - sudosteph 6y ago
      Do you actually pronounce it like "double-you" (with 3 syllables) in that context? I'm a native speaker from the US South, and hadn't realized this until I read your comment. For me, the "W" always gets shortened to "dub-you" in AWS (or "dubya" if I'm not being picky about it). Standalone, I might pronounce "W" more like "dub-a-you if I'm emphasizing it, but not usually. Anyhow, thanks for pointing this out. I will also now forever think that "double-you" is ridiculous.
      - jessaustin 6y ago
        "AWS" ends up being more like "ay-dub-yes", doesn't it?
        sudosteph 6y ago
        Nearly, but unless I'm speaking with family members / other people with thick southern accent, I try to keep the "u" sound present - though it's more like the French "u" than the "you" sound. So typically it sounds like 'ay-dub-yuez", with a short pause between the "yu" and "ez". It's the sound that would be in between "Suez" (like the canal) and "swez". Replacing the "yu" sound with the "ya", does indeed end up sounding like slightly elongated "yes".
      - wizzard 6y ago
- max-ibel 6y ago
  Obligatory reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MUsVcYhERY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MUsVcYhERY Edit: more complete version.
- henrikschroder 6y ago
  Btw, how do Germans generally pronounce "volt"? Folt? 230 fau? Or is it like wolt and we? Does the name change still make sense in German?
  - minxomat 6y ago
    No the pronunciation would be similar (english V, not F) between German and English for Voltswagen. That's part of the joke.
    - henrikschroder 6y ago
      Ok, so you'd be switching from "fau we" to "we we", which makes it make even less sense... I noticed that the German site hasn't changed anything, seems to be a US thing only.
ChrisArchitect 6y ago
Ya, this is like releasing superbowl ads weeks out now so they don't get lost in the flurry of activity a few days out

arcturus17 6y ago

I thought the same, it sounds completely ridiculous.

TLightful 6y ago
Entirely appropriate for the new direction. I dig it ... (speaking as someone who still sees their average cars as steam engine, emission test defeaters)
- treis 6y ago
  >I dig it At least there's two of us amongst the sea of ridiculue.
  - airstrike 6y ago
    Make that 3. I'm not going to go out and buy their car, but I don't see how this is ridiculous in any way. 50 years from now, people may look back and think "yes, that was the moment that really marked their switch to EVs"
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mc32 6y ago

Oh, darn. They could have made it WOKESWAGON for the youth of today powered by the minds of tomorrow.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

cyral 6y ago

https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/30/22357166/volkswagen-name-change-voltswagen-us-division https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/30/22357166/volkswagen-name-... > The proximity of the name change to April Fool’s Day initially raised suspicions that it was just a joke. But VW insists that it’s a real thing, so here we are.

HenryKissinger 6y ago
Until companies insistence that this the real thing becomes itself part of the joke.
- spathi_fwiffo 6y ago
  Maybe the most brilliant time to rebrand; always have that "it was really just a joke" line to fall back on.
crazygringo 6y ago
> "The company was apparently planning to make the announcement at the end of April but accidentally published a press release about the name change early Monday afternoon, which was first spotted by CNBC before it was taken down. The proximity of the name change to April Fool’s Day initially raised suspicions that it was just a joke. But VW insists that it’s a real thing, so here we are." Sounds to me like a publicity stunt -- they "accidentally published" a press release a month early? Sorry, that doesn't happen. Seems like trying to generate buzz on social media, then they'll quietly "decide" not to change the name after all, but people associating VW with electric cars more so -- mission accomplished.
- bellyfullofbac 6y ago
  Huh, why does the name change have to be announced 2-3 days before in your world? They would need to send new stationery and signage to dealers, so the chatter would start in the coming week or 2 anyway... Why not pre-empt that with a press release.
  - 6y ago

mortenjorck 6y ago

This is the Long Island Iced Tea Corp. to Long Blockchain Corp. stunt-rebrand, writ large. They're still called Long Blockchain; they even changed their ticker symbol to LBCC. I wonder if VW will be as committed.

zeeZ 6y ago

I've seen mention that this was initially supposed to be released on April 29 and gone out March 29 by accident, so... Yes?

troelsSteegin 6y ago

You mean like jokeswagen? http://voltswagen.com/ http://voltswagen.com/ is a parked domain, no pun intended, so I think it's all hype.

pulse7 6y ago
They will pay premium for not snapping the domain name first and then releasing their PR peace...
- troelsSteegin 6y ago
  Agreed. The Post says it's no joke: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/03/30/voltswagen-volkswagen-electric-vehicles/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/03/30/voltswage...
  - devy 6y ago
    Reuters says it's a joke https://www.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-usa-name/no-vw-us-name-change-as-company-says-fake-release-was-an-april-fools-marketing-stunt-idUSKBN2BM1O3 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-usa-name/no-vw...
- laurensr 6y ago
  Looks like the domain was already registered in 2003: https://whois.domaintools.com/voltswagen.com https://whois.domaintools.com/voltswagen.com

alexaholic 6y ago

The joke is the cars will run on electric current during lab testing, and burn fuel during normal operation

jeffrallen 6y ago
Ouch, that's one of those "ha ha only serious" kind of jokes.

failwhaleshark 6y ago

For the S&G of r/woosh: In the latest tz, it's currently: 05:44:48 UTC+14 Wednesday, March 31, 2021

devy 6y ago

No, it's not a joke. https://electrek.co/2021/03/29/its-not-april-fools-yet-vw-will-change-its-us-name-to-voltswagen/ https://electrek.co/2021/03/29/its-not-april-fools-yet-vw-wi...

whoisthemachine 6y ago

I think it's likely they're feeling that their EV product isn't compelling enough to stand out on its own, so they need to do something ridiculous to capture attention and hopefully gain market share in the EV market.

trey-jones 6y ago

Surely this is it. I know that the wold today can be a bit stupid, but this is too much.

dathinab 6y ago

Supposedly they insist on it not being a joke. But Voltswaken, honstely if that isn't a joke it's sad. It is basically guaranteed to be a typo crisis. I can just say have fun, to all the banks and other companies doing business with it.

rriepe 6y ago
They're now saying that it was in fact a joke.
- cpach 6y ago
  Source?
  - travismark 6y ago
    https://www.wsj.com/articles/messaging-says-vw-usa-to-rebrand-itself-voltswagenheadquarters-says-not-so-fast-11617120111 https://www.wsj.com/articles/messaging-says-vw-usa-to-rebran...

rriepe 6y ago

It turns out that they did. https://nypost.com/2021/03/30/vw-says-voltswagen-rebrand-was-premature-april-fools-joke/ https://nypost.com/2021/03/30/vw-says-voltswagen-rebrand-was...

Shivetya 6y ago

they may not even have the site by the name registered

Corrado 6y ago

Their ID.4 website[0] has copy that uses Voltswagen liberally. [0] https://www.vw.com/en/models/id-4.html https://www.vw.com/en/models/id-4.html

letier 6y ago

Looking at the DNS records it's definitely a joke.

cpach 6y ago
How so?
- letier 6y ago
  .com for example was only reserved today and is using a domain parking service. Things like this would have been prepared if it was a serious rebranding.
  - cpach 6y ago
    AFAICT it was registered in 2003 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26637476 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26637476
    - letier 6y ago
      You're correct. Mistake on my side.

manigandham 6y ago

The whole thing was an elaborate joke: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/30/volkswagens-name-change-of-us-voltswagen-operations-was-april-fools-marketing-prank-source-says.html https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/30/volkswagens-name-change-of-u...

mgerullis 6y ago
Kinda sums up their efforts so far on electrical vehicles.
- abenga 6y ago
  How so? The Taycan (and eTron GT) is an excellent car; the ID4 is receiving okay reviews despite choosing a different space in the compromise space than other makers, and they have a large slate of upcoming cars that seem decent to great. I think that within 5 years, VW AG will be selling more electric cars than Tesla.

ricardobayes 6y ago

yes it was https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/30/volkswagens-name-change-of-us-voltswagen-operations-was-april-fools-marketing-prank-source-says.html https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/30/volkswagens-name-change-of-u...