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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 att

• 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.
              • Bud 6y ago
                What's interesting here is that the exception proves the rule. V is actually the only letter in English that is never silent. Most other letters also have various possible renderings into pronunciation, especially the vowels—"i" for instance can end up being at least 5 different vowel sounds and also some consonant sounds. So yes. As I pointed out, English is extremely irregular orthographically, in stark contrast to languages like German, French, or Italian, all of which have extremely reliable and simple pronunciation rules.
    • fermienrico 6y ago
      This is an unreasonable expectation. People should try but if they don't, there is no malice here. There are many languages around the world and it is impossible to remember every nuance of how to pronounce things. Ghandi is common pronounciation even in Germany. The Japanese might pronounce it something else.
      • tchalla 6y ago
        > Ghandi is common pronounciation even in Germany. I don't think it is an unreasonable expectation to write the word "Gandhi" as "Gandhi". That's how he wrote the name, that's how he signed it and that's the actual spelling. I can understand the difficulty in pronunciation but getting the name right while typing it out is unforgivable in this century.
        • fermienrico 6y ago
          I meant the pronunciation, not the spelling. Also, learning to forgive is a rare virtue these days. Entitlement and expection creates conflict. Learn to forgive others and you'll have a better time with everyone else. No one who even spells it as Ghandi means any malice or offense. So, it is a matter of technicality. Let go.
          • tchalla 6y ago
            I agree - learning to forgive is rare virtue. For example, I think we should also "learn to forgive" to people who point out that Gandhi is the right spelling. It's not meant as many malice of offence. So, it is a matter of technicality. Let go.
            • fermienrico 6y ago
              You're forgiven :), cheers!
    • ike77 6y ago
      I would agree for a physical person name. But for a brand definitely not. It's the job of the brand creators to make sure that the name can be read and pronounced in the various target markets.
      • chefkoch 6y ago
        To be fair, when the brand was created the germans wanted to change the target markets.
    • reaperducer 6y ago
      It is respectful to at least attempt to pronounce names from different cultures In many cases, it is unnecessary and only makes the speaker look foolish. "Hyundai" is pronounces its own brand name differently in American and Korean TV commercials. Is Hyundai being disrespectful to Koreans? The goal is to communicate. Making communication more difficult is the opposite of the goal.
      • libria 6y ago
        > In many cases, it is unnecessary and only makes the speaker look foolish. Comedic skits touch on this [1][2] and though a caricature, I think they capture the gist of how it's perceived when attempted. I think it stems from a desire for "cultural wokeness" which is a good thing and has its place, but as you say when communication is the goal, speak the language of the receiver. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKGoVefhtMQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKGoVefhtMQ [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWMp_z7Jnxw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWMp_z7Jnxw
    • mlyle 6y ago
      In practice, if a name has a common pronunciation within English, you show respect by using that pronunciation when speaking to native English speakers. Otherwise you just cause confusion. The adapted names have their own history. If you insist on saying København and not Copenhagen, you get to have a little pretentious discussion explaining what you meant to every person you talk to. Ditto for Folks-vagen.
      • tchalla 6y ago
        > In practice, if a name has a common pronunciation within English, you show respect by using that pronunciation when speaking to native English speakers. Here's how I read this. "We as an English speaking group will continue to not make an attempt to pronounce it right even if we can. Once we don't we will have a common pronunciation that doesn't fit the original one. Once it becomes common, we will get offended if it is not pronounced in the common way that we as a group chose to actively ignore in the first place. If the original speakers insist, we will call them pretentious."
        • mlyle 6y ago
          > If the original speakers insist, we will call them pretentious." Way to overreach way beyond what I originally said. If I was speaking to someone I knew was Dutch, of course I would (try to) say "København." Then they'd probably laugh at me and we'd agree to call it Copenhagen. :P Or if I want to read your view in the worst possible way-- similar to how you've read mine-- "People who use the established pronunciation of a loanword or place in their native tongue are wrong. We should always seek to find where we are using words of foreign origin and correct them to be perfectly pronounced in their original tongue, even when this causes confusion and isn't helpful to people from the original place. Japanese gairaigo should be abolished and they should just say those words in the correct original English (or German or French). And those damn Frenchmen should stop calling the place I live Californie dans les Etats Unis, which is nothing like how I say it, and should stop calling me 'Michel' which sounds a whole lot like the female version of my name"
          • 6y ago
    • felipelemos 6y ago
      Funny enough in my native language (portuguese), the h have no meaning on both cases.
    • natch 6y ago
      Do you pronounce "Volvo" as "Fuhao" since it is Chinese owned now and that's their name for it there?
      • ricardobayes 6y ago
        The realest of questions there. Or how Chinese bought Rover and renamed it to Roewe. It's a China-only brand now.
      • atleta 6y ago
        I found a YT video saying it's "wo er wo". Which suggests they have a hard time pronouncing it, which shouldn't come as a surprise given how different their phonemes are. Approximating it, because you can't pronounce it is one thing. Not giving a shit, even though you do have the same word (i.e. folk) is another one.
  • 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
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  • 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.