The pronunciation of Anime

[NoTiG]

Okay this is a pretty pointless thread... but i would just like to say, When i first heard of anime I read it before I heard it spoken so I have always thought of it as pronounced "Ah Neem", and not "an I may" .

SO anyways.. it sounds way cooler pronounced ah neem, and i refuse to change. ANd you would be surprised how much it annoys people when you pronounce it the way you want... People love their anime.

[az]

"Ah-Knee-m"; Me too.

[damonw5]

"Ah-Knee-m"; Me too.
I've only heard it pronounced: ANN-ihh-may.

[az]

I was once in a room with a bunch of anime enthusiasts, watching anime (the only anime I ever watched). They were from a broad range of cultures (I live in Montreal, Québec). They all called it "AH-Knee-M". I actually left and went to make out with a girl...

This was in 1991...

[maruchan]

ah-nee-may-shon = animation

I have never seen a non-Japanese speaker pronounce "anime" in a way that native Japanese people immediately pick up on. Usually, it's not because of the way the vowels sound; rather, the non-Japanese is placing emphasis on the word in a non-Japanese way. Most Americans, for example, place a heavy emphasis on the front of the word, like "AHneemay." Brazilians will do the opposite, like "ahneeMAY."

Most Japanese words are, however, pronounced in a flat tone, like "ah-nee-may" (hard for some people to imagine how this sounds). Basically, don't "change notes" while you're pronouncing it. It's like hitting the same note on a keyboard for each syllable.

I lived in Japan for several years, and there were a lot of times I had to adjust certain words that I had a tendency to pronounce wrong. One that comes to mind is "mohan" which means "a person's example," but every time I accidentally pronounced it as "MO-han," people would ask me to repeat the word (what did he just say?). They couldn't even pick it out from the context. So I had to remember to keep it flat.

[oddabe19]

Crap

other then that...

Ann-eh-may

[scourge]

Here: http://spamusement.com/index.php/comics/view/221

[nobodysbusiness]

I always remember the pronounciation as being like the name Annie-May. I suppose it depends on who you ask.

[senshisteph]

My bf pronounces it a-ni-meh ... equal stress on each syllable, 'clipped' vowels. He's a native Japanese speaker.