Having contact with Eugenie and Alex Vallejo (the mother and son team running Acrylicos Vallejo), I can tell you they pronounce their name the Spanish way (unsurprisingly). However, I have seen them graciously allow mispronunciations. I have contacts inside Tamiya, and Matt has met Mr. Tamiya on a number of occasions; Tarnship has it dead on. Our conversations with the folks at Zvezda reveal it is pronounced as it is spelled. Same with Italeri (i-tal-air-ee; think Italy with “air” between the L and Y).
Ooh yah, dontcha knoh? Ha-ha-ha! I moved here to Green Bay from the No. Virginia area back in '92. I avoided going to places like Lake Butte Des Morts, Shawano and Lac Du Flambeau simply because I was too afraid to ask for directions.
Tim, thank you for the excellent information. The next time I go into a hobby shop, I will FINALLY be able to ask for Vallejo paints with the utmost confidence (unlike the last time when I mumbled it out).
Eric
I pronounce Tamiya as ‘tam-my-ya’. Ah well… LOL!
“I avoided going to places like Lake Butte Des Morts, Shawano and Lac Du Flambeau simply because I was too afraid to ask for directions.”
picks self back up off of floor,thanks, I needed that laugh,“umm, could you give me directions to Shawna,umm, Show anna,umm, that place with the cool race track?”
I wish I could type out how I intentionally butchered Oconomowoc once when I went there for a convention, after one of the other guys from there couldn’t say Menominee.
this thread has been a lot of fun, guys
Rex
Yes, Rex it has been fun - a little break from modeling to how to pronounce things we model or use in modeling. And, you know, not only do we ‘butcher’ words in languages not familiar to us but those that are familiar as well. I was born in OHIO but if you’re from Ohio, a native would pronounce it Oh-hi-a. I still can’t correctly pronounce the maker of an ME109 or a FW190 but I do quite well with a North American P-51 (I think)!!
Once was a time Italeri was spelt “Italerei”. People used to say Ee tal air ay
Hmmm… my mother-in-law would have said It-all-YAIR-ee
How do I pronounce Vallejo? The best damn paint around for figures.
I still run into people who build It-ally-airy models or It-a-Larry (as opposed to It-a- Moe or It-a-Curly) .
As to place names, I grew up not far from Lake Chargaugamogmanchaugagogchabunagungamaug,
Then we have cities like Leicester (pronounced Lester, nice Lice Stir or Lie Chest 'Er) and Worcester (which can vary from Worse-ter, Wooster, or to locals as Wisstah but NEVER Wore Chest 'Er). Amesbury is Ames-bree, Chatham sounds like Chat-em, but Eastham is East Ham, not East-um. Amherst is Am-erst, not Am-Hearst. Locals call Clinton Clih In, Oxford is Ox -Fud and Billerica is Bill Ricka.
The nanny-bot will not let me tell you how we pronounce Suffolk and Norfolk the they don’t rhyme with folk.
So a quick recap to date 5-15-14
- Vallejo = Vah-YEH-hoh
- Tamiya = Tah Mee Yah
- Hasegawa = Hah Say Gah Wah
- Gunze = Goon za(y) Not Gun zee.
- Zvezda = it is pronounced as it is spelled.(per Tim Kidell)
- Italeri = i-tal-air-ee; think Italy with “air” between the l and y.
Others:
Hiroshima = Hee Roh Shee Mah , Not Hero-She-ma
Nikon = nee con, Not nigh con
I’d pronounce it more or less like I do my screen name…
I have always pronounced it Vah-lay-hoe. And seems I pronounce a lot of things differently too from reading this thread…though I say “pronounce”. Really it is all notional since I don’t have any friends who scale model (and thus no one to converse with about it), so all my “pronouncing” is done inside my fat head. [:D] So I guess the only person who has to hear my butchering of words is…myself! [H]
Brian
This has been interesting. I wish some of you could visit here in Podunkville USA and hear how much a language can be butchered beyond all reason. One example is that one word will have many meanings depending on the word in front of it or maybe behind it. Such as “War”-----Cook War, Gleck-trick War, and then, War ya’ll at? Our favorite material in modeling gets hammered too.— Plaskit, and Plackstick. There are many others. I won’t even go into the raping the names covered in this thread take. Living here I have learned to speak four languages, English, Okie, Arkie and a smattering of Hick.
Oh no doubt Rommel!
Under all this about what nationality says it this way versus that that way, you know that there’s folks in Japan who stack the new TV on top of the old TV, folks in Croatia who find their ex-wife’s Yugo when they mow the lawn, and folks in Mexico who lost five dogs when their porch collapsed.
Do they all say “Vaw-Yay-ho”?
NOT!
This is all true! I actually live in Solano County, and I was born in Vallejo, CA. The pronunciation of the town name - although it’s very strange and nothing like the Spanish pronunciation - is vul-LAY-oh. The town is named after General Vallejo, whose name by locals is actually pronounced correctly (vaw-YEAH-ho) for the most part (weirdly enough).
I have often suspected that the way words are spoken is changed each time I have learned the “correct” way to say it. I’m and not afraid of this, however, as I assume that eventually the changes will, one day, come back around to my way.
p.s. “vaw-YEAH-ho” gets my vote.
It’s funny, I used to live next door to Costa Mesa (Coast-a Mesa), and now I live in Contra Costa (Contra Cost-a) county. Of course, I drove on “The 405” through Costa Mesa and now I drive “680” through Contra Costa county. Go figure …
va-YAY-ho is correct!
As an old flying model builder, I sometimes pronounce ROG as “rise off ground” 
Just so happen older sister and I discussed the “The” thing last night.
Folks in Southern California (“SoCal” a.k.a. “Southland”) put “The” before a major road name, ala “The 110” for Interstate 110 a.k.a. “The Harbor Freeway” (formerly California State Route 11), expression for sure going back to the 1950s when heard “The” before major road names on the radio & TV, i.e. newsreader pronounciation practice of the day.
Northern California (“NorCal” but not “Northland”, never heard that said) particularly around the San Francisco Bay Area say “Bay Area” but not in “SoCo”, have to say “San Francisco Bay Area” there to be specific, lotta “Bays” in “SoCal”.
Most folks in “NorCal” that I’ve talked to skip “The” before major road names particularly in the San Joaquin Valley (“The Valley” not to be confused with the San Fernando, San Gabriel et. al. other Vallies in “SoCal”; gotta say “San Joaquin Valley” when in “SoCal”) again no doubt partially because of radio & TV newsreader pronounciation practice, know that for sure from September 1963 on.
When going though “The Valley” or “The San Joaquin” to differentiate between “The Sacramento Valley” north of Sacramento to where Interstate 5 heads into the mountains folks say “5” (Interstate 5), “99” (California State Route formerly U.S. 99), “145” through Kerman (f.k.a. = formerly known as Collis) etc. so when I say “will take 99 instead of 5” folks know that’s the road am going to “SoCal” on (I say Southern California or Los Angeles to be specific).
Folks in “SoCal” tend to speak in terms of time between places, folks in “The San Joaquin” distance, Sacramento Metropolitan Area both though time has won out given how bad traffic congestion is there. Folks in “The Bay Area” also speak in terms of time but long ago spoke distance; wherever traffic congestion is bad time has become prevalent.