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Amiga computer related discussion => General chat about Amiga topics => Topic started by: colinstu on February 23, 2006, 05:09:48 PM

Title: What is the pronunciation for Amiga?
Post by: colinstu on February 23, 2006, 05:09:48 PM
I think you pronunce it: Am-ee-ga, but once in a while I will say A-meg-a.

Am i correct? How do you do it?
Title: Re: What is the pronunciation for Amiga?
Post by: Amigaz on February 23, 2006, 05:27:54 PM
I pronounce it like: Ah-mi-ghaah!!!

 :lol:  :lol:

Sorry, couldn't resist

Since the Amiga was invented in USA it should be pronounced with an Amnerican accent  :roll:
Title: Re: What is the pronunciation for Amiga?
Post by: Steady on February 23, 2006, 05:28:07 PM
The first way is right.
Title: Re: What is the pronunciation for Amiga?
Post by: leirbag28 on February 23, 2006, 05:33:05 PM

is is definitely    "Uh-meee-guh"

Uh - Mee - Guh = Amiga

it just occured to me over the past few months that that means that All applications that start with "Ami" should be correctly pronounced to sound like Uh-Mee-Guh  (the "uh and Guh" in the beginning and end should sound the same)

So AmIRC = Um - Eye -Are - See  or Umee- Are-See

AmigAIM = Uh-meeg-Aye-Eye-Em  or Uh-mee-Game

AmiComSys = Umee - Com -sis


you get the idea

in spanish it is  Ahhh-miii-gah

Amiga is Spanish for female friend.
Title: Re: What is the pronunciation for Amiga?
Post by: PMC on February 23, 2006, 05:33:35 PM
According to the PMC dictionary of East Anglian dialect English, we pronounce Amiga as Ah-mee-gah.

I don't recall ever having heard it pronounced any other way...  Unlike Commodore:

Cohm-mod-door (American)
Com-mad-dore (British)
Title: Re: What is the pronunciation for Amiga?
Post by: amigagr on February 23, 2006, 05:34:40 PM
but it's a spain word quite the same as the italian (amica)
so it's pronounced as it writes, A mi ga
Title: Re: What is the pronunciation for Amiga?
Post by: leirbag28 on February 23, 2006, 05:39:35 PM
Nope
its dfefinitely:

Uh mee Guh

Ahhh mi gah is not an english pronunciation

Ahhh is what you do when you go to the dentist.


The "A" in "Amiga" is the same sound as the "A" in "Amazing"

Notice its pronounced "Uh may zeeng"   Not "Ahhh may zeeng"

that Ahhh is too much like the Sound you make at a dentist when he asks that you stick out your tongue.

Ahhhhhh!  no no

its Uhhhh meee--guhhh    Not Ahhhh Miii gaahhh

Title: Re: What is the pronunciation for Amiga?
Post by: andy82i on February 23, 2006, 05:47:58 PM
No no no no no

Amazing is pronounced Am Ay Zing

Just as Amiga is pronounced Am Ee Ga

I hate dentists! & I thought it was Doctors that make you stick your tongue out?

Uh is more of a groaning sound

Title: Re: What is the pronunciation for Amiga?
Post by: PMC on February 23, 2006, 05:55:35 PM
Quote

leirbag28 wrote:

Ahhh mi gah is not an english pronunciation



Depends on where you come from, not every English dialect is phonetically identical...

Tell you what, why doesn't someone type "Amiga" into "Say" to find out how your Amiga pronounces it's own name?
Title: Re: What is the pronunciation for Amiga?
Post by: ameegah on February 23, 2006, 05:55:52 PM
Ameegah.  Thats how it's pronounced.
Title: Re: What is the pronunciation for Amiga?
Post by: steve30 on February 23, 2006, 05:55:55 PM
I say AM EE GA

Title: Re: What is the pronunciation for Amiga?
Post by: mr_a500 on February 23, 2006, 06:02:55 PM
Quote
Ahhhhhh! no no

its Uhhhh meee--guhhh Not Ahhhh Miii gaahhh


As long as you're not over-exaggerating, there is very little difference in pronunciation between "uh mee guh" and "ah mee gah" and both are basically correct. I don't think anybody says the "ah" part like the "say ahhh" in the dentist. (it's more like the sound some girls make when having sex - "ah ah ah ah ah mee ga!")

Hey leirbag, you're in New York - do you say "hot dog" like "hawght dawg"? ;-) (...or is that only in parts of the Bronx?)
Title: Re: What is the pronunciation for Amiga?
Post by: Kaminari on February 23, 2006, 06:05:15 PM
The correct way to pronounce it is "Amigo", just switch the "O" with an "A".
Title: Re: What is the pronunciation for Amiga?
Post by: beller on February 23, 2006, 06:15:56 PM
And for the truly trivial...

Amiga translates from spanish as: female friend.

So...if your wife says you've got another woman in your life...she could be right!

Bob
Title: Re: What is the pronunciation for Amiga?
Post by: leirbag28 on February 23, 2006, 06:17:13 PM
@PMC

Haha, I just typed it into SAY..............it says just like I spelled it:  Uh mee Guh

which is correct.....at least in American English

@mr-a500

Quote:
As long as you're not over-exaggerating, there is very little difference in pronunciation between "uh mee guh" and "ah mee gah" and both are basically correct. I don't think anybody says the "ah" part like the "say ahhh" in the dentist. (it's more like the sound some girls make when having sex - "ah ah ah ah ah mee ga!")
------------------------------------------------------------

Thats funny.........but the problem with the way you spelled it is that that sound can only spell the sound you make at a dentist,  or the sound you make when you juet realised something  "ahhhh"

the only way to spell the way it sounds is with a letter "U"  
hence Uh meeguh....test it in Your Say program  it prounces it like that.............although the Phoneme window says:  AHMIY3GAH


Yes I am in New York............but I do NOT say Hawght Dawg"  lol :-)

Thats usually the way Italian Americans or Brooklynites
and some Puerto Ricans and Jews pronounce the words.


EDIT:  Oh...and in the Bronx too :-)   but not every Italian American or Puerto Rican or Jewish necessarily speak this way...I have heard Chinese Americans speak like that too..........real funny :-)
Title: Re: What is the pronunciation for Amiga?
Post by: motorollin on February 23, 2006, 07:20:54 PM
The sound at the beginning of the word Amiga is called a schwa (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=schwa), as in the A in AMAZING.

This does contradict common Amiga apps like AmIRC, which I think are normally pronounced with a short A (as in the a in HAT).

--
moto
Title: Re: What is the pronunciation for Amiga?
Post by: lurkist on February 23, 2006, 07:35:53 PM
"ah" sounds like the word "are" as in "they are here"
"mii" could be anything
"amazing" should be "um ay zing"
"Amiga" should be "um ee guh"
"AmIRC" etc. should be "am eye are see"
Title: Re: What is the pronunciation for Amiga?
Post by: pixie on February 23, 2006, 08:14:21 PM
Quote
Amiga is Spanish for female friend.


Amiga in Portuguese is female friend, so you see it's not the Spanish for female friend, rather the portuguese as well the spanish for amiga friend.

Also the accent does not belong either to US, and the reason they speak it with husch accent is due to the phonetic limitations present in the native language, English.

So obviously, Amiga should be said as it was meant, with either spanish portuguese accent, being those two virtually undistiguisible (as far as the word Amiga goes). As such, it's said as it is written... Amiga :-D

Title: Re: What is the pronunciation for Amiga?
Post by: pixie on February 23, 2006, 08:20:33 PM
Amiga speaked natively can have both kinds of A also, namely when you have the immediate word before finishing in A too.. "Minha Amiga"
Title: Re: What is the pronunciation for Amiga?
Post by: blobrana on February 23, 2006, 09:33:28 PM
Hum,
All together now....


"Aaa, " deer, A female deer,
 "Ray, " a drop of golden sun,
 "Me, " a name I call myself,
"Ga," that bring us back to, Doh!

Title: Re: What is the pronunciation for Amiga?
Post by: odin on February 23, 2006, 09:40:11 PM
Thank god for IPA.
Title: Re: What is the pronunciation for Amiga?
Post by: Turambar on February 23, 2006, 10:00:33 PM
India Pale Ale?
Title: Re: What is the pronunciation for Amiga?
Post by: AmiBoy on February 23, 2006, 10:12:00 PM
@PMC

I thought it was pronounced more like:

Com-wereallyscrewedupAmigaDidntwe-dor

AmiBoy
Title: Re: What is the pronunciation for Amiga?
Post by: Wain on February 23, 2006, 10:28:19 PM
Quote

lurkist wrote:
"amazing" should be "um ay zing"
"Amiga" should be "um ee guh"
"AmIRC" etc. should be "am eye are see"


the first two are incorrect (for American English  at least)because they put the stress at the wrong parts of the words.  

Amazing is not "um ay zing" because the m is stressed on the second syllable.  Broken into syllables the word looks like a-ma-zing...not am-a-zing, which in American english would make the opening sound be like the 'am' in 'ham' (or as you suggest here "AmIRC").  Amiga is pronounced in American English as A(uh)-mi(mee)-Ga (guh).

Using the ASCII version of the IPA, the word would look like this...  ^'mig^


To be further clear, the opening and ending vowels are the same as the one used in "cup"...in American English anyway.

Title: Re: What is the pronunciation for Amiga?
Post by: Zener on February 23, 2006, 10:59:03 PM
Well, I'm spanish and I think the correct pronunciation in english is something like "umeeguh". Anyway... I never care about it! :-P
Title: Re: What is the pronunciation for Amiga?
Post by: Oli_hd on February 23, 2006, 11:27:27 PM
I always say it as Aaa Me gaa.. same as amazing, I say aaa mayyy zinggg

Most of the official adverts seem to say the same, see The Commodore Billboard (http://www.commodorebillboard.de/) for videos.
Title: Re: What is the pronunciation for Amiga?
Post by: jkirk on February 24, 2006, 11:58:32 AM
pronunciation of amiga (http://www.infoplease.com/dictionary/amiga)
Quote
Pronunciation: (u-mē'gu, ä-mē'-; Sp. ä-mē'gä), [key]
Title: Re: What is the pronunciation for Amiga?
Post by: minator on February 24, 2006, 01:42:35 PM
I think the pronunciation largely depends on your own area and accent.

Trying to describe this in words is exceedingly difficult because when I write "Ah" someone else may say it differently.

I see people writing "Uh" but that sounds completely wrong to me, I suspect the pronunciation of "Uh" is different from mine.

I say:

Ahh - me - Gah

I suspect the only real way to find out how people say Amiga is to post audio samples.
Title: Re: What is the pronunciation for Amiga?
Post by: foleyjo on February 24, 2006, 01:54:06 PM
This advert gives the correct way to say it

http://www.commodorebillboard.de/Commercials/Amiga/english/Videos/Amiga1000Commercial.mpg

a-me-Ga
Title: Re: What is the pronunciation for Amiga?
Post by: ameegah on February 24, 2006, 02:32:56 PM
I am eager to know the correct pronunciation.
Title: Re: What is the pronunciation for Amiga?
Post by: Oli_hd on February 24, 2006, 02:34:37 PM
Quote
I am eager to know the correct pronunciation.

 :lol:  :lol:  :lol:
Title: Re: What is the pronunciation for Amiga?
Post by: zefiro on February 24, 2006, 02:56:34 PM

In agreement with Internationa Code ICAO, to semplify
I think the right pronunciation of AmigA is:

Alfa
Mike
India
Golf
Alfa

So the same as in adverts link before
Title: Re: What is the pronunciation for Amiga?
Post by: lurkist on February 24, 2006, 03:04:44 PM
@Wain

The phrase "American English" is a contradiction in terms!
Title: Re: What is the pronunciation for Amiga?
Post by: Seehund on February 24, 2006, 06:59:42 PM
Sheesh. Amiga is pronounced Amiga. How difficult can it be? ;)

(Whose brilliant idea was it to make single vowels pronounciable(?) as diphtongs in English anyway?
In the rest of the world, an "i" is an "i", an "a" is an "a" et c. For example, an "i" could never rhyme with "eye" in any Real Language. ;))

Title: Re: What is the pronunciation for Amiga?
Post by: leirbag28 on February 24, 2006, 08:57:24 PM
@foleyjo

Nope...haha..even that commercial says it wrong.......the second time it said it was a little better.   Diferent Amiga commercial have said it different.some wrong, some right.

This commercial says the word as it sounds in Spanish:
Ahhh me gah

But as we see here from a number of posts from Dictionaries.....the correct is:  Uh mee guh.


Want final proof?  this settles it:

Open Workbench/Utilites/Say

Type Amiga!  surprise!  it actually says it correct! if one wants to get technical then...Ahhh mee gahhh is the original word

......but originally most people didnt think where the name came from........and if I recall....Jay Miner says:  Uh mee guh.....So there ya have it!