What is the pronunciation for Amiga?

[leirbag28]

@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!")
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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 :-)

[motorollin]

The sound at the beginning of the word Amiga is called a 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

[lurkist]

"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"

[pixie]

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

[pixie]

Amiga speaked natively can have both kinds of A also, namely when you have the immediate word before finishing in A too.. "Minha Amiga"

[blobrana]

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!

[odin]

Thank god for IPA.

[Turambar]

India Pale Ale?

[AmiBoy]

@PMC

I thought it was pronounced more like:

Com-wereallyscrewedupAmigaDidntwe-dor

AmiBoy

[Wain]

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.

[Zener]

Well, I'm spanish and I think the correct pronunciation in english is something like "umeeguh". Anyway... I never care about it! :-P

[Oli_hd]

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 for videos.

[jkirk]

pronunciation of amiga

Pronunciation: (u-mē'gu, ä-mē'-; Sp. ä-mē'gä), [key]

[minator]

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.

[foleyjo]

This advert gives the correct way to say it

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

a-me-Ga

[ameegah]

I am eager to know the correct pronunciation.