Neo pronunciation guide

[cathieo]

Hi,
I've been lurking around this forum for a while and this is my first posting. Like the rest of you, I'm a Neo Nut. I'm wondering if anyone other than me has ever looked for any sort of "guide to pronunciation" for Neos. I find them virtually impossible to figure out on my own, so, when I buy one (I get all mine from Jason At Orchids Ltd.) I make Jason say it til I can figure out a phonetic spelling to help me out when I've forgotten the next day. (I'm so old I had to take 4 years of Latin in high school so I don't find other orchids so daunting to pronounce.)
I finally got a green Neo yesterday. It was a big splurge on a division of a wild-collected 'Hisui' from the 1980's. It's dry bread for me for a while. LOL
Cathie

[LinhT]

Hi Cathie!!!! Great to meet another Minnesotan into neos. I've not searched for a reference for correction pronounciation of these things because I figure nobody is unfortunate enough to hear me pronounce the names except Jason anyways. I say it wrong once, he corrects me. I say it wrong twice, he corrects me. I say it wrong a 3rd time, he gives up and moves on to show me another neo in the cool room. I'm happy just trying to spell the names correctly and know the translations. Congrats on your new 'Hisui'! My Hisui is rather finicky about higher light levels. The most recent one I got is 'Yamahoko', a sword leaf variety. It's one of my favorites because it's very different than my other ones.
Welcome back to Orchidboard!

[lambelkip]

Here in america, the names are written phonetically (romaji), so give it some time and you'll be able to figure them all out. Tracy, since romaji is a pronunciation guide, you don't need to worry so much about spelling it right. That's not how the japanese would write it anyway. I would write the japanese name down, and spell it however i need to in order to remember the pronunciation. for example, I might label the green flowered plant "翡翠 (hisui)" or "翡翠 (he-soo-ee)"

[AboutOrchids]

I took 1 semester of Japanese and I study a Japanese martial art (Aikido), so while I'm far from conversant in Japanese, I do know that it's a "syllabic" language. Everything is broken down by syllable. I'd suggest trying to do the same, i.e. Hisui = he + sue + ee.

[weiss]

Buy the book "Kanji and Kana" and you can teach yourself to pronounce the kanji and kana. There are really only 5 vowels in Japanese and it is an easy language to pronounce.

[cathieo]

Thank you everyone for the help. I do know, and even have written down, the 5 Japanese vowels. Just didn't take it far enough to think to use that to help with the pronunciation. Duh. I believe I will get the book also.

[cathieo]

LinhT
Good to hear from you. Do you go to the OSM meetings? Funny thing—I had my eye on the sword leaf Neo that Jason had (Jerry told me about it at the Winter Carnival show) but it was sold before I could claim it. I'll keep my eye out for another one.

Re the Hisui, by "finicky about light," do you mean it likes more light than Neos usually require? I grow mine at a south window in the winter and outside on an East-facing balcony in the summer. Because I ran out of space at the window, a few of them are in my orchidarium, but I generally prefer to keep them out of there.

[LinhT]

Originally Posted by lambelkip

Here in america, the names are written phonetically (romaji), so give it some time and you'll be able to figure them all out. Tracy, since romaji is a pronunciation guide, you don't need to worry so much about spelling it right. That's not how the japanese would write it anyway. I would write the japanese name down, and spell it however i need to in order to remember the pronunciation. for example, I might label the green flowered plant "翡翠 (hisui)" or "翡翠 (he-soo-ee)"

Thanks, Kip, will keep that in mind. I know most of the Chinese translations so that helps me remember some of the names because some sound similar to the Japanese names.

[LinhT]

Originally Posted by cathieo

LinhT
Good to hear from you. Do you go to the OSM meetings? Funny thing—I had my eye on the sword leaf Neo that Jason had (Jerry told me about it at the Winter Carnival show) but it was sold before I could claim it. I'll keep my eye out for another one.

Re the Hisui, by "finicky about light," do you mean it likes more light than Neos usually require? I grow mine at a south window in the winter and outside on an East-facing balcony in the summer. Because I ran out of space at the window, a few of them are in my orchidarium, but I generally prefer to keep them out of there.

Yes, Cathie, I recently joined OSM. I went to Peter Lin's lecture and to Jason's lecture last month. I missed Robert's Lecture last weekend because I had to work. I think I might've met you? You gave me my nametag, I think?

My Hisui is a bit more sensitive to higher light than some of my other ones. It tends to get alot of purple and the leaves turned a yellowish green in higher light (I grow under T5's) . I had to reduce the light for the normal green to come back.

Sorry I took 'Yamahoko'! I heard from Jerry you have some nice ones. You'll have to post some photos when you get a chance! Would love to see what you have.

[mollycart1]

Here goes. Those 5 vowels are;

1. A = pronounced as "ah"
2. I = pronounced as "yee"
3. U = pronounced as "woo"
4. E = pronounced as "eh"
5. O = pronounded as "oh"

The combination with consonants will creates additional letters. There are 51 letters in total. What I found very interesting is that there are no words which have two vowels next to each other and both of them are pronounced in English. When you put " ' " between those two vowels, it might be easier to pronounce.

For example, my name is Naoki. It is pronounced as 'Nah - oh - kee' ( Na'oki ).

BTW, I am Japanese.