How do you pronounce Heian?

[fnorfurfoot]

I learned the five Heians from an instructor I am taking privates with about 2 or 3 months ago and am now being taught them again from a different instructor who has some variations in some of the movements. One thing I found strange is that they both pronounce the word differently and I've even heard a third pronounciation. How do you all pronounce Heian. Here are the three I've heard:

"Hey - on"
"Han" (as in Hand without the "d")
"He - in"

[exile]

First syllable: `hay' as in `haystack'
Second syllable: `en' as in the prefix in `encourage'

Stress on `hay'

[Carol]

Ayup. What Exile said.

[exile]

Ayup.

Spoken like a true New Englander! :)

I always thought of that as a Maine/NH affirmation, though... is it also in Massachussetts?

[Tez3]

Spoken like a true New Englander! :)

I always thought of that as a Maine/NH affirmation, though... is it also in Massachussetts?

It's from Yorkshire! they don't say hello here its ayup lad, ha's tha doing?" or "ayup lad thas never gonna get that in thar"the last is usually said with pessimistic glee that something will go wrong.
Well you can see how any Japanese is going to get mangled here!
They don't even pronouce water properly it comes out as watter (like batter)

[exile]

It's from Yorkshire! they don't say hello here its ayup lad, ha's tha doing?" or "ayup lad thas never gonna get that in thar"the last is usually said with pessimistic glee that something will go wrong.

I used to watch All Creatures Great and Small addictively. And the screenwriters managed to capture that sadopessimism of the Yorkshire countryside absolutely perfectly. I can almost hear one of those uphill farmers chuckling away and throwing lines like that into Herriot's ear as he tries to do some extremely unpleasant thing, coatless, in an unheated barn on a February morning... :uhohh:


Well you can see how any Japanese is going to get mangled here!

They don't even pronouce water properly it comes out as watter (like batter)

I understand that there are even more ...exotic... varieties of English spoken in the Cornish countryside....

[Tez3]

[quote=exile;758468]I used to watch All Creatures Great and Small addictively. And the screenwriters managed to capture that sadopessimism of the Yorkshire countryside absolutely perfectly. I can almost hear one of those uphill farmers chuckling away and throwing lines like that into Herriot's ear as he tries to do some extremely unpleasant thing, coatless, in an unheated barn on a February morning... :uhohh:



Ah then you know where I live! It was filmed all around here! Looking out of my window onto the moors at the moment!
Sorry to hijack the thread! I did Wado Ryo for a long time and the pronunciations of all the Japanese depended on where the person using the words came from as a result I really don't know how to pronounce anything. At least everything in MMA is in English, well sort of as I believe you had to have subtitles for Micheal Bisping on the TUF programme!

[exile]

Ah then you know where I live! It was filmed all around here! Looking out of my window onto the moors at the moment!

So you live in the Dales/moor country? I remember thinking that that had to be some of the most beautiful landscape in the world... I've actually been out on the Yorkshire moors once (we were driving up to Edinburgh from London), and I was struck the endless keening vastness of the place... had a hard time believing that we were less than 100 miles from the ocean in three directions...


Sorry to hijack the thread! I did Wado Ryo for a long time and the pronunciations of all the Japanese depended on where the person using the words came from as a result I really don't know how to pronounce anything. At least everything in MMA is in English, well sort of as I believe you had to have subtitles for Micheal Bisping on the TUF programme!

LOL!!

[Carol]

Spoken like a true New Englander! :)

I always thought of that as a Maine/NH affirmation, though... is it also in Massachussetts?

I work in NH and hope to by property in NH or Sothern ME before too long ;)

[exile]

I work in NH and hope to by property in NH or Sothern ME before too long ;)

Cool... so you're all set then!

Southern Maine, I've heard from colleagues, is phenomenally beautiful... I envy you, as well as Tez in her Yorkshire Dales splendor!

[IWishToLearn]

I still prefer Peian :P

[exile]

I still prefer Peian :P

And I agree! I've said so in the past... but it's your coinage and you get the credit... and the obligation to explain to people (i) the fusion of the Okinawan and Japanese terminologies and (ii) how to pronounce it. My best guess is, first syllable is `pay' as in `payment', second is the `en' in my previous post. But you own the rights to it, so it's your call... :wink1:

[IWishToLearn]

LOL! I was given the term by my teacher - he taught it to me as Pee-on. I've heard it mispronounced by a couple others in the organization "Peen-yon".

It's an amalgamation just as you stated - no further explanation needed.

We refer to the Naihonchis/Tekkis as Naihonchis, for the record too ;-).

We also train Empi and Wansu as two totally separate forms.

[exile]

We refer to the Naihonchis/Tekkis as Naihonchis, for the record too ;-).


LOL! And given the fairly savage bunkai that have been worked out for the Naihonchis (Naihonchos??), that seems a completely appropriate version of the name... :EG:

[IWishToLearn]

Heh - on a totally (well not really) unrelated note - I'm building my set for filming :).

[exile]

Heh - on a totally (well not really) unrelated note - I'm building my set for filming :).

Excellent, Steve! I'm looking forward to seeing those kata in living, breathing reality...

[kingkong89]

i was always taught to pronounce it he on with the o sound like an a

[cstanley]

i was always taught to pronounce it he on with the o sound like an a

I always pronounce it "Pinan.":lol:

[chinto01]

We also pronounce it pinan.

In the spirit of bushido!

Rob

[JadecloudAlchemist]

To pronounce the word Heian correctly it is Hay-iAN meaning you say hay say the I but when you say I say half of the I meaning do not say IEE say AH then AN this is how my Japanese wife says it.

[Ray B]

Heian = Hay-ahn
Pinan = Pee-nahn
Naihanchi/Naihanchin/Naifanchi = Nye-hahn-chee/Nye-hahn-chin/Nye-fahn-chee

You guys are killing me! Lol...:)

Here are two native speakers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiMSAs_lzY4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DDppu5CRrc&mode=related&search=

[Sukerkin]

I reckon Jade and Ray have the right of it in the pronunciation stakes. Heian is the romanised transliteration of four hiragana characters with the phonetic sounds of:

hey ... ee ... ah ... un

Japanese is a relatively stressless language (meaning if a syllable is dominant then it is shown repeated) but some are less promounced than others - so Jades Hey-iAN feels pretty close to me tho' (because I'm English rather than Japanese) Hey-ahn actually sounds more correct.

[fnorfurfoot]

Thank you all for your help with this.