Manga, how do you pronounce it?

[The Stonker]

I'm learning Japanese and I pronounce it MAN-GA.
Pretty easy.
Since if had a KA in it it would be written MANKA. So it would be pronounced MAN-KA.
Try for instance nihongo.
Do you say Ni-hon-go.
Or something that is bizzare and goes like this.
NI-HON-KO.
We all know how to talk people, there is a huge difference between a G and a K in English ( well I pronounce it differently people tell me because I'm a brit). And it's the same in Japanese with Ga and Ka, same with go and ko.

 

[Blue Hero]

Moi-nah-ga.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

yeah i heard it pronounced mahn-ga a few years back, but it just...sounds goofy, and i don't personally know a single person who pronounces it that way, so i just continue to say main-ga like everyone else around here.

 

[DaWaffledude]

... You're not supposed to pronounce it man-gah? My entire life has been a lie.

 

[Hollock]

It's mon guh. In japanese every letter is always pronounced the same way.a is always sounds like ah.

 

[Zetsubou^-^]

i don't know why people have trouble with this. Japanese is actually much more simple to say when reading because they kept it very phonetic. the Japanese system is based off of A-I-U-E-O. they sound like AH-EE-OO-EH-OH. most characters follow this principle. a basic alphabet looks like this,read right to left of course:

N WA RA YA MA HA NA TA SA KA A
-----RI----MI HI NI CHI SHI KI I
-----RU YU MU FU NU TSU SU KU U
-----RE----ME HE NE TE SE KE E
--WO RO YO MO HO NO TO SO KO O

N and WO are the only weird ones really. N is used in places where NA NI NU NE NO wouldn't work and just sounds like n. and WO can change its sound based on how its used.
all other letters and sounds are made via small changes(for instance, GA in Japanese is written KA",and things like KYA are written KIya, in this case a little YA)or with puctuation(extending the sound of a word with - after it or on it to emphasize the sound.)

since its written manga it is pronounced as such. there are harder words and rules i won't get into.

edit: the thing just wont cooperate lining up my little chart, but you can line it up easy enough XP

 

[TehCookie]

Oh phonetic spellings on the internet, you confuse me so. I pronounce it まんが.

 

[Keepeas]

The correct pronunciation for the word is "mon-guh." Two years in Japanese studies taught me that really quick.

I tend to cringe a bit when I hear it pronounced the other way.

I must agree...
After three years of Japanese in High School it hurts my ears when it's pronounced incorrectly.
(After the first few weeks actually)

It's 3 separate syllables : MA-N-GA
MA - as in 'MArio' 'MAMA' 'MArs'
N - as in 'No' 'Never' 'eNd' 'aNNoying"
GA - as in 'GAhh, stop pronouncing it as man-ga!'

So yeah I pronounce it the correct way...MA-N-GA

 

[Abedeus]

There is only one way of saying it correctly and it's "ma-n-ga".

Silly Westerners and their inability to speak correctly.

You know, people from different countries speak differently. I don't see why someone is considered incapable if they don't pronounce something properly. I don't mock chinese people who speak with horrible english accents, so why the hell should people be offended if I don't speak their language with their accents perfectly?

Because "speaking differently" is exactly "pronouncing differently". This is not "tomatoh tomaytoh", this is "nuclear" and "nucular".

I generally pronounce it 'comic books' because I love winding manga fans up.

What he said. "Manga" and "Anime" always seemed like stupid terms to me. They're comics and cartoons respectively, call a spade a spade.

I guess you consider Ferrari and a tractor "car". Both are vehicles, but I'm pretty gosh darn sure you can tell the difference. Or calling a horse "dog". Four legs and a tail, eh? Close enough.

Or something easier to understand - calling Gears of War "FPS". Shooter is a shooter, right?

 

[Abedeus]

I guess you consider Ferrari and a tractor "car". Both are vehicles, but I'm pretty gosh darn sure you can tell the difference. Or calling a horse "dog". Four legs and a tail, eh? Close enough.

Or something easier to understand - calling Gears of War "FPS". Shooter is a shooter, right?

I generally pronounce it 'comic books' because I love winding manga fans up.

So.. you enjoy looking like an uneducated idiot who doesn't distinguish horse from a dog. Or car from a train.

Okay, suits me fine. Btw, can I start calling you a woman? I mean you are almost like one, with one different chromosome.

 

[Nigh Invulnerable]

Pretty much Man-ga and sometimes i have to try to correct some of my American friends because they call it Mon-ga because it sounds like there is no "A" in the word not that it irks me i just feel the need to correct.

Except it's a Japanese word and would be pronounce "mon-guh" not matter what you'd prefer. Japanese pronunciation of syllables is quite fixed, so there's not really a way to dispute it.

Except when i see it written over here as Manga then i tend to pronounce it the way i see it and not the way the japanese have it written.

The real trick is that in Japanese the word is actually 3 syllables: ma-n-ga. An "a" is always pronounced "ah" regardless of situation. I realize that many English speakers tend to be lazy about pronunciation of foreign words, and I don't excuse myself in that regard, but I try to use the native pronunciation once I've learned it.

 

[Nigh Invulnerable]

I guess you consider Ferrari and a tractor "car". Both are vehicles, but I'm pretty gosh darn sure you can tell the difference. Or calling a horse "dog". Four legs and a tail, eh? Close enough.

Or something easier to understand - calling Gears of War "FPS". Shooter is a shooter, right?

I generally pronounce it 'comic books' because I love winding manga fans up.

So.. you enjoy looking like an uneducated idiot who doesn't distinguish horse from a dog. Or car from a train.

Okay, suits me fine. Btw, can I start calling you a woman? I mean you are almost like one, with one different chromosome.

I kind of think the difference with manga and comic is a little more subtle than horses and dogs. A more accurate comparison would be to call manga simply books.

 

[Nigh Invulnerable]

Mahn-Gah. The only right way.

"Mignogna" ...le wut?

Vic Mignogna. The voice actor for Ed in Fullmetal Alchemist, and many other things by Funimation.

 

[Sentox6]

A long time is a year or so. Six months if I am feeling particularly impatient. Not sure what you wanted out of that question, but there you go. Hrmph. That wasn't the only thing in Japanese language class I learned. I was merely using it as a point of reference.

I don't see what was so funny, but whatever.

Well, let's revisit your sentence.

Two years in Japanese studies taught me that really quick.

You're saying that you learnt something really quick... in two years. By your own admission, that's a long time. It's like saying that a few months on a bicycle got you across the US mainland really quick. It was just a bemusing choice of phrasing, nothing more.

 

[Bloodstain]

Mahn-Gah. The only right way.

"Mignogna" ...le wut?

Vic Mignogna. The voice actor for Ed in Fullmetal Alchemist, and many other things by Funimation.

I see. Thanks for clearing that up.