I seem to recall that someone on this board speaks Japanese, and I am looking for how to correctly pronounce the name of the HIJMS Tone. I've been saying it "Tohnay" but since it's named after the river Tonegawa (assuming gawa is river) is it more like "Tahneh" or perhaps "Tohneh" Help!
I have always heard Toe-nay as well. The old Janes used to say to pronounce the Japanese names as if they were French.
When writing Japanese using the phonetic syllabary every consonant is always paired up with a vowel (with one minor exception). "To" is one hiragana and "Ne" is a second hiragana. There is only one way to pronounce each vowel in Japanese. The consonants and emphasis may throw you for a loop (SUKI is said SKI and DESU is said DESS, on the other hand "hatarawanasugimasu" is pretty straight forward). A = Ah I = Ee (not aye) U = Oo E = Eh (not ey) O = Oh (not Ou) "Toh-neh" is correct, "toe-nay" is pretty close but has an American accent.
Hey I tried to put it down on paper, well on the screen. I did know how to say it because of Gerald Roberts years ago and the talks we had about that ship and other Japanese ships. Heck eye have troubel wit inglesh sumtimez.
