Why is Ibanez pronounced wrong?

Hecubus

Hecubus

New member
I was watching "The Good Shepherd" and there is a scene where they have to unseat Dr. Ibanez (pronounced Ee bon yez) and I remembered reading that the guitar company was started by a Spanish luthier named Salvador Ibanez (also pronounced Ee bon yez).

So, why did the company change the pronounciation of a traditional Spanish name? I have always heard the guitars pronounced "Eye ban ez" and spent most of my youth thinking that Ibanez was a Japanese word.

This reminded me a lot of living in Austin where the pronounciation of Spanish named streets are purposefully butchered ie. Guadalupe = Gwad-a-loop and San Jacinto = San Jah Sin Toe. I tried to pronounce the street names correctly but even the most progressive Austinites would not acknowlegde the correct pronounciations. It was weird, even for Austin!

Anyway, kind of a rhetorical question. Just wondering if anyone had any insights.
 
Re: Why is Ibanez pronounced wrong?

I read somewhere they named it Hoshini Gakke named it Ibanez to bring it some credibility- leading people to beleive it was a spanish guitar company
 
Re: Why is Ibanez pronounced wrong?

Well, for the Y to be there wouldn't it have to have a tilde?
 
Re: Why is Ibanez pronounced wrong?

If it were pronounced in japanese it would be ee ban ez. So yea who knows.
 
Re: Why is Ibanez pronounced wrong?

well, in asia its mostly pronouced as EE Ba Nez.
Anyway, does the way its pronounced matter? hmm.
 
Re: Why is Ibanez pronounced wrong?

Hecubus said:
I was watching "The Good Shepherd" and there is a scene where they have to unseat Dr. Ibanez (pronounced Ee bon yez) and I remembered reading that the guitar company was started by a Spanish luthier named Salvador Ibanez (also pronounced Ee bon yez).

So, why did the company change the pronounciation of a traditional Spanish name? I have always heard the guitars pronounced "Eye ban ez" and spent most of my youth thinking that Ibanez was a Japanese word.

This reminded me a lot of living in Austin where the pronounciation of Spanish named streets are purposefully butchered ie. Guadalupe = Gwad-a-loop and San Jacinto = San Jah Sin Toe. I tried to pronounce the street names correctly but even the most progressive Austinites would not acknowlegde the correct pronounciations. It was weird, even for Austin!

Anyway, kind of a rhetorical question. Just wondering if anyone had any insights.
Click to expand...
Off topic, but the same sort of thing goes on here. They'll use the Spanish pronunciation for some things, & the English for others, though they're all Spanish words.

Agua Fria river: "Awa Free-a"

Estrella Parkway: "Estray-yuh"

Casa Grande: "Kassuh Grand"
 
Re: Why is Ibanez pronounced wrong?

Hecubus said:
This reminded me a lot of living in Austin where the pronounciation of Spanish named streets are purposefully butchered ie. Guadalupe = Gwad-a-loop and San Jacinto = San Jah Sin Toe. I tried to pronounce the street names correctly but even the most progressive Austinites would not acknowlegde the correct pronounciations. It was weird, even for Austin!
Click to expand...

That's because there's no Mexicans in Austin.
 
Re: Why is Ibanez pronounced wrong?

Used to think Mazda was a Japanese word a while back as well. Americans butchering foreign names/words? No way!!!! I better tell the fellas at the karrieokee bar.

I noticed the E ban yez pronunciation while watching Starship Troopers. Haven't seen the movie you were watching but that movie had Doogie Howser and gigantic insects in it.
 
Re: Why is Ibanez pronounced wrong?

kind of funny
I have a friend who just came over from germany, he plays guitar
first time he saw a gibson he called it a "jibson" (as in <b>g</b>ypsy)
it was quite hilarious..

he had no problems with ibanez though , lol
 
Re: Why is Ibanez pronounced wrong?

They were too busy learning rocking guitar to learn how to spell, that's all......
 
Re: Why is Ibanez pronounced wrong?

Stratovarious said:
kind of funny
I have a friend who just came over from germany, he plays guitar
first time he saw a gibson he called it a "jibson" (as in <b>g</b>ypsy)
it was quite hilarious..

he had no problems with ibanez though , lol
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that's funny because the G in German is like in Gibson :laugh2:
 
Re: Why is Ibanez pronounced wrong?

Acura vehicles are called "ACK-yer-ah" here but the actual pronunciation is "ah-KOO-rah".
 
Re: Why is Ibanez pronounced wrong?

I_M_Ken said:
well, in asia its mostly pronouced as EE Ba Nez.
Anyway, does the way its pronounced matter? hmm.
Click to expand...

Same here.

Americans pronounce things differently sometimes- they do it the way they read it.
IKEA is EE-KE-AA here and in other European countries (I think it's also how they call it in Sweden) while I heard Americans call it I-KI-A...

In most cases, marketers, all around the world, don't fight this things by tryin to educate their customers to say things the way they are said in the original country of the brand. It's not their job and for most cases - it's better to go with the flow...
 
Re: Why is Ibanez pronounced wrong?

You guys ever listen to a foriegner speak our language? Talk about mangling words... Indians can't even pronounce the V sound. It comes out W.

My point is every language twists certain letter combinations to their pronouncement. It's not just Americans. Go listen to an Asian talk. Shlimp Flied Lice anyone?
 
Re: Why is Ibanez pronounced wrong?

Obviously people of different countries with different pronunciations of the alphabet are going to say things differently. What I have always thought was weird was that the names of countries are changed for no apparent reason that I can tell. Espania = Spain, Italia = Italy, Deutchland = Germany, etc...
 
Re: Why is Ibanez pronounced wrong?

In the English laguage, the accent is most often on the first sylabble. In lanuages derived from Latin, the accent commonly falls on other sylabbles.

Bottom line is, the seller doesn't care what you call them. Call it a banana, as long as you buy them by the bunch.
 
Re: Why is Ibanez pronounced wrong?

mixedmedia said:
I noticed the E ban yez pronunciation while watching Starship Troopers. Haven't seen the movie you were watching but that movie had Doogie Howser and gigantic insects in it.
Click to expand...

At least it wasn't Doogie in the shower scene....
 
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