“That’s how we pronounce it,” says Xiu Xiu frontman and songwriter Jamie Stewart approvingly after I fluke out and correctly identify the band as “shoe shoe.” “But we’ve been told by, like, nine million people that we pronounce it wrong, and those nine million people have told us nine million different ways to say it.”
― jaymc, Friday, 13 August 2010 17:52 (thirteen years ago) link
Stewart points out that he’s never found the inevitable mangling of his band’s name all that troubling, although he admits that one variation is a bit contentious. “I think the only pronunciation that we actually object to is ‘zoo zoo,’” he says, “just because it sounds like a bad hair-metal band.”
― jaymc, Friday, 13 August 2010 17:53 (thirteen years ago) link
the X sound in mandarin is more of a "sy-" then "sh-" sound imo.
― _▂▅▇█▓▒░◕‿‿◕░▒▓█▇▅▂_ (Steve Shasta), Friday, 13 August 2010 18:08 (thirteen years ago) link
shiu-shiu wd be closest I'd think?
― Chanté Ackerman (Stevie D), Friday, 13 August 2010 18:29 (thirteen years ago) link
I feel like there's still a hint of a "sh" after the initial "sy."
― jaymc, Friday, 13 August 2010 18:35 (thirteen years ago) link
But that's immaterial, since it's Jamie Stewart's band, and he sez "shu shu."
― jaymc, Friday, 13 August 2010 18:39 (thirteen years ago) link
except he named them after the Joan Chen film in which they pronounce the lead girl's name correctly lol.
― _▂▅▇█▓▒░◕‿‿◕░▒▓█▇▅▂_ (Steve Shasta), Friday, 13 August 2010 19:38 (thirteen years ago) link
sh sound in mandarin = "sh-"x sound in mandarin = "sy-"
imo
― _▂▅▇█▓▒░◕‿‿◕░▒▓█▇▅▂_ (Steve Shasta), Friday, 13 August 2010 19:50 (thirteen years ago) link
here are several ways of interpreting 秀秀 in roman letters approximating the mandarin pronunciation using all the most common romanization methods:
xiu xiuhsiu hsiushiou shioushyou shyousheou sheoushiow shiow
― _▂▅▇█▓▒░◕‿‿◕░▒▓█▇▅▂_ (Steve Shasta), Friday, 13 August 2010 19:58 (thirteen years ago) link
I was in china for a week before I learned how pronounce thank you correctly (xie xie). the xi sound is tough because it doesn't occur in english and the regional dialects will compound yr confusion. I kept mispronouncing it "water" so at restaurants I ended up getting another glass of water every time a dish was brought to the table.
― (e_3) (Edward III), Friday, 13 August 2010 20:15 (thirteen years ago) link
also, ewa demarczyk
avuh de mar check?
my polish ancestors weep
― (e_3) (Edward III), Friday, 13 August 2010 20:18 (thirteen years ago) link
Neither exotic nor a band but is it Phill NIH-block or Phill NYE-block? ("is" sound or "eye" sound?)
― Paul Ponzi, Thursday, 19 December 2019 22:09 (four years ago) link
https://youtu.be/jL4Jt4Tc_i4?t=9
― visiting, Thursday, 19 December 2019 22:15 (four years ago) link
Remember kids, Dokken rhymes with Rockin'!
― Loud guitars shit all over "Bette Davis Eyes" (NYCNative), Thursday, 19 December 2019 22:16 (four years ago) link
xp That settles that! Thanks. That's what I've always said but today for whatever reason it occurred to me that it might be 'nye-block'
― Paul Ponzi, Thursday, 19 December 2019 22:17 (four years ago) link