Sayga

Hewitson

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Why on earth do Americans pronounce Sega as Sayga? Even Sega themselves pronounce it as Sega, as can be seen on the Sonic games, Jurassic Park, and a number of others.
 
Maybe I'm misunderstanding to pronunciations you're typing, but I think it usually is pronounced "say-guh." A LOT of 90s-00s+ era games start with the iconic "SAYYYYY-GUHHHHH" intro, and even the robot voice in Virtual On says "presented by say-guh."

Edit: here we go



That intro alone is the reason it's pronounced like that and was for a long time... it may be technically incorrect though.

Edit 2: the modern intro still has it Sayguh

 
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Yeah, I'm curious to know how the Japanese pronounce it.

There's quite a few companies whose company name changes pronunciation based on what country you're in. Hyundai is another weird one.
 
Why on earth do Americans pronounce Sega as Sayga? Even Sega themselves pronounce it as Sega, as can be seen on the Sonic games, Jurassic Park, and a number of others.

Not sure if I'm pickin up what your layin' down. Can you be a little more descriptive? I always thought Say-Gha was the way to say it.
 
I think he's talking about this pronunciation in the sound clip, sounds strange. Like the "Segguh" vs. "Saygah". To be honest, I've always used the "Segguh" pronunciation and most people I know have as well. Like in the voice clip at the beginning of Sonic 3D Blast IIRC. The "SEEGGUH!" Scream.

"Saygah" Pronunciation
http://www.hark.com/clips/pyhmsdnvfd-she-doesnt-even-have-sega-shes-such-a-troglodyte

"Segguh" Pronunciation (Going by memory as I can't hear it at work. ;))
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rh5eis0sMHI
 
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I think he's talking about this pronunciation in the sound clip, sounds strange. Like the "Segguh" vs. "Saygah". To be honest, I've always used the "Segguh" pronunciation and most people I know have as well. Like in the voice clip at the beginning of Sonic 3D Blast IIRC. The "SEEGGUH!" Scream.

"Saygah" Pronunciation
http://www.hark.com/clips/pyhmsdnvfd-she-doesnt-even-have-sega-shes-such-a-troglodyte

"Segguh" Pronunciation (Going by memory as I can't hear it at work. ;))
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rh5eis0sMHI

wait a minute...yeah...ok. Now I'm sitting here saying Sega over and over again, using it in context, shouting it, etc.. and I do say it like you too. Hahahaha! Way too much thought into this.
 
Why on earth do Americans pronounce Sega as Sayga? Even Sega themselves pronounce it as Sega, as can be seen on the Sonic games, Jurassic Park, and a number of others.

Question for a question:
Why do foreigners sound like Americans when singing, but are hard to understand when speaking in their regular tongue?
 
wait a minute...yeah...ok. Now I'm sitting here saying Sega over and over again, using it in context, shouting it, etc.. and I do say it like you too. Hahahaha! Way too much thought into this.

Haha yeah it's a pretty small detail, but it always sounded weird when people would say 'Saygah' when I was younger, like you couldn't be a true Sega fan if you said it that way. :D
 
Why on earth do Americans pronounce Sega as Sayga? Even Sega themselves pronounce it as Sega, as can be seen on the Sonic games, Jurassic Park, and a number of others.

I dunno, why is it Gojira in Japan and Godzilla in the US? Why is it "Animation" in English and "Anime" in Japan? Petty complaint really.
 
i say they both sound the same... one is a chouros who say it slow, and the other is just a guy saying it :)

both say "sega"
 
On the Sonic intros it sounds like they're saying Seeeeeee-gaaaaaa to me. The pronounciation difference is actually mentioned on Wikipedia: "Sega Corporation (株式会社セガ Kabushiki gaisha Sega?), pronounced /ˈseɪɡə/ (US/Canada/UK) or /ˈsiːɡə/ (Australia/New Zealand)".

How about, the company was started by several Americans, and however we say it is correct?
Emoticon-Facepalm.gif
 
Question for a question:
Why do foreigners sound like Americans when singing, but are hard to understand when speaking in their regular tongue?

I've wondered why this is ever since I was a kid.
 
Why on earth do Americans pronounce Sega as Sayga? Even Sega themselves pronounce it as Sega, as can be seen on the Sonic games, Jurassic Park, and a number of others.
I'm not sure I understand the difference; I've only really ever heard one pronunciation (except for a few random dumbasses) as best I can recall.

If you're at all familiar with Spanish pronunciation - the Japanese "e" and "a" sounds are pretty similar to that - those vowels only have one sound; in a word, the letter "e" always creates the sound that you make when you say the name of the letter "A", and a is always an "ah" sound. Hopefully that helps explain at least somewhat.

Question for a question:
Why do foreigners sound like Americans when singing, but are hard to understand when speaking in their regular tongue?
I don't know, but damn it's weird.

Only British band I can think of that sounds like they have an accent is Bloc Party.
I dunno, why is it Gojira in Japan and Godzilla in the US? Why is it "Animation" in English and "Anime" in Japan? Petty complaint really.
For Gojira - the double consonant "dz" in Japanese doesn't exist - "J" is the closest sound. There's no true "L" in Japanese - though the Japanese R is somewhere between an English R and L. I know it sounds bizarre, but Rs, Ls, and Ra Ri Ru Re Ro sounds don't really translate well between Japanese and English. Also, I think Gojira was translated as Godzilla because it sounds more badass (though I don't know Godzilla history worth a damn.)

Also, Anime (at least as we say it in English) isn't a Japanese word; the pronunciation is WAY the hell off from what it would theoretically be in Japanese.
 
On the Sonic intros it sounds like they're saying Seeeeeee-gaaaaaa to me. The pronounciation difference is actually mentioned on Wikipedia: "Sega Corporation (株式会社セガ Kabushiki gaisha Sega?), pronounced /ˈseɪɡə/ (US/Canada/UK) or /ˈsiːɡə/ (Australia/New Zealand)".


Emoticon-Facepalm.gif

Because everything on the Internet is true? You're asking a subjective question, you expect a definitive answer? <alpha-tron>laughs</alpha-tron>
 
If we are talking about how the Japanese say it (and let's just consider the accent in tokyo) it would be

Say ga

They only have a limited number of phonetic sounds in the Japanese Language, less than English.

Here in the USA their is hardly much difference how people say sega.

You are really stretching here being annoyed.

Let's talk about how some people pronounce the g in Donkey Kong.
 
I am not annoyed at all, just trying to find out why it is pronounced differently in different parts of the world. It seems like not even Sega themselves can decide on the correct way to say it.
 
Sega is weird with this... If you watch the ads from different countries, there are at least 3 different pronunciations.

Here is a Megadrive ad and they pronounce it "See-ga".

 
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