# How do you pronounce Heian?



## fnorfurfoot (Mar 28, 2007)

I learned the five Heians from an instructor I am taking privates with about 2 or 3 months ago and am now being taught them again from a different instructor who has some variations in some of the movements.  One thing I found strange is that they both pronounce the word differently and I've even heard a third pronounciation.  How do you all pronounce Heian.  Here are the three I've heard:

"Hey - on"
"Han" (as in Hand without the "d")
"He - in"


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## exile (Mar 28, 2007)

First syllable: `hay' as in `haystack'
Second syllable: `en' as in the prefix in `encourage'

Stress on `hay'


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## Carol (Mar 28, 2007)

Ayup.  What Exile said.


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## exile (Mar 28, 2007)

Carol Kaur said:


> Ayup.



Spoken like a true New Englander! 

I always thought of that as a Maine/NH affirmation, though... is it also in Massachussetts?


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## Tez3 (Mar 28, 2007)

exile said:


> Spoken like a true New Englander!
> 
> I always thought of that as a Maine/NH affirmation, though... is it also in Massachussetts?


 
It's from Yorkshire! they don't say hello here its ayup lad, ha's tha doing?" or "ayup lad thas never gonna get that in thar"the last is usually said with pessimistic glee that something will go wrong.
Well you can see how any Japanese is going to get mangled here!
They don't even pronouce water properly it comes out as watter (like batter)


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## exile (Mar 28, 2007)

Tez3 said:


> It's from Yorkshire! they don't say hello here its ayup lad, ha's tha doing?" or "ayup lad thas never gonna get that in thar"the last is usually said with pessimistic glee that something will go wrong.



I used to watch _All Creatures Great and Small_ addictively. And the screenwriters managed to capture that sadopessimism of the Yorkshire countryside absolutely perfectly. I can almost _hear_ one of those uphill farmers chuckling away and throwing lines like that into Herriot's ear as he tries to do some extremely unpleasant thing, coatless, in an unheated barn on a February morning... :uhohh:



Tez3 said:


> Well you can see how any Japanese is going to get mangled here!
> 
> They don't even pronouce water properly it comes out as watter (like batter)



I understand that there are even more ..._exotic_... varieties of English spoken in the Cornish countryside....


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## Tez3 (Mar 28, 2007)

exile said:


> I used to watch _All Creatures Great and Small_ addictively. And the screenwriters managed to capture that sadopessimism of the Yorkshire countryside absolutely perfectly. I can almost _hear_ one of those uphill farmers chuckling away and throwing lines like that into Herriot's ear as he tries to do some extremely unpleasant thing, coatless, in an unheated barn on a February morning... :uhohh:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## exile (Mar 28, 2007)

Tez3 said:


> Ah then you know where I live! It was filmed all around here! Looking out of my window onto the moors at the moment!



So you live in the Dales/moor country? I remember thinking that that had to be some of the most beautiful landscape in the world... I've actually been out on the Yorkshire moors once (we were driving up to Edinburgh from London), and I was struck the endless keening vastness of the place... had a hard time believing that we were less than 100 miles from the ocean in three directions...



Tez3 said:


> Sorry to hijack the thread! I did Wado Ryo for a long time and the pronunciations of all the Japanese depended on where the person using the words came from as a result I really don't know how to pronounce anything. At least everything in MMA is in English, well sort of as I believe you had to have subtitles for Micheal Bisping on the TUF programme!



LOL!!


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## Carol (Mar 28, 2007)

exile said:


> Spoken like a true New Englander!
> 
> I always thought of that as a Maine/NH affirmation, though... is it also in Massachussetts?



I work in NH and hope to by property in NH or Sothern ME before too long


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## exile (Mar 28, 2007)

Carol Kaur said:


> I work in NH and hope to by property in NH or Sothern ME before too long



Cool... so you're all set then! 

Southern Maine, I've heard from colleagues, is phenomenally beautiful... I envy you, as well as Tez in her Yorkshire Dales splendor!


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## IWishToLearn (Mar 28, 2007)

I still prefer Peian


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## exile (Mar 28, 2007)

IWishToLearn said:


> I still prefer Peian



And I agree! I've said so in the past... but it's your coinage and you get the credit... _and_ the obligation to explain to people (i) the fusion of the Okinawan and Japanese terminologies and (ii) how to pronounce it. My best guess is, first syllable is `pay' as in `payment', second is the `en' in my previous post. But you own the rights to it, so it's your call... :wink1:


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## IWishToLearn (Mar 28, 2007)

LOL! I was given the term by my teacher - he taught it to me as Pee-on. I've heard it mispronounced by a couple others in the organization "Peen-yon".

It's an amalgamation just as you stated - no further explanation needed.

We refer to the Naihonchis/Tekkis as Naihonchis, for the record too ;-).

We also train Empi and Wansu as two totally separate forms.


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## exile (Mar 28, 2007)

IWishToLearn said:


> We refer to the Naihonchis/Tekkis as Naihonchis, for the record too ;-).



LOL! And given the fairly savage bunkai that have been worked out for the Naihonchis (Naihonchos??), that seems a completely appropriate version of the name... :EG:


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## IWishToLearn (Mar 29, 2007)

Heh - on a totally (well not really) unrelated note - I'm building my set for filming .


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## exile (Mar 29, 2007)

IWishToLearn said:


> Heh - on a totally (well not really) unrelated note - I'm building my set for filming .



_Excellent_, Steve! I'm looking forward to seeing those kata in living, breathing reality...


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## kingkong89 (May 8, 2007)

i was always taught to pronounce it he on with the o sound like an a


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## cstanley (May 8, 2007)

kingkong89 said:


> i was always taught to pronounce it he on with the o sound like an a


 
I always pronounce it "Pinan.":lol:


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## chinto01 (May 8, 2007)

We also pronounce it pinan.

In the spirit of bushido!

Rob


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## JadecloudAlchemist (May 8, 2007)

To pronounce the word Heian correctly it is Hay-iAN meaning you say hay say the I but when you say I say half of the I meaning do not say IEE say AH then AN this is how my Japanese wife says it.


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## Ray B (May 9, 2007)

Heian = Hay-ahn
Pinan = Pee-nahn
Naihanchi/Naihanchin/Naifanchi = Nye-hahn-chee/Nye-hahn-chin/Nye-fahn-chee

You guys are killing me! Lol...

Here are two native speakers:






http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DDppu5CRrc&mode=related&search=


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## Sukerkin (May 9, 2007)

I reckon *Jade* and *Ray* have the right of it in the pronunciation stakes.  Heian is the romanised transliteration of four hiragana characters with the phonetic sounds of:

hey ... ee ... ah ... un

Japanese is a relatively stressless language (meaning if a syllable is dominant then it is shown repeated) but some are less promounced than others - so *Jades* Hey-iAN feels pretty close to me tho' (because I'm English rather than Japanese) Hey-ahn actually sounds more correct.


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## fnorfurfoot (May 9, 2007)

Thank you all for your help with this.


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