# How do you pronounce Karate?



## mj-hi-yah (Jun 9, 2004)

:wavey: How do you prefer to pronounce the word karate?  Do you do it the Kramer way?  Check out this link and click on the first sound file karate.wav.  http://soundamerica.com/sounds/tvshows/Seinfeld/


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## TigerWoman (Jun 9, 2004)

Okay, I'll be first, a Taekwondo person, who has no credentials in Karate.

Karate, like Kramer says sounds like a quickie quiropractor movement...sorry
No disrespect...if that's how its supposed to be said.

I always thought when I tell people the differences between Karate and TKD, is....ka-RA-te

Anyway, that's my vote for somebody who should be at the end of this list.


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## Dan Anderson (Jun 9, 2004)

I'm an American who mis-pronounces it, American style.  Car-ah-tee.

Yours,
Dan Anderson


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## Randy Strausbaugh (Jun 9, 2004)

In this part of the country, it's usually pronounced "kroddy".  
I prefer to chicken out and say "Martial Arts".


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## TigerWoman (Jun 9, 2004)

Randy Strausbaugh said:
			
		

> In this part of the country, it's usually pronounced "kroddy".
> I prefer to chicken out and say "Martial Arts".



That's funny.  But its not cruddy though?!  Gee, I worked so hard at getting it right....I thought....there you go, you can always be wrong.  Back to  Kroddy... unless other people step up to the plate???


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## David4516 (Jun 10, 2004)

It should be Kah-rah-tay...


While I am in TKD, I've spent the last year studying the japanese langauge. If you were to write it out in japanese characters, it would be 3 letters, one for ka, one for ra, and on for te.

I'm not sure if this board supports Japanese text, but lets find out:

&#12363;&#12425;&#12390; 

I also know that the kanji for "kara" is &#31354; and can mean either "empty" or "sky"...


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## Faye (Jun 10, 2004)

Yep, Ka-ra-tey is correct. Disclaimer, I'm a TKD person, but I learned a little bit of Japanese. However, since most american pronounce this as Ka-rah-tee; I find it a bit pretentious to say Ka-ra-te.  Just like Hermes, most of us here say Her-mees, and sometimes you'll get corrected.  
Another good example, shitake mushrooms,  I know it's pronounced as shi-tah-kay ; but how many of us actually say that?   just my 2 cents


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## Touch Of Death (Jun 10, 2004)

I pronounce it differently depending on the situation. When I explain the meaning of the term I pronounce it like I were japanese (and by the way I was told Kara can also mean from the center or loins, as well as empty or open.);so, that means I'm in Kenpo Kroddy, but Kara-Tay means empty hand.
Sean :asian:


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## Han-Mi (Jun 10, 2004)

Depends on how lazy I'm being.

Really lazy = ka-ra-tee
kinda lazy = ka-RA-tay
not lazy = Martial Arts  -  It's longer, but I prefer saying Martial arts even thought people don't recognise it as well as Karate.

Even though I'm TKD I still call it Karate class:ultracool ... is that bad?


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## David4516 (Jun 10, 2004)

> Even though I'm TKD I still call it Karate class:ultracool ... is that bad?


Depending on who you talk to, no. Most people I know don't know the differance between Karate and TaeKwonDo anyway...



> and by the way I was told Kara can also mean from the center or loins, as well as empty or open


kara can mean "from" as well yes... it's often found in sentaces with the word "made", "made" meaning "untill" or "to". 

So if you wanted to say "I practiced karate from 6:00 to 8:00", it would look like this:

"watashi wa roku-ji kara hachi-ji made karate renshuu wo shimashita"

In Japanese text it would look like this:

"&#31169;&#12399;&#20845;&#26178;&#12363;&#12425;&#20843;&#26178;&#12414;&#12391;&#31354;&#12390;&#12428;&#12435;&#12375;&#12421;&#12358;&#12434;&#12375;&#12414;&#12375;&#12383;"

Or I think thats it... I still have some bugs to work out in my Japanese...


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## Cruentus (Jun 10, 2004)

I try to mispronounce the word as badly as possible. Koroddy tends to work for me. I also own a koroddy suit, and I play koroddy with a koroddy coach.

 :boing2:


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## Elizium (Jun 10, 2004)

All are correct.  I say it as one word but don't use the - for it.  The emphasis is on the te part in the end as in tee or as the Irish say tea as teh.  It all is correct, local dialect is just a way of making it sound good.


As for kroddy,  It sounds like a pseudo thing.  My friends will like that when I tell them


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## OULobo (Jun 10, 2004)

I'm not really educated on the matter, but I thought there was no "R" sound in the Japanese language, hence the trouble many Japanese immigrants have pronouncing them. The thought karate was said ka-da-tA  (capital vowels being the long sound).


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## MichiganTKD (Jun 10, 2004)

or if they are Western but try to pronounce the word as a Japanese person would: Ka-da-tay because they are trying to be superrealistic.
This often happens when the Instructor is Japanese and they try to imitate the Instructor.
Wonder if any regions pronounce it as "Kraddy"?
Tae Kwon Do is the same way. Some American students will try to pronounce it exactly the way their Korean Instructor does, not realizing that English and Korean have different sounds.


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## mj-hi-yah (Jun 10, 2004)

Randy Strausbaugh said:
			
		

> In this part of the country, it's usually pronounced "kroddy".
> I prefer to chicken out and say "Martial Arts".


LOL LOL:boing2:


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## David4516 (Jun 10, 2004)

They do have the "R" sound in Japanese. It's "L" that they're missing...


Often when Japanese try to speak in english they will get "R" and "L" mixed up...

http://www.engrish.com/recent_detail.php?imagename=praystation.jpg&category=Signs/Posters&date=2004-05-21

Here is a great example. It should be "Play Station 2", but it was written as "Pray Station 2". To your average Japanese person the word "play" and the word "pray" probably sound the same...


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## mj-hi-yah (Jun 10, 2004)

Dan Anderson said:
			
		

> I'm an American who mis-pronounces it, American style. Car-ah-tee.


Dan I'm with you, but I'm not sure :idunno: if you are mispronouncing it.  Webster's has it that way for our language.  I don't really think there is a right or wrong myself, but I was wondering because I was corrected on it.  I was observing an Aikido test and afterward was speaking to one of the instructors who asked me if I studied anything.  So as usual I said yes I study karate...with the long e sound at the end.  And he very clearly, and what seemed a bit pretentiously, corrected me and said you mean karate (ka - rah - tey)  And then proceeded to "over" pronounce the word for me several times in the course of the conversation that followed.  It didn't seem appropriate for me to engage in a debate on it at the time so I let it go. I think if you are intending to speak Japanese than ka-rah-tey  is most appropriate, but so is speaking English in America.  My thoughts anyway.:asian:


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## mj-hi-yah (Jun 10, 2004)

David4516 said:
			
		

> They do have the "R" sound in Japanese. It's "L" that they're missing...
> 
> 
> Often when Japanese try to speak in english they will get "R" and "L" mixed up...
> ...


Interesting find...thanks!:ultracool


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## Ender (Jun 10, 2004)

Tulisan said:
			
		

> I try to mispronounce the word as badly as possible. Koroddy tends to work for me. I also own a koroddy suit, and I play koroddy with a koroddy coach.
> 
> :boing2:



*laughs...too funny

My wife used to giggle after scoring a point in sparring. I would tell her
"There's no giggling in korrody!"...hehe...sorry about the tangent..*G


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## mj-hi-yah (Jun 10, 2004)

Ender said:
			
		

> *laughs...too funny
> 
> My wife used to giggle after scoring a point in sparring. I would tell her
> "There's no giggling in korrody!"...hehe...sorry about the tangent..*G


:boing2: Is that like the line..."THERE"S NO CRYING IN BASEBALL!  NO CRYING!"?

This just shows an appropriate use for the mispronunciation.


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## k_raben (Jun 10, 2004)

I personally would break it down as 'kara-te'.  That is it is writen in Kanji in Japanese.  'Kara' meaning empty, 'te' meaning hand. As for the meaning of kara, using the kanji for karate it means empty.  The same Kanji can be used for sky, pronouned 'sora'.  As for the meaning of from, that would just be the word written out in hiragana and is not related to the kanji at all.  

'Kara' and 'sora' are the 'kun-yomi' (kun reading).  The kun-yomi is usually but not allways the indigeneous Japanese pronunciation that was attached to a kanji after is was brought over from China.  In many cases, when you see a kanji by itself, it usually is pronounced using the 'kun-yomi'.  Also, most of your words that are conjugated, adjectives, verbs, the stem form is usually the 'kun-yomi'.  'Kun-yomi' is written in Japanese using hiragana.

For this kanji there is also 'ku', which is the 'on-yomi'.  The 'on-yomi' can be thought of as the equivalent Chinese pronunciation of that kanji at the time that it was imported to Japan.  Usually when you have a more than one kanji together to create a word, the 'on-yomi' is used.  The 'on-yomi' is also usually written with katakana to distinguish it from the 'kun-yomi'.

This is how I usually explain Japanese pronunciation to people who are not familiar with it.  'K' and 't' are the same as in english.  As for the 'a', I use the 'aw' sound from example saw.  As for the 'e', I use the 'ay" sound like in 'say'. The Japanese 'r' is tricky.  I like to think of it as a combination of an 'r' and a 'd'.  You make the same shape with your mouth that you would do to say an 'r', but you touch the tip of your tonge to the roof of your mouth as if you are saying a 'd'.

I usually try to pronounce the word 'ka-ra-tay' because that seems to be the accepted pronounciation for where I have lived.  Also, to correct someone in conversation also sounds really pretensious.  I just think back to the "Friends" episode where they all made fun of Ross for correcting everyone.

Please take this post as being pretensious.  Japanese language and culture are a big interest of mine, and I have a tendency to get really longwinded when I get a chance to explain a part of it.

Sorry for any spelling or gramatical errors.

Thanks,


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## mj-hi-yah (Jun 10, 2004)

k_raben said:
			
		

> I personally would break it down as 'kara-te'. That is it is writen in Kanji in Japanese. 'Kara' meaning empty, 'te' meaning hand. As for the meaning of kara, using the kanji for karate it means empty. The same Kanji can be used for sky, pronouned 'sora'. As for the meaning of from, that would just be the word written out in hiragana and is not related to the kanji at all.   Japanese language and culture are a big interest of mine, and I have a tendency to get really longwinded when I get a chance to explain a part of it.


Sharing knowledge for the love of it, and repeatedly over correcting someone to show all who might be in ear shot "how much you might know, or think you know" are not the same thing.  This is very interesting, and honestly if I were to go to a Japan or a school where Japanese was the language of choice I would do my very best to honor the language. :asian:  


> Also, to correct someone in conversation also sounds really pretensious. I just think back to the "Friends" episode where they all made fun of Ross for correcting everyone.


I didn't see that episode of Friends, but can appreciate it knowing Ross' character.


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