Are there any guns you can't pronounce?

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I would like to say that a text forum is the WORST place to discuss pronunciation. Anyway I regularly pronounce makarov Mark-off. Now that I realize how its spell I feel dumb.
 
Siaga... I have heard this pronounced two ways by at least 50 different individuals. Here are the two ways I have heard it pronounced

*Sigh-eh-gah

OR

*Say-gah

I pronounce it Sigh-eh-gah. But I could be wrong with the other 50% of America.

:)
 
Mauser Verguiero , heck , I can not even spell the darn name :)
Mannichler schonuer -that Greek rifle that shoot 6.5 X 45 mm I call it Man-ni-er -schnow -er ??
 
Mauser Verguiero , heck , I can not even spell the darn name
Mannichler schonuer -that Greek rifle that shoot 6.5 X 45 mm I call it Man-ni-er -schnow -er ??
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It's vergueiro, so ver-gay-ro. In the word mannlicher, the Ch is like an H-sound, but behind one's teeth instead of at the throat. A K-sound can substitute. The stress is on the mann-part of the word. Schoenauer, or Schönauer uses that french Eu-sound where the Oe is. It's acceptable to substitute an Ay-sound for this, as in Matt Groening or the old lyric "Danke Schoen". The -auer part sounds like hour.
 
This always comes to bite me when I call up gun dealers.

Me: "So do you have any Kahrs in stock?"
Them: "Uhhh...what?"
Me: "Kahr pistols."
Them: "I don't know about that. All our pistols will fit there"

Me: "Do you sells H&Ks?"
Them: "HNK? Never heard of 'em."
Me: "You know, Hecker and...whatever."

Where I'm from:
carbine = car-byne
Mosin Nagant = mohsin nay-gant
Saiga = Say-guh (like the old video game system)
Makarov = mack-uh-rov
 
This is an interesting thread, as I've often wondered about pronunciation for some of these.

That said, I've already decided how to say most of them on my own, and the people I talk to and shoot with say them the same way.

Heckler & Koch is a notable one. I've stumbled over it more than once. "Coach", "Cotch", "Ko-chghhh" (usually either sounds like a cough or makes me cough), et cetera. I'd more or less settled on "Coach", so I'm unlikely to change over to "Coke" or "Cock", especially since I would just get a funny look in conversation (particularly on the latter option). If I said to my friend, "I want to buy a Heckler & "Cock" USP", he's gonna laugh in my face for probably the whole 30 seconds it will take me to explain.

As much as I may prefer to pronounce these words correctly, sometimes the original correct way just isn't the best option in our language. I've heard so many people speak English with different accents, and all of them have something they can't pronounce quite right... I don't feel too bad about pronouncing a word wrong here and there in other languages.

Here's a few more, and how I pronounce them (right or wrong):

Mosin-Nagant: "Moe-zin Nuh-gant" (Like H&K, changing would just confuse people)

CZ: I won't even attempt to pronounce (or even spell, unaided) the full words. "See-Zee" does for me.

Kalashnikov: I go either way on this one, probably favoring "Kal-ish-nuh-kov"

Acronyms: I'll pronounce 'em as words if I see a word to pronounce, even one lacking vowels. WASR = Wasser, CETME = Set-me. One-syllable word acronyms, however, I'll pronounce the letters. A-R, A-K, F-A-L, B-A-R etc.

Carbine: I used to say "Car-bine", like "wine". When I heard other people say it, though, it was almost always "Car-bean". So I switched to "Car-bean", and tend to favor it.

Mauser: "Mow-zer", with mow rhyming with cow.

Walther: "Wall-thur"

Garand: "Gare-und", gare rhyiming with care. Sometimes I'll also say "Guh-rand"

Makarov: "Mack-a-rov"
 
I don't know how to pronounce
Mosin Nagant, because I've heard so many varations on how to say it.
Volquartsen and Saiga, I have no idea how to say them either.
 
I'm not sure on how to pronounce Koch in Heckler & Koch.
Is it coke or is it closer to mayor Koch? :confused:
 
Is it kotch, coke, coach?

Kalishnikov VS KalAshnikov?
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I read an article that dealt with the H&K pronunciation and said it's pronounced like "coke". To get true german pronunciation you may need to bring up some flem.
With AKs I've always said "kalishnakov" until last week I saw Clint Smith and a couple TV programs saying KalAshnakov.
How about sturmgewehr? :) ssshturm-geh-weer (or veer)?
Steyr (steer or steyer) A-U-G?
 
I say Guh-RAND for the rifle, but a gentleman once posted here that John C. Garand had personally told him that he pronounced his name GAIR-unt, just as Rust Collector and FourNineFoxtrot wrote.

I say CAR-bean for the weapon and CAR-byne for Mr. Williams.

I pronounce Saiga to rhyme with taiga (boreal forest), which I've heard pronounced by a lot of biologists over the years. SY-guh.

I refer to Heckler & Koch as H und K (Aitch OONT Kay). :evil:

And to the OP: Why no, there aren't any gun names that I can't pronounce. Every so often, I find out that I've been pronouncing one of them wrong for years, but hey...
 
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Koch in High German is more like "Ko-chghhh". The Germans down Munich-way use a soft "ch" sound, so it's more like "kosh".
 
FN (Fabrique National de Herstal) FAL (Fusil Automatique Léger)

FN FAL is an acronym, therefore is pronounced by saying the letters.

ef-en ef-aye-el.....unless someone really wants to pronounce the whole thing. Proof of this can be explained by a simple name. If a person's name was Frank Allen Lindberg his initials would be ef-aye-el. You wouldn't call the guy "FAL" would you?


Same with H&K. It's either aich and kay, or aich kay. Unless someone wants to pronounce Heckler and........whatever. You wouldn't say "Huckkkkkk!" would you?
 
BAR or B A R ?

Seriously.. which is it?
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I'm pretty sure it's B A R.

FN FAL is an acronym, therefore is pronounced by saying the letters.
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I agree that FN FAL is pronounced by saying the letters but acronyms are not always pronounced that way. For example, everybody says Hum-V, and not HWWMV. Many say that the word 'posh' originally stood for 'port out starboard home' and that it was so frequently said as a word that it actually became a word. :)

SCUBA, LASER, and NATO are also pronounced as words and not initials.
 
acronyms are not always pronounced that way.
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I agree. I am one of the few people who have studied word origins.

For example: Manure used to be transported by boat on wooden palates. To keep the keels of boats from rotting, the words "Ship High In Transit" used to be written upon it. This eventually became shortened to an acronym. This acronym evolved into a pronunciation. This pronunciation of the acronym "Ship High In Transit" eventually became (literally) a dirty word.

So, yes. I agree that acronyms are able to be pronounced as actual words. FN FAL is a prime example of an acronym that (even though incorrect) may still evolve into a pronunciation.
 
How about Nineteeneleven? Is that ninee-teh-ehnn-e-lee-ven, or what?

I posted this scan of a page from Hatcher's Notebook quite a while ago. Note caption.

ETA:
Sorry, I guess a lot of folks are having trouble uploading images, but the caption reads:

John C. Garand, designer of the U.S. Rifle, Caliber .30 M1. He pronounces his name "Garand" (phonetic symbols} with the G hard as in go, and the stress on the first syllable, to rhyme with parent.
 
For saiga my limited russian makes me think it would be pronounced Sa e(pronounced just like saying the letter) ga, but i pronounce it as sega in order to avoid confusion.
 
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