The Canon people say it is pronounced mun as in Monday, and E as in Eek.

Good heavens, I thought this was sorted a couple of years ago by a Nikon employee.

The 'kon' bit is always as in 'confidence'. The 'Ni' bit -

Most people in Japan say it as 'knee' (i.e. as in the bendy bit of your leg)

Most people in the USA say it as 'nigh' (as in 'the end of the world is nigh)

Most people in Europe and the rest of the world say 'nick' (as in knickerbocker glory).

BUT, and this is a very big but, it really DOESN'T MATTER how you say it.

It really is about whether one os form north or south Japan...LOL....Nick-on or Knee-con...

I've been pronouncing it as Nye-con for about forty years now,so I would have a hard time changing .Besides if I started pronouncing it Knee-cone,I would have to start pronouncing Nike as Knee-key,and that just doesn't sound right LOL.

They missed one. Here in Hong Kong, we call it:

LEG KON.

And Canon is:

CAN LON! lol... yes, with an "lol" behind that.

After reading the comments here now I have Mr. Miyagi's voice in my head going "Nick-on, Nick-off, Can-on, Can-off."

Howbout 'Babe'?

@R&R: How do you pronounce Nabisco?? That my friend was a really good line on this thread! I also really liked Johnnyapples Paul Simon reference! HockeyMan's was something I had to study fro awhile and nice!

I'm a voice and speech nerd from my acting days studying theater. I also went to school in Japan, so I should know. But who really knows anything for certain?

If you silly sallies really want to know how to pronounce Nikon in Japanese here it is.

1) You should familiarize yourself with the International Phonetic Alphabet here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet
2) For the "i" in Nikon, see the Mid Front un-rounded vowel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid_front_unrounded_vowel
3) For the "o" in Nikon, see the mid back rounded vowel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid_back_rounded_vowel

The wikipedia pages have links to the sounds.
The "i" is not the Long E sound in Knee, its much shorter.
If you say the letter E like a machine gun shoots bullets, you will understand how to pronounce the "i" in Japanese.

The "o" is not the long O sound in "own", its much shorter.
If you say the letter O like a machine gun shoots bullets, you will understand how to pronounce the "o" in Japanese.

So, "Got Nikon?"

I need to make a shirt like this with the right font and sell it you foolios.

Respectfully, HockeyMan.

BTW - Nikon is a made up corporate contraction so it doesn't matter how you pronounce it. It was thrust upon the world, it did not occur naturally or gradually in the common vocabulary of any language. So do with it what you will.

Now...how do you pronounce "Nabisco"?

I pronounce it "Io".

The "N" is silent like in "damn".
The "i" is pronounced as in "eye".
The "k" is silent as in "known".
The "o" is pronounced as in "own".
The "n" is silent like in "damn".

The fact off the matter is it is a 3 syllable word: NI (rhymes with knee, but shorter, more like the Spanish "si") KO (rhymes with "so") and N, which gets a syllable to itself, so that KON sounds something like "cone" but takes the tempo of two syllables. But around here it is pronounced so that it rhymes with "Ziess Ikon".

So how do you pronounce Ikon?

Help...this is the humor thread.... not a bit of seriousness exists here only frivolous words of no importance..... However, I think in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, South dakota, especially North Dakota, Nick-on would be really cool, as long as their gun was holstered....:-)

DaveyJ said:
Any many of you are becoming my extended family. I live in a very isolated place. I have to walk almost a mile to the other side of my farm to get on the Internet.

This would save me so much time! I sometimes think it's a curse how connected we are these days because every spare moment can so easily be filled checking the news for the third time today...

I know I'd have more pictures to show if I wasn't glued to some screen so often!

Back on topic, to express my opinion I'll paraphrase the bible (or The Byrds' cover of Seeger's version, if you prefer): "To everything there is a season. A time to be pedantic and a time to refrain from being pedantic." If I said Nick-on where I'm from, at best people would give me odd looks but it's more likely they just wouldn't understand me. It's "Nai-con" here, like Paul Simon sings it. (With these song references, who'd guess I was born in the 80s?)

I gave up years ago pronouncing it the way my friends from Japan said it. At the time I said it their way they were buying a lot of maple syrup from me and then for a number of years I could not even satisfy a fraction of the demand we had for our tree farm best stuff.

Spring 2012 though saw a maple season so hot and atypical that we produced no light fancy syrup at all and lost money on containers, and I could not even pay my son and grandson for their labor. So now when I say Nikon I just say it the way almost everyone does here. donaldejose's answer is right on in terms of Nikon's attitude.

As an older guy on this day (September 23rd, 2012) I wonder if MY OWN EYESIGHT will allow me to keep pace with these new developments. Maybe I should pronounce Nikon as expensive? But this is one of my passions. Any many of you are becoming my extended family. I live in a very isolated place. I have to walk almost a mile to the other side of my farm to get on the Internet. And one reason I pay so much attention to Nikon developments is I have learned from my large format days......bigger gear can be very costly......in more ways than one. I guess we should regard our cameras as just tools.

So to me it is Nikon the usual way. A lot of the subtle nuances and the like get lost anyway. "When in Rome, do as Romans do."
You can quickly tell where someone is (usually) from the way they pronounce things. You can also tell what brand camera they buy and use seconds into your first conversation with them. But I did read this thread and smiled with some of your thoughts. Sorry to display my lack of humor today. Maybe tomorrow I'll cheer up! The fall color is so advanced this year in the Adirondacks it it puzzling. And after a fairly hot and dry summer. Now where did I set my half empty glass?

msmoto said:
OK, from the guys at Photokina..... "Nick-On", this is the final word :-)

As it should be. Take the first two three letters of Nikons parent company Nippon, we all know what this spells? Replace the first p with a k and there it is Nik-on. That is exactly how Nippon Kogaku came up with the name.

I am sure Nikon doesn't care how you pronounce their name as long as you buy their products.

In America many words and many people's names originally from other languages have been altered.

Pronunciation even changes somewhat from region to region in the US.

OK, from the guys at Photokina..... "Nick-On", this is the final word :-)

"That one"

Pronounce Nikon as such....The opposite of Nikoff.
Example...Nye-Con.

I am a girl from the South an I pronounce it Neeeeeee......Caaaa...nnn And the answer is No!

I'm a Merican and I pronounce Nikon, "Best Damn Camera Ever" ;-)

Knee-Con! This means you have traveled around the world! Ha, ha, ha.... Or have spent a lot of money on Knee-Con stuff.... or Knee-Core stuff

Nick-on, Nye-kon, po-ta-toes, pot-at-oes; who cares - a picture is worth a thousand pronunciations!

Knee-Cone.... everyone will think you have a new D4 or D800 then, ha, ha, ha

Or if shooting in an area one wants to project the idea one has a Kool Pix, Oooohhh....lllll...ddd, Kneee-cone.

And make certain you put Gaffer's tape on everything... oh gosh, new thread....