Bokeh....How do you pronounce???

[LostDingo]

Just want some different views how members pronounce "Bokeh" as I have heard several.

As an example I have pronounced as "bok-uh"
But have heard from members..........

"bok-eee"
""bok-eh"
and "bouquet"

What is your pronunciation?

[avkomp]

I generally say bokeeey

but not sure which is correct.

dont think it is that significant though because every one knows what we are talking about!!


Steve

[cameraguy21773]

"bo - ka" with a very short a.

[Matt. K]

I belive bokeee is correct. It's a Japanese word so you might confirm with someone from that country if still in doubt. By the way, the correct spelling is Boke. Bokeh is an American bastardisation of the word by photography columnist Mike Johnston, (so he claims), which has become popular.

[Greg B]

Ah yes, the great bokeh/boke controversy of 2004. Good times.

Ken Rockwell discusses it here including an explanation of pronounciation (pronounced "bokeh" - yeah thanks Ken)

[Sheetshooter]

The word 'Bokeh' is an Anglicisation of a Japanese word and was first brought into broad English Photographic discussion by Mike Johnston when he was Editor of Photo Techniques USA nearly ten years ago.

In April 2004 he had this to say about the pronunciation in his regular on-line article:

"I first learned about "bo-ke" or boke in 1995, from Carl Weese, who learned about it from our mutual friend the oracular and extreme Oren Grad, who holds eight Master's degrees, three Ph.D.s, and an M.D., and who evidently taught himself Japanese so he could read Japanese photo magazines. (Perhaps I exaggerate these facts, but only slightly.) I then commissioned and published three articles about it in the March/April 1997 issue of Photo Techniques back when I was editor — one each by John Kennerdell, who is an American ex-pat living in Bangkok, Oren himself, and Harold Merklinger, a high-ranking research scientist in the Canadian defense establishment. It's one of the few issues of that magazine that sold out. My own contribution was...er, a letter. I decided that people too readily mispronounced "boke," so I added an "h" to the word in our articles, and voilá, "bokeh" was born. A Google search for the word "bokeh" just now resulted in approximately 13,300 hits. Seems the idea's gotten around.

Actually, to be precise, what I had noticed was not just that people mispronounced the word as it was commonly spelled, but that they had a tendency to ridicule it, making lame jokes about it as if it rhymed with "smoke" or "toke" or "joke." Actually, even spelled boke, it is properly pronounced with bo as in bone and ke as in Kenneth, with equal stress on either syllable. It is a Japanese word meaning, roughly, "fuzzy," and it is used to describe old people with cobwebs in their heads among several other things — including the out-of-focus areas of photographs, which, I'm told, might more specifically be referred to as "boke-aji.""

Cheers,

[Nnnnsic]

If it's derived from Japanese then you'd pronounce it in the following way:
"boke" would be the way you'd say "broke" and eh the way you'd pronounce the e in either "kettle" or "wet" or "eh".

So you'd probably look at something like "broke-eh?", just without the "r" and without the questioning element.

And that's kind of fitting actually as most of us who start thinking about bokeh are actually broke.

[LostDingo]

And that's kind of fitting actually as most of us who start thinking about bokeh are actually broke.

Amen nnnnsic!

[stubbsy]

The very large thread here has covered this ground fairly extensively too.

This is from the other thread for those who are time challenged and is taken from http://www.imaginatorium.org/stuff/cufilter.htm

Linguistic note: The original Japanese term boke (the 'h' is superfluous, as long as you don't pronounce it to rhyme with "broke") also refers to what happens to people who have become grey and boring, and lost their normal mental faculties. Sort of like the photons.

Another linguistic note: How is it pronounced, then? "Boke(h)"? Well, in British English pronunciation, imagine the words "botch" and "ketch", then string them together with the "-tch" bits omitted. (If you're an American speaker the first part is probably closer to "boat" with the t missing.)

[Nnnnsic]

Actually, I didn't really think too much about the "bo" sound in Japanese. They're right.

Instead, it would be more like "bork eh?", except without the questioning line and without anyone actually seeking to stop their political opponent.
If you actually plan on borking, you probably have bigger fish to fry than trying to say the word "boke".

Likewise, asking a Jewish person the following is very similar:

pork eh?

However, you may want to relax the "r" the way we Aussies do it if you're not an Aussie, Kiwi, or possibly an Englander -- so that "pork" becomes "pawk" -- and then change that "p" to a "b", else you may end up offending the said Jewish person with your constant discussion on the said deli meat.

[Sheetshooter]

Might I once again defer to the great Winston who said:

"It is not the responsibility of any English-speaking person to be concerned with the pronunciation of foreign words."

Ave atque vale, ave Winston.

Cheers,

[Nnnnsic]

I'd consider it a mark of respect to speak it or even attempt speaking it with correct pronounciation.

I mean hell, look at the reaction of some people when their names are pronounced incorrectly.

Or worse.

[gstark]

Might I once again defer to the great Winston who said:

"It is not the responsibility of any English-speaking person to be concerned with the pronunciation of foreign words."

Regardless, in order to communicate effectively, there probably needs to be some sort of general concensus amongst people who might use the term so that they may communicate with one another effectively, and with that in mind, can anybody suggest a better pronunciation than the original?

[marcotrov]

In the interest of more effective communication, and a more exotic sound, might I suggest -
boh - keh. Let the argument begin
cheers
marco

[Greg B]

And of course, Hyacinth Bucket insisted that her surname - aquired through her marriage to the desperately
put upon Richard - was to be pronounced "bookay", presumably as in bouquet. I suspect that Richard would have
been torn between feelings associated with Hyacinth finding his name so unacceptable, and the sheer joy of watching
her squirm everytime someone called her Mrs Bucket.

As to the matter at hand, I personally couldn't care less how the japanese pronounce it, or what Johnston or
Weese say, or anybody else for that matter.

My preferred pronouciation is bo-ka (rhymes with "poker")

[glamy]

If you pronounce like "bouquet" the french word, be aware that in french besides a bunch of flowers this also refers to the scent of wine or other things, nothing to do with photography. It is also a prawn where I come from... I think the spelling "bokeh" helps towards better pronounciation.
Cheers,
Gerard