Huawei

[Guest Stevos]

Does anyone else mentally pronounce Huawei as "Who are we?" ?

Maybe it's just me. I don't think I've ever had cause to say it out loud.

Edited November 2, 2010 by Stevos

[Guest JimJam707]

Does anyone else mentally pronounce Huawei as "Who are we?" ?

Maybe it's just me. I don't think I've ever had cause to say it out loud.

Yeah, I read it as that too XD

[Guest feelmychi]

It's supposed to be pronounced:

He(as in the breathing out sound, not the third person masculine :))-w-are-way.

feelmychi

[Guest AdamBaker]

Does anyone else mentally pronounce Huawei as "Who are we?" ?

Maybe it's just me. I don't think I've ever had cause to say it out loud.

Given the concern in some circles as to their links to the Chinese gov't I've always thought that pronunciation rather apt and it is close enough to correct to be understood when said out loud.

[Guest Mysterious Stranger]

I always thought it was like 'who-or-why' said quickly......

M.S

[Guest twrock]

It's supposed to be pronounced:

He(as in the breathing out sound, not the third person masculine :()-w-are-way.

feelmychi

Not if you are speaking "pu tong hwa". :)

There are only two character = two syllables. I think if you write it that way, it looks like four.

And besides, adding that "are" in this is way too BeiJing "hwar" for my taste. :)

(And then there is the tone thing, but we'd better not get into that.....)

I'd just go with "hwa way" if I had to try to write if for an "American English" speaker. (I have no idea how you Brits would write it.)

[Guest]

Who-a-way :S

[Guest il_cholo]

:)

[Guest brtemp]

I always thought it as "hawaii" .... not sure why tho'

[Guest feelmychi]

Not if you are speaking "pu tong hwa". :)

There are only two character = two syllables. I think if you write it that way, it looks like four.

And besides, adding that "are" in this is way too BeiJing "hwar" for my taste. :)

(And then there is the tone thing, but we'd better not get into that.....)

I'd just go with "hwa way" if I had to try to write if for an "American English" speaker. (I have no idea how you Brits would write it.)

That's basically what I was trying to say, but breaking it up a little for those not so linguistically-gifted :(

Thanks for clarifying things though :(

[Guest Stevos]

Thanks for all the information, much more informative than I expected!

I guess I'll continue to think of them as "Who are we?", but try to pronounce it closer to "hwa way" if I say it.

Edited November 4, 2010 by Stevos

[Guest Spook Tooth]

48 seconds into this clip the American guy pronounces it more like Hu-arway. Is he right or just being silly?

Or even!

A (very likely extremely tightly controlled)

Nice little opening line "We now arrive at the Hauwei training centre", albeit Americanised English. Says it (same way) twice in first minute actually.

It's definitely way on the end though. Nice and easy unlike the first syllable. And it looks like there's only really two of them with a funny bit of phwoar type stuff going on (said with a French accent) for the first, meaning it's not your typical English simple single sound if you more linguistically trained folk get what I'm trying to say.

It's an important topic though and this discussion is long overdue. :)

Edited November 4, 2010 by Spook Tooth

[Guest Stevos]

The plot thickens... I won't really be satisfied until I see multiple native speakers pronouncing it properly on a video.

Also, I wonder if the name means anything in any Chinese dialect, or if it's just a name

[Guest twrock]

It's an important topic though and this discussion is long overdue. :)

Absolutely of critical importance! I can't believe what's been going on in people's minds all this time. Almost shameful, this lack of regard for the proper pronunciation of the Queen's English (oops) the Chinese language. :)

The plot thickens... I won't really be satisfied until I see multiple native speakers pronouncing it properly on a video.

Good luck with that. Similar to any widely spoken language, there are all sorts of variations in pronunciation from one area to another. Put one person each from BeiJing, ShangHai and GwangDong together and you probably won't realize they are saying the exact same two words.

[Guest Spook Tooth]

Absolutely of critical importance! I can't believe what's been going on in people's minds all this time. Almost shameful, this lack of regard for the proper pronunciation of the Queen's English (oops) the Chinese language. :)

Good luck with that. Similar to any widely spoken language, there are all sorts of variations in pronunciation from one area to another. Put one person each from BeiJing, ShangHai and GwangDong together and you probably won't realize they are saying the exact same two words.

Well, I guess we should all know better and to use two very important educational tools in determining this most important of questions - that is YouTube and Wikipedia:

"[Huawei] officially transliterates in English to Huawei (pronounced as "who-are way" in English). The character 华 means Chinese, also can be used as adjective to mean splendid, magnificent. The character 为 means action or achievement. The two characters combined (Huáwei) variously translates as "achievement", "magnificent act", "splendid act" or "China can"."

However, despite the editors of Wikipedia being vastly smarter and better informed than myself I believe they are incorrectamundo as the earlier linked YouTube videos plainly show. I totally agree with those here present that in any given country, regional variations in pronunciation (especially in China) will mean there really probably likely will never be a definitive way of saying the same thing. I still prefer the two syllable approach myself and advocate this more Mexican pronunciation (akin to how you'd pronounce Juarez maybe) espoused by the nice lady in that series of Huawei tours on YouTube (ie - running the different inflections into 2 main sounds albeit with the first being a bit wonky). The English are not the most eloquent speakers of foreign languages or even our own mother tongue, innit?

We are good at gobbledygook though. No need for the auto-spelling thing to correct that particular word. Ladies and gentlemen, I rest my case though I recognise this linguistic issue remains unsolved or even unsolvable. :)

Edited November 4, 2010 by Spook Tooth

[Guest KenBW2]

Hoo-wa-ee for me :huh:

Or Hoo-ee-aa-e-ii when im struggling to say it properly :rolleyes: