How Do You Pronounce Steyr?

I

Incursion

New member
How do you pronounce Steyr? I've always pronounced it like the word "tire" except with the "st" sound. How do you pronounce Koch as in Heckler and Koch? I've seen that it's supposed to be pronounced like "coke", but then I saw a video clip of German TV that sounded like "cock".
 
M

Mal H

Staff
Koch is pronounced sort of like 'cock' but more like the Scottish 'loch' where the 'ch' sound comes from the throat instead of being a hard sound like the 'ck' in cock.

Just as in America, you shouldn't necessarily believe that a foreigner speaking their native language is pronouncing it correctly. They can be just as wrong with their language as we are with ours all the time.
 
B

Battler

New member
Steyr is a town in Austria - "yr" isn't a combination usually used in German; but it is present in the name of the town.

The pronunciation you gave is the one most people use - if you start pronouncing it correctly they won't understand you (I tried for a while and gave up).

Correct pronunciation is:

Shteer, - the S is pronounced SH, and the yr is NOT a separate syllable; but you sort of roll onto the r over enough time that it sounds part way towards a new syllable.
 
K

Ken Cook

New member
I've always pronounced it St-eye-r, emphasis on the EYE, and yes Koch is pronounced more like Cock with a diminutive "sh" on the end of it.

That much I'm sure about, as Koch is the germanic equivalent to Cook.
 
I

Incursion

New member
I'm always disgusted at how the media butchers Chinese names.

Here something that most people do not know about Chinese surnames:

Lin/Lim/Lam
Chang/Cheng/Zhang
Chen/Chan
Chow/Chou
Kwan/Gwan
Wang/Wong
Huang/Hwang
Ming/Meng
Shen/Sen
Yo/Yu/You
Lee/Le/Li

etc.

These are all the same name with the same pronunciation in Mandarin! The different spellings come about from different dialects usually.

[Edited by Incursion on 05-26-2001 at 10:32 PM]
 
B

Battler

New member
Incursion:

I got a German guy to pronounce it for me.

Think about it : Germans don't say "S" - they say "SH".

I also wasn't specific enough about the "ee" part. It sounded somewhat between "Shtayer" - and "SHteer" - again, only ONE syllable.
 
T

Tom B

New member
I live in Jaw-Ga, Jaw-Ga; are you deaf man? Near 'Lanta Jaw-Ga! Its Heckler and Coke. But if you bring one in from abroad and pronounce it thusly at Customs: "I have a Heckler and Coke", you will be whisked away to the special Customs office for some intimate interrogation.
 
M

Mikul

New member
Koch is pronounced like the english word "cough" except it ends in a hard "K" instead of a mutilated "F."
 
A

A.Rex

New member
Alles was vorgeschrieben ist, ist Scheisse... HA-HA

Depends on the dialect, mein Herr.

Sch= shhhh. Steyr= Sh-tay-uhr. The "uhr" on the end being a very soft "ER" sound. As there isn't a hard "ERRR" sound in German.
Can also be said as Sh-tye-uhr, depending on dialect. I'd go with the top first.

Koch, is "cook" in German as previously mentioned. And is somewhat like Coke, but "Coke" has two hard "K" sounds. Koch, only has one, the beginning 'K'. The rest is like a drawn out sound of "cH" -not like "ch" in Cheese, which is more of a 'cshhh' sound.

If this is confusing... you hear it one time you'll know what I mean. Now if you want to stump a German, get them to say "the"... 'th' can't be done!
 
I

Incursion

New member
argh, half of you say it's similar to "coke" and half say it's similar to "cock"

Different dialects pronounce it differently?
 
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