Where did the "Kuh-May-Uh-May-Uh" pronunciation come from?

[Thanos]

So, first of all I doubt I'm the only one who cringes whenever someone pronounces it that way... but I'm just wondering if there's a tangible origin to pronouncing it that way. Of course, that pronunciation doesn't exist in a vacuum and comes from the Hawaiian King lineage--did at some point FUNimation use the pronunciation in official material? Why, over twenty years on, do people who consider themselves dedicated fans still pronounce it this way? Surely there must be some persistant memetic that causes it to live on. I know I've been hearing it for as long as I can remember but don't remember its usage in official material.

[jjgp1112]

Yes, FUNimation used the Hawaiian King pronunciation in the original dub up until Kai when the move was spoken in a regular sentence and not chanted. So like most dub misnomers, it persisted even after being corrected in Kai.

[Metalwario64]

Sometime in Z's in house dub they started pronouncing it "Kuh-May-Huh-May-Huh", which always seemed like a weird half measure in correcting it from "Kuh-May-Uh-May-Uh".

[MasenkoHA]

Like pronouncing Kaio Ken as Kay o Ken and Saiyan as Say in instead of Sai yan it was almost certainly a Barry Watsonism

[TheGreatness25]

Does anyone still use that? I feel like that pronunciation died with the Ocean dub. I feel like even in the old Funimation dub, they pronounced it correctly.

[Robo4900]

Does anyone still use that? I feel like that pronunciation died with the Ocean dub. I feel like even in the old Funimation dub, they pronounced it correctly.

I'm sure I remember them saying it like that in the in-house Funi dub.

I'm also fairly sure that when Ocean were actually involved in the production side (the Westwood Media dub), they pronounced it correctly.

[jjgp1112]

Does anyone still use that? I feel like that pronunciation died with the Ocean dub. I feel like even in the old Funimation dub, they pronounced it correctly.

Well yeah, like I said - when used as an attack, it was always pronounced correctly in the in house dub. But when spoken in a normal conversation it was the "incorrect" one.

[kei17]

As a native Japanese speaker, I'm not annoyed by this kind of "mispronunciations" because it's not really different from Final Flash being pronounced as "Fainaru Furasshu" in the original Japanese version. I'd be happy if they respected the original Japanese pronunciations more, but I don't think that's necessary.

[dragonmagico]

In the BLT dub they used the it in episode 8. it aint "perfect" but using the English pronunciation of the guys name instead of a different one really isnt on the same level as say makansapo vs special beam canon to me.

[Thanos]

As a native Japanese speaker, I'm not annoyed by this kind of "mispronunciations" because it's not really different from Final Flash being pronounced as "Fainaru Furasshu" in the original Japanese version. I'd be happy if they respected the original Japanese pronunciations more, but I don't think that's necessary.

The difference here, I think, is that "Fainaru Furasshu" is the closest approximation the Japanese language can get to "Final Flash," and when spoken by Ryo Horikawa, ran together sounds very close to "Final Flash"... sure, if you enunciate and exaggerate "Fai-Na-Roo Foo Rashoo!" it sounds absurd, but that isn't how it is spoken phonetically--whereas, "Kuh-May-Uh-May-Uh" is used in a much looser tongue that has no problem speaking a more restrictive phonetic system of Japanese, and "Kuh-May-Uh-May-Uh" is an altogether different phonetic word than "Kamehame-Ha". It doesn't make sense at all to pronounce a word differently based on whether it's being used in conversation or yelled as an attack (Here, let me perform the Kuh-May-Uh-May-Uh... KAW MAY HAW MAY HAW!).

I understand the distinction isn't altogether important but I can't be un-annoyed by still hearing "The Kuh-May-Uh-May-Uh Wave" 25 years after it should be said by people who weren't even alive or barely back then.

[jjgp1112]

As a native Japanese speaker, I'm not annoyed by this kind of "mispronunciations" because it's not really different from Final Flash being pronounced as "Fainaru Furasshu" in the original Japanese version. I'd be happy if they respected the original Japanese pronunciations more, but I don't think that's necessary.

The difference here, I think, is that "Fainaru Furasshu" is the closest approximation the Japanese language can get to "Final Flash," and when spoken by Ryo Horikawa, ran together sounds very close to "Final Flash"... sure, if you enunciate and exaggerate "Fai-Na-Roo Foo Rashoo!" it sounds absurd, but that isn't how it is spoken phonetically--whereas, "Kuh-May-Uh-May-Uh" is used in a much looser tongue that has no problem speaking a more restrictive phonetic system of Japanese, and "Kuh-May-Uh-May-Uh" is an altogether different phonetic word than "Kamehame-Ha". It doesn't make sense at all to pronounce a word differently based on whether it's being used in conversation or yelled as an attack (Here, let me perform the Kuh-May-Uh-May-Uh... KAW MAY HAW MAY HAW!).

I understand the distinction isn't altogether important but I can't be un-annoyed by still hearing "The Kuh-May-Uh-May-Uh Wave" 25 years after it should be said by people who weren't even alive or barely back then.

I mean you're answering your own question here. It's something that people got used to for a long time and kept saying it that way even if they knew it was wrong, and since a lot of those guys were directing the conversation, it caught on with newcomers, too.

[Kataphrut]

I think they use the correct pronunciation these days. I can’t remember if it’s in Kai, but in FighterZ and Super, it’s definitely the Japanese pronunciation.

I think Sean Schemmel said in an interview that the only difference between him and Nozawa when it comes to doing a Kamehameha these days is he goes up on every syllable while she goes up and down.

[MyVisionity]

It doesn't bother me. I think it rolls off the tongue easier than the Japanese pronunciation, and the attack name is based off of the Hawaiian king, so I don't fault the dub or dub audience for using it. And of course the Japanese kame as in "turtle" isn't even really a thing in the dub.

[MasenkoHA]

And of course the Japanese kame as in "turtle" isn't even really a thing in the dub.

They kind of sort of alluded to it in the dub when Goku told the Otherworld escort taking him to snakeway that he practiced the Kame Sennin stye of martial arts and the Turtle Hermit’s house being identified as Kame House even in the dub. But otherwise yeah the Kame pun is kind of lost in the dub