'kimono' pronun & use

[Beverly Flanigan]

Hiro Oshita has also clarified the pronunciation and use of 'kimono'.  The
Japanese pronun. is actually closer to [kI mo' n@] than to [kI mo'
no].  But it's really the "turned script a" between /a/ and /O/, the same
vowel we have in Appalachian/SE Ohio English, as confirmed by Hiro.  He's
never heard a final [o] in a Japanese context but acknowledges, of course,
that English speakers would go to either schwa or [o].  Hurrah for Vicki's
mother and mine, who opted for schwa!

On use, Hiro says the kimono could also be generalized to mean "dress," as
when we say "His/her dress was appropriate to the occasion" (gender
neutral).  But the narrower meaning is now more general.

At 03:07 PM 6/20/2005, you wrote:
>On Mon, 20 Jun 2005 12:56:38 -0600, Victoria Neufeldt
><vneufeldt at MERRIAM-WEBSTER.COM> wrote:
>
> >On Monday, June 20, 2005 5:06 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >>
> >> Making allowances for regional phonology, that's the usual
> >> pronunciation, isn't it?
> >>
> >> I've rarely heard anything other than / kI 'mo n@ /.
> >
> >Well, M-W's 11th Collegiate and New Oxford American have a "long-o"
> >final syllable for the first pronun listed, with the schwa pron as the
> >single alternate; American Heritage 4th and Webster's New World 4th
> >list the schwa pron first, with the long o as an alternate pron of
> >almost equal currency (i.e., in case anyone isn't clear on this, the
> >two prons are separated by a comma, which is usual lexicographic style
> >for "equal currency or slightly less common"; if the variant is
> >significantly less common, it's normally preceded by "also" or
> >"sometimes" or a regional label, etc.).  I can't access my Kenyon &
> >Knott right now.  Also, in my pron and presumably Beverly's, the final
> >syllable wasn't reduced completely to a schwa.
> >
> >Come to think of it, I can't remember when I last heard anyone say the
> >word at all!  I don't use the word anymore for a housecoat, and rarely
> >use 'housecoat'.  Now it's just 'bathrobe'.  And I've never owned a
> >dressing gown.
>
>This must be a generational thing, in terms of both pronunciation and use.
>I'd wager that few AmE speakers who came of age in the '70s or later are
>familiar with either the 'housecoat' sense or the /k at mon@/ pronunciation
>(except perhaps from their parents).  My earliest "kimono" memories are
>fixed around the 1980 miniseries _Shogun_, where it was /k at mono/.
>
>
>--Ben Zimmer