Q; pronouncing "Fukushima"

[Laurence Horn]

At 3:08 PM -0400 3/28/11, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>Is it FOO-koo-SHEE-mah (large accent on SHEE) or foo-Koo-shih-MAH
>(small or no accent on Koo, larger but still slight on MAH)?  I had
>heard only the former until once hearing a Brit (perhaps from BBC,
>perhaps only CNN international) use the latter.
>
>(My presumption is that the latter is correct, given what I think I
>was told once about hi-Roh-shih-MAH.)
>
>Joel

The latter may be "correct", but the former is inevitable.  I suppose
we Americans could manage
fu-KU-shi-ma if we were asked to, maybe even with secondary stress at
the end, but fu-ku-shi-MA?  Doubtful.

LH

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