iPod nano

> From: George Wade <georgewade1mac.com>
>
> You may be interested to know that in Japanese 'iPod Nano' can mean
> something like: 'This is my great little iPod!' 'It's my iPod.'
> All depending upon intonation.
>
Well, yes, the direct translation of 'iPod na-no' is 'It is iPod',
but that expression 'iPod na-no' is definitely _feminine_ language.

Only women/girls can say 'xxx na-no', and its standard meaning is
either 'It is xxx, my darling' or 'It is xxx, my dear friend',
where the 'friend' can be male or female.
'na-no' is a quite indirect expression of "being in such a state",
so it is some kind of a feminine expression that is used to speak to
an intimate person only.


However, the term 'nanotechnology' is becoming more and more popular
(getting citizenship as an imported Japanese word) these days, so most of
Japanese people could accept 'iPod nano' as a natural terminology next to
'iPod mini', I think.

Speaking of a commercial joke, you might be interested to know that
the Japanese for 'is inside' is 'hait-tel'.
Thus, 'Intel inside' reads 'Intel hait-tel' in Japan...
(That's what Dell's TV commercial says, in fact.)


> [Now we have to wonder if Apple actually intended this or not. :-) -Adam]
>
I am sure they didn't, but I am also sure that neither 'iPod micro' nor
'iPod pico' doesn't imply anything at all, in the Japanese language.

cheers,

Mark
--
Mark Nagata
mailto:nagatakurims.kyoto-u.ac.jp

> You may be interested to know that in Japanese 'iPod Nano' can mean
> something like: 'This is my great little iPod!' 'It's my iPod.'
> All depending upon intonation.
>
>
> [Now we have to wonder if Apple actually intended this or not. :-) -
> Adam]

And if you wanted to say "It's my iPod Nano" that would be "iPod Nano
nano". :-)

In Japanese the spoken language is much more gender and relationship
specific than English, and the phrase "xyz nano" to indicate "it's my
xyz" sounds either very soft and feminine or cutesey and child-like
(all depending on intonation). There are a large number of homonyms
in Japanese (again, only distinguished by intonation), and perhaps as
a consequence the Japanese seem to particularly enjoy play on words
in their ad campaigns. So, intended or not, I can just see an cutesey
iPod ad campaign featuring the phrase "iPod nano" targeted at the
young female crowd, who by the way were the primary purchaser of the
iPod mini in Japan (I think the pink iPod mini outsold all the other
colors by a significant margin).

Tn

At 22.25 -0700 2005-09-14, Tomoharu Nishino wrote:
>>You may be interested to know that in Japanese 'iPod Nano' can mean
>>something like: 'This is my great little iPod!' 'It's my iPod.'
>>All depending upon intonation.
>>
>>
>>[Now we have to wonder if Apple actually intended this or not. :-) -
>>Adam]
>
>And if you wanted to say "It's my iPod Nano" that would be "iPod Nano
>nano". :-)

"Nano Nano"
Wasn't that the greeting used by the non-earthling main character in a silly TV sitcom from the 80s?
Ah yes, Mork & Mindy, where Robin Williams was Mork from the planet ORK, with a special handshake.

http://www.google.com/Top/Arts/Television/Programs/Comedy/Sitcoms/Mork_and_Mindy/

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