Lol I love this video... "Oh, I'm pronouncing a single word wrong you say? Well, I'll just make a 5 minute video then detailing its entire history and how it's pronounced in various languages."
So both are correct. And neither are incorrect. Because the origin of the name is “Guh” and the creator pronounced it “Jih”. This is quite the interesting development.
I’d analogue it to the the Boston Celtics. While it’s a mispronunciation of the northern British Isles peoples, the team ownership (whether intentional or accidental) have proclaimed the team to be Selltics. If Miyazaki say Jibli, hard to argue otherwise.
I said Ghibli as (Gib - Lee) and some people told me I was saying it wrong and that its (Jib-Lee) and I was like "leme look this shiz up" Glad to know im not entirely wrong. I'll keep saying it the italian and arabic way.
I used the hard G myself, and realized something. If I want to use the hard G, I'd better be referring to the car or plane, but if I'm talking about the animation studio, it's time to switch over to the J.
Originally Miyazaki intended for the pronunciation to be that of the Italian with a hard G sound (so in Japanese it would be written as ギブリ). But when they started up the studio, there was a typo in the name ジブリ. Hence the pronunciation changed from Ghibli to Jibuli
@@symphony137 you can check it yourself comparing the two logos the Studio used in the past years. You'll notice that the characters used are different and therefore you'll see the typo. The Studio tried to correct it in the latest version of the logo
@@condorello3746 Do you have an example where they've changed it? From what I can see the official web site, social media etc. all say "ジブリ" like usual.
Hi, Arab here. It's worth noting G and J are the same letter in Arabic. Some countries pronounce it G (Egypt, Libya, Sudan), but the correct Arabic pronunciation is J (pretty much every other country). Also, as someone who reads Japanese, it says JiBuRi, which could be anglicized to either Jibbly or Jibbry.
@Robert Marsh If we were only talking about the name of the plane I would agree with you, but we're talking about the name of an animation studio. Miyazaki can name his studio whatever he wants and spell it however he wants, regardless of conventional spelling or grammar, so I go with the way he says it. That being said I think it's fine to pronounce it the other way too, I just choose not to.
Just Some Guy without a Mustache yep. And one of the main reasons, why you wouldn’t get what someone is saying is because the pronunciation of the word gets distorted so much, that it isn’t possible to “get” any more
@@Alusnovalotus Absolutely. In linguistics, a 'word' or arrangement of signs needs one crucial thing to be validated: agreement within a speech community that those squiggles/noises mean 'x/y/z'. Ultimately, at the end of the day, that speech community could be a simple as you and your best friend or a global group of film fanatics. We've reached a situation where English speakers understand both the initial /g/ and the / dʒ/ in the sign, therefore both are correct. ;) In time that may change, we may end up with just one pronunciation (or three!).
I had the same kind of surprise though I'm Italian. It feels wrong that people call it "Italian pronounciation" since it's not part of our language, it's never used, and it's only a trace of our colonial past that we never admit.
It's indeed a bit of a complicated issue, especially when Japanese language turns certain loan words for the sake of easier pronunciation, such as the word "Studio" which they changed to "Su - ta - ji - oh". Though, in the case of the world Ghibli, they still could have easily pronounced it with a hard "G" since "Gi" is one of the common Japanese letterings. In any case, if you have to pick one, I'd say just say it how the creator named it, which is "Ji".
Great video thanks! I had been pronouncing (and hearing) studio ghibli with a hard g for years, but I taught myself hiragana and katakana a few months ago and today as I was sitting down to watch howl's moving castle I noticed the katakana at the beginning of the movie and immediately thought that it should be pronounced with a soft g but wanted confirmation it was the right way to pronounce it; which is when I found this video =) thanks again
I absolutely love this video lol I have a Studio Ghibli sleeve and everyone that comes up to me to talk about it says "ghibli" but I have always said it like "jibli" like you.
Excellent video! You really made me laugh by trying the Japanese translation. It was so well explained, indeed it’s good to know that the exact pronunciation is not important. Thanks for making this video so interesting and fun.
I got into Ghibli later in life too, and because I can read katakana, I have always pronounced it with a soft "g" because I thought that was correct. I even thought I'd embarrass myself if I pronounced it the other way! So it's interesting to hear about this debate!
I’m going to pronounce it in the original arabic. (Spanish-speaker here) It’s like the American English TV, British Telly, and Japanese Terebi. All pronounced differently but meaning the same thing.
Iv always pronounced it Jib-lee. I think I even heard someone who used to work for ghibli who set up studio panoc pronounce it similar when I went to a special viewing of Mary and the witches flower here in uk.
I came from Google and was originally angry "oh god another video that's unnecessarily long about just how to say a single word," but I stayed for the whole thing because, turns out, the context and story behind everything is actually important (or at least interesting). Thank you!
The way you pronounce it is the way I learned it as a wee lil baby so that’s how I pronounce it now. This vid was exactly what I was looking for. 10/10
Yup, what a surprise you've been saying it wrong all along. And now you have confirmation bias from an fuc*ing idiotic youtuber. What a genius you are. NOT!
The intention matters. That is why it is pronounced (Jib-Blee). Take, for example, the Director, Denis Villanueve. His name is pronounced (Den Nee Vil Nuuv) because he is french. If it was Spanish it is pronounced (Den Niss Vil-lan-Weh-Veh). Ghibli is spelled in Japanese with a J syllable, that is how the founder called it and that is now the intention. I don’t understand why so many people are being stubborn about this because they don’t want to be wrong. When a word is used in another language, it adopts those rules. In this case it now belongs to the Japanese when referring to the studio. If it wasn’t the studio, it is a hard G sound.
Your attempt at the Japanese pronunciation was spot-on. I speak English (probably with a California accent) and Japanese, and I say “Jibli” for Ghibli in English, just like the way you say it in your videos. In Japanese I would say “Jiburi” with a Japanese r.
I like the comparison that a previous commenter made: “Studio Jibli” is pronounced differently from “Gibli airplane/car” ; just as “Boston Seltics” is pronounced differently from “Keltic Thunder”. 😅
The R sound in Japanese varies depending on the dialect, speaker, or position, but it is basically pronounced the same way as the flap T in American English (as in "city" or "better") or the single R in Spanish (as in "pero").
I say Ghibli with a hard G, but I totally see why you'd say it with a 'j' now. Thanks for this, now I can back myself up and tell others their pronunciation is valid too! (Btw, Canadians, how stoked are we all these films are on Netflix!?)
StoryDive: "My thick Canadian accent." Me: Accent? What accent? You like all the American channels I watch and they sound like all the Canadian channels I watch. Also me: was born in the Canadian Arctic and raised in the most American part of Canada. Also also me: Spends 3 days trying to figure out if that person from that 30 second video was Australian or British.
That part is kind of an inside joke because I've been called out for "sounding Canadian" many times in the comments. I agree with you. I don't think my accent sounds that different from a general American one, or at least the differences are subtle.
lol true. So many people think it's possible to correctly guess exactly where someone's from by their accents like on TV or something. Sometimes it is as simple as that. However, accents can get all kinds of hazy. For example, a person from Japan can learn English from a British professor who lives and teaches in Mexico lol
So technically the original foundation of the word is gib-lee. The studio borrowed this word and changed the pronunciation to jib-bu-ri (why the romaji isn't gi-bu-ri I don't know). The studio itself is Japanese and pronounce it as ji-bu-ri, so that would be the appropriate pronunciation based on the company's origin and name. So, what, did they intentionally change the word to suit their needs, or was there a mistake in translation somewhere? That said, I personally think gib-lee sounds better. Ji-bu-ri sounds too much like jiggly to me lol.
It was probably a mistake, a lot of people don't know how foreign letters change pronounciation according to the consonnant next to it, like 'h' hardens a letter etc...
Regardless of how we personally feel about it or how we would like it to be …it is a ‘j’ sound in Japan, the studio’s origin. So it’s a ‘j’ sound. The only thing you can decide on is if you wish to go full proper Japanese pronunciation with jiburi or make it more anglo but saying it jiblee. That is all.
I think Ghibli with a hard "g" is better. I've mainly only heard Americans pronounce it Ghibli with a soft "g", and the Japanese pronounce it as Jiburi. In English "gh" makes a hard "g" sound, so sticking with correct English pronunciation, I would also tend towards hard "g" unless I were speaking Japanese, or in an Arabic dialect that uses a soft "g" in the place of a hard one.
There is no "L" in the Japanese alphabet, therefore any word with L is replaced with an R as you see in this example. My name "Holly" is pronounced "Hori" when trying to repeat the word in Japanese. (Otherwise, "Hiiragi" is how to say 'holly' in Japanese).
If there is no L, then there is no R either. However, they have an alveloar lateral tap, so something exactly in between L (alveloar lateral liquid continuant) or R (in most languages a retroflex tap or trill, in English a retroflex liquid continuant). That's why they have such trouble learning to distinguish L and R, especially if they start learning European langauges as adults.
If you're talking in japanese then do it that way. If you're talking in english then do it that way. Don't hate someone because of how different that person speaks GHIBLI.
Everything you said is 100% correct. There is no 'correct' way to pronounce any word, all languages and the words in them shift and flow over time and through different speakers, but this is doubly true of names likes Ghibli. I have always pronounced it the 'Italian' way but in a British English accent because that is how I first read the word. The soft J sound is certainly more common and in-line with the Japanese pronunciation, but there it is.
I think they pronounce it like that in Japanese, because the language doesn't have a character or sound for bli. I am studying Japanese and I have studied Korean in the past and I have seen a similar "adaptation" of foreign words for Japanese users to be able to say and write words that have sounds that might not exist in a particular language. I have always said it with the G sound (gee-blee), because my first language is Spanish, but I agree with you that Miyazaki doesn't seem to care whether people say the name in a particular way 😊 This was very interesting, thank you for sharing!
I'm Australian and pronounce it like you. I never heard it pronounced the Italian/Libyan way so didn't even know there was confusion over its pronunciation.
Well… As an English speaker you should at least have an idea of how spelling and pronounciation work in languages like French, German, Spanish and Italian. Those are some major European languages. There is no language where GH is read like a J-sound. In Arabic transliterated into Latin alphabet, gh usually stands for a raspy sound like that of French r. In Italian, gh is used before e and i to signify the hard g because ge and gi are always read with a soft g (j).
But it's not quite a hard L either - it comes off audibly as a "soft" R more than the L sound. Perhaps that's reinforced by how romaji is shown with an r.
@@RonJDuncan I often noticed it depends on the speaker, maybe it's even a regional thing. Some people in Japan say it more like a clear L, others pronounce it more like a very soft R. But I think it's never a hard R.
@@symphony137 I suppose dialect could make a difference, but standard Kanto (Tokyo) dialect seems to be that mix between the soft r and soft l. The language is definitely nuanced. I also wonder if/how much of learning English has had an effect on the evolution of language in Japan. That could be an interesting study - or paper, by a linguist.
It's funny that I found this vid wondering if I have been saying JIBLI wrong my whole life. But it's nice to know this is one of those words that doesn't have a right answer. Pronounce it how you want, the only person looking foolish is the one saying "You're pronouncing it wrong."
My family's American, but my parents were in the military/foreign service so my entire childhood was spent outside the US attending international schools. As a result, if a word is not native to English, my brain doesn't like using and Anglicized pronunciation because it sounds wrong to me. This has resulted in both Ghibli the italian pronunciation to refer to the planes and cars and such, while I use the Jiburi, or in my case "Jib'ri" pronounciation which is a weird middle ground between Japanese and Anglicized because my brain does not compute with "Jibli." Also a side note, saying b'r with a "tapped r" like in Japanese is just super fun. I cannot recall what language I've encountered in my life that does it, but it's just...fun? So you can bet if I meet a Brad, Brandon, Brett, Britney, etc. I definitely use it lol.
Even though I’ve been pronouncing it incorrectly for the studio by using a hard G, it’s nice to know that I was technically reading the English letters correctly in a way that aligned with the source material (the airplane).
more details to this: originally, the libyan gibli refers to the east/south side of things (e.g a house) which is usually hotter. The original word is kibli in Arabic (Libyans use g instead of k in their dialect). It comes from Kibleh which happens to be east for libyans. Kibleh is another name of Kabeh in Saudi Arabia (which is in mecca , it is also what Muslims turn their faces to when praying).
Well considering the katakana clearly says JI-BU-RI...you’re pronouncing it correctly IMO. 😁 If Hayao wanted it to be the hard G...we do have a “GI” sound...it would’ve been written GI-BU-RI (ギブリ). Honestly, I think you pronounced it pretty well when you said it the Japanese way. PS - OMG, could you do a video like this about how to pronounce “karaoke”? ‘Cause “carry oh key” is worse than nails on a chalkboard. Even if they can’t say it exactly how Japanese pronounce it, how do you get “carry” from “kara”?!? BTW, this is how it’s pronounced: th-cam.com/video/nbJLscswf34/w-d-xo.html
OMG I LOVE HOWLS MOVING CASTLE I BOUGHT THE BOOK FOR IT A COUPLE WEEKS AGO its one of the only studio Ghibli movies i’ve rewatched other than kikis delivery service
100% with the J sound. The studio even plays with this in the Ghiblies (pronounced with a hard G) shorts where at the start they change the katakana from ジブリ (the actual studio) to ギブリ (the fictional studio in these shorts based off the real thing).
The strange thing is, German Wikipedia says, it's actually "jibli" in arabic! I also say it the way you do, but both are correct. If we want to say it completely correctly, we even had to say "Stadio", with an "uh" sound.
You wrote: "The strange thing is, German Wikipedia says, it's actually "jibli" in arabic!" It doesn't say that (and didn't say it 3 months ago when you wrote this comment). In fact, the German wiki article even gives the Japanese pronunciation using the IPA: _Der Name Ghibli geht auf eine italienische Bezeichnung, die wiederum arabischen Ursprungs ist, zurück, allerdings mit der Aussprache _*_[dʑíbɯɺi]_*_ statt des italienischen harten „g“._ However, it doesn't mention the Arabic pronunciation at all. The only mention of Arabic is in the paragraph I quoted where it is said to be the source language for the Italian word that Miyazaki borrowed for his studio.
@@jensraab2902 Oh, so they meant "jibli" is the pronounciation they used in Japanese? Oops, I thought they meant, the Arabic pronounciation was "jibli" instead of the Italian "gibli". I think it's written a bit ambiguously. But you're right.
@@sailorcat Yes, the phrasing isn't very clear. (I might try and improve on that when I have a moment.) They are indeed referring to the Japanese pronunciation. Note that it doesn't say Jibli; the phonetic alphabet has letters that are typical for Japanese: ɯ (which sound a bit like the German ü but more "dull") and ɺ (which is that sound halfway between r and l). So this actually expresses the Japanese pronunciation of Jiburi, not Jibli. And to be a bit pedantic, if you write "gibli" as an Italian word it would actually be pronounced as "jibli"! In order to get a hard g in Italian you need to add an h before e and i. That's why it's spaghetti and Lamborghini! ;-) And to add even more to the confusion, if you have a word written with gh that is a transliteration of Arabic then the sound is yet again different (neither a g nor a j) in Arabic.
@@jensraab2902 Thank you for the information!^^ I know it's "Jiburi", but I wrote Jibli to make it easier for other people who might read it. They might not know about Japanese pronounciation. Oh yeah, right. xD I don't speak Italian, but it makes sense. I know this from other languages where a "g" is pronounced "j" when an "e" or an "i" follows.
I've always pronounced it in Libyan way just because of my background in Indonesian language. "Jiburi" make sense in Japanese so probably why English translated it as "Jibli".
So basically it should be soft G but the Japanese themselves changed the pronunciation to hard G so the right way is the wrong way but still the right way got it.
Just because they pronounce it that way doesn’t mean its correct. An example would be Dragon Ball, just because Akira Toriyama Calls it Doragon Bōru doesn’t mean everyone should pronounce it that way. Its obviously english.
Nice video.. Also as a side fact, There is no ''Gah'' sound in Classical Arabic in general .... if anything we say it as ''Jibli'' - "جبلي" it sounds better anyways this way tbh ^^
The hot wind blowing Jagged lines across the sand The crumbling buildings In our minds are all that stand Heat of the desert Dust settles on my face Without a compass The soldier knows no disgrace
In the Chinese language, there's no other official translation of Ghibli other than 吉卜力 (Ji Bu Li). That's why it sounds strange (unfamiliar) when I hear English speakers pronouncing it as Geebli, as I grew up watching all of their movies ever since kindergarten and up until now.
It's because Hayao only read the "ghibli" name, not listened to what it sounds like. And didn't care about the 'h' after the 'g'. He once said that long after he pronounced his studio as "Jiburi", he found out that "Ghibli" is actually pronounced with hard G. Well, "Studio Jiburi" is a proper noun now, so we should say Jiburi when referring to Hayao's Studio, say Ghibli with hard G in other cases as per Italians or Lybians would say.
Totally get your points, however the word Ghibli when romanised reads like an Italian word, like Ghirardelli for example. And the correct way to pronounce that “Gh” sound is with a hard G, like in the English word goal. So even though the Japanese pronunciation is totally different when written in kanji, the romanised version of it that we see at the start of their films all the time reads more naturally like an Italian word. I also personally think it sounds a lot better than the anglosaxon “jeebly”. That really doesn’t sound good to me. Just personal opinions however, it’s not that big of a deal :)
I'll bow to Miyazaki, since he is his own master and this his creature, and call it Gibili (Italian transliteration of the Japanese pronunciation of the Italian/Libyan word).
At this point, the emphasis is on respect - do you respect the original word and language it was taken from or the way the founders have been calling it. I personally go with the latter - language changes all the time and having respect to the creators is more important imo.
Both are correct. It just depends on which Arabic dialect you’re using : some of the Arabs pronounce the letter ج - jeem- as j , while others pronounce it as ‘Gh’ -gheem-.. So as an Arab: Both are correct but, we should use Miyazaki’s way in pronouncing it .. Furthermore: Grammatically, Ghibli doesn’t equal Gibli , because the letter H is a Consonant letter and it makes you pronounce the letter g as g (ghost) not as j (job).
I pronounce it exactly as you do. I’ve always realized the Japanese are going to pronounce it differently- there being no ‘L’ sound in Japanese like that in English- but it gets the name across. That’s what matters, no?
I’m Japanese who lives In Japan this video is somewhat correct and somewhat incorrect with some incorrect information but if you ask Japanese around 35 and below we say jib-ley older will say jib-uli. It would be close to American short cuts or slang. Depending who you talk in Japan you will get different sounding names
since I was younger I always said Ghibli (with a G), I did live in japan when I was younger which is surprising that I didn’t and still don’t say Jibli. I like to say it with a G because its original how it would be pronounced and I like to keep it that way.
My name is Gilani, Everyone thinks its pronounces Jilanee But its actually pronounced Gilanee Then people think its of italian origin, but its actually arabic origin
Yeah right, i got to know it by my Japanese friend, I asked her if she knew ghibli.. she wasn't able to identify it.. later she recognized it and said that's actually called "jiburi" in Japan
I remember hearing that Miyazaki admited that he mispronounced the word without knowing, but he left it with the "Jiburi" pronunciation because it was popular already. So I'd say that the hard g pronunciation is still the correct one.
Regardless of whether he mispronounced the airplane name…for HIS studio name, it is currently a ‘j’ sound. It’s obnoxious af to just ignore how the creator chooses to pronounce it in HIS language and accent. You’re partaking in Japanese culture…don’t Westernize it. Pronounce it like the creator does and the way Japanese people do. Why is it so hard to accept…I don’t get it…🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️
@@krisuler7734 Go tell that to the Italian folks, it's their word. Honestly, I don't mind people at all pronouncing it however they want to, especially when it comes to Japanese people, where it got so popular that it just was like that despite not actually being pronounced that way. They do get a pass tho, due to how their language and writing systems are structured.
@@KnotPhound Would you tell the director of Dune, Denis Villanueve he is pronouncing his name wrong? His name is pronounced (Den Nee Vil Nuuv) because he is french. If it was Spanish it is pronounced (Den Niss Vil-lan-Weh-Veh). Now that the Japanese have adopted the word, when referring to the studio it is a J sound. When not referring to the studio it would be a G sound.
![CAMPปลิ้น | EP.83[1/2] เปิดแคมป์หลอนต้อนรับ 2 ตัวพ่อแห่งวงการผี!](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/2uPuHYHgwiI/mqdefault.jpg)
Lol I love this video... "Oh, I'm pronouncing a single word wrong you say? Well, I'll just make a 5 minute video then detailing its entire history and how it's pronounced in various languages."
Why bother to try tell people their wrong when you can show them emphatically >:3
Next, he’ll have to make one about how the plural of "aircraft" is "aircraft" not "aircrafts".
@@ZulkirVTthey're* 😂
@@raceblakhart4941 missing the forest for the tree's, i see...
So both are correct.
And neither are incorrect.
Because the origin of the name is “Guh” and the creator pronounced it “Jih”.
This is quite the interesting development.
I’d analogue it to the the Boston Celtics. While it’s a mispronunciation of the northern British Isles peoples, the team ownership (whether intentional or accidental) have proclaimed the team to be Selltics.
If Miyazaki say Jibli, hard to argue otherwise.
Ah yes, the Ra's Al Ghul conundrum.
it's the GIF vs JIF conundrum all over again
No, both aren't correct. It's "Jibli"
Jibli obviously!!! 😂
Japan: jibuli, English: jibley, Italian /Arabic: Ghibli 🐯
Japan: jhiburi*
That sound is closer to r than to l, like 65% r 35% l.
I said Ghibli as (Gib - Lee) and some people told me I was saying it wrong and that its (Jib-Lee) and I was like "leme look this shiz up" Glad to know im not entirely wrong. I'll keep saying it the italian and arabic way.
As a native French speaker, everyone in France say Gib-lee and a lot of European country too
In germany we also pronounce it Gib-Lee
gonna pronounce it that way too HAHAHA
I used the hard G myself, and realized something. If I want to use the hard G, I'd better be referring to the car or plane, but if I'm talking about the animation studio, it's time to switch over to the J.
@@RonJDuncan This
Nice Work, I'm from Libya🇱🇾 and your pronunciation was on point
So basically it’s complicated.
Is it complicated? Yes and no.
🤣
Originally Miyazaki intended for the pronunciation to be that of the Italian with a hard G sound (so in Japanese it would be written as ギブリ). But when they started up the studio, there was a typo in the name ジブリ. Hence the pronunciation changed from Ghibli to Jibuli
Why wasn't in corrected right there and then?!??! What a waste
Wait, really? Do you have a source for this?
A source would be lovely.
@@symphony137 you can check it yourself comparing the two logos the Studio used in the past years. You'll notice that the characters used are different and therefore you'll see the typo. The Studio tried to correct it in the latest version of the logo
@@condorello3746 Do you have an example where they've changed it? From what I can see the official web site, social media etc. all say "ジブリ" like usual.
Hi, Arab here. It's worth noting G and J are the same letter in Arabic. Some countries pronounce it G (Egypt, Libya, Sudan), but the correct Arabic pronunciation is J (pretty much every other country).
Also, as someone who reads Japanese, it says JiBuRi, which could be anglicized to either Jibbly or Jibbry.
قبلي مش جبلي باللهجة البدوية تلفظ القاف مثل الجيم بمصر
لا قبلي مؤخودة من القبلة و في ليبيا و ننطقو الجيم بشكل صحيح
As an italian now I'm even more confused on how to pronounce it
Hahahaha!!! studio Gee Bali. Like Vincenzo Nibali. Many English speaking commentators struggled with that name too... ha la dolce vita
I came here solely to look for a fellow Italian
It's not an Italian word, nice try
*"Jibli"* sounds better if you're speaking in English
*"Jiburi"* sounds better if you're speaking in Japanese
"Ghibli" sounds better if you're speaking Italian
Ghibli just sounds better Periodt
I’ve always said it as gibli cause I thought it sounded it better but I was wrong
Guys, it is Ghibli, not Ghibli
@Robert Marsh If we were only talking about the name of the plane I would agree with you, but we're talking about the name of an animation studio. Miyazaki can name his studio whatever he wants and spell it however he wants, regardless of conventional spelling or grammar, so I go with the way he says it. That being said I think it's fine to pronounce it the other way too, I just choose not to.
Dang the level of depth and detail and research for such a simple question. This is everything I could ask for. You rock, thank you for this video!
In the end, it shouldn't matter how one pronounces a word, as long as you get what someone is saying.
Just Some Guy without a Mustache the essence of language evolution.
Just Some Guy without a Mustache yep. And one of the main reasons, why you wouldn’t get what someone is saying is because the pronunciation of the word gets distorted so much, that it isn’t possible to “get” any more
@@Alusnovalotus Absolutely. In linguistics, a 'word' or arrangement of signs needs one crucial thing to be validated: agreement within a speech community that those squiggles/noises mean 'x/y/z'. Ultimately, at the end of the day, that speech community could be a simple as you and your best friend or a global group of film fanatics.
We've reached a situation where English speakers understand both the initial /g/ and the / dʒ/ in the sign, therefore both are correct. ;) In time that may change, we may end up with just one pronunciation (or three!).
I agree
You again lol
I just came here to know how to properly pronounce Ghibli, but I found out it literally originated from my own language?! I was so surprised lol 🇱🇾♥️
lol ikr it’s kinda sad no one saying it right tho
I had the same kind of surprise though I'm Italian. It feels wrong that people call it "Italian pronounciation" since it's not part of our language, it's never used, and it's only a trace of our colonial past that we never admit.
It's indeed a bit of a complicated issue, especially when Japanese language turns certain loan words for the sake of easier pronunciation, such as the word "Studio" which they changed to "Su - ta - ji - oh". Though, in the case of the world Ghibli, they still could have easily pronounced it with a hard "G" since "Gi" is one of the common Japanese letterings.
In any case, if you have to pick one, I'd say just say it how the creator named it, which is "Ji".
Great video thanks! I had been pronouncing (and hearing) studio ghibli with a hard g for years, but I taught myself hiragana and katakana a few months ago and today as I was sitting down to watch howl's moving castle I noticed the katakana at the beginning of the movie and immediately thought that it should be pronounced with a soft g but wanted confirmation it was the right way to pronounce it; which is when I found this video =) thanks again
Yup, you were doing it right all along, don't change just because some stupid youtuber says you have to.
This video us a masterpiece. Your hard work deserves way more views. :)
I absolutely love this video lol I have a Studio Ghibli sleeve and everyone that comes up to me to talk about it says "ghibli" but I have always said it like "jibli" like you.
Because you're stupid, can't read and don't know the history or where the name comes from. Study up
Excellent video! You really made me laugh by trying the Japanese translation. It was so well explained, indeed it’s good to know that the exact pronunciation is not important. Thanks for making this video so interesting and fun.
I got into Ghibli later in life too, and because I can read katakana, I have always pronounced it with a soft "g" because I thought that was correct. I even thought I'd embarrass myself if I pronounced it the other way! So it's interesting to hear about this debate!
Russian: Ghi-BLYAT
xD
Lol that was my reaction when pronouncing the word became harder 🤣
I’m going to pronounce it in the original arabic. (Spanish-speaker here)
It’s like the American English TV, British Telly, and Japanese Terebi. All pronounced differently but meaning the same thing.
Iv always pronounced it Jib-lee. I think I even heard someone who used to work for ghibli who set up studio panoc pronounce it similar when I went to a special viewing of Mary and the witches flower here in uk.
I came from Google and was originally angry "oh god another video that's unnecessarily long about just how to say a single word," but I stayed for the whole thing because, turns out, the context and story behind everything is actually important (or at least interesting). Thank you!
Thank you. The pronunciation had been driving be crazy. Was it G or J sound? Finally it's J. It sounds more fluid and easier on the mouth too.
The way you pronounce it is the way I learned it as a wee lil baby so that’s how I pronounce it now. This vid was exactly what I was looking for. 10/10
Yup, what a surprise you've been saying it wrong all along. And now you have confirmation bias from an fuc*ing idiotic youtuber. What a genius you are. NOT!
The intention matters. That is why it is pronounced (Jib-Blee). Take, for example, the Director, Denis Villanueve. His name is pronounced (Den Nee Vil Nuuv) because he is french. If it was Spanish it is pronounced (Den Niss Vil-lan-Weh-Veh). Ghibli is spelled in Japanese with a J syllable, that is how the founder called it and that is now the intention. I don’t understand why so many people are being stubborn about this because they don’t want to be wrong. When a word is used in another language, it adopts those rules. In this case it now belongs to the Japanese when referring to the studio. If it wasn’t the studio, it is a hard G sound.
Your attempt at the Japanese pronunciation was spot-on. I speak English (probably with a California accent) and Japanese, and I say “Jibli” for Ghibli in English, just like the way you say it in your videos. In Japanese I would say “Jiburi” with a Japanese r.
I like the comparison that a previous commenter made:
“Studio Jibli” is pronounced differently from “Gibli airplane/car” ; just as “Boston Seltics” is pronounced differently from “Keltic Thunder”.
😅
The R sound in Japanese varies depending on the dialect, speaker, or position, but it is basically pronounced the same way as the flap T in American English (as in "city" or "better") or the single R in Spanish (as in "pero").
The continued use of Romaji character by the Japanese is significant. It's not that we are meant to say an "r" but that they _can't_ say an "L"
I say Ghibli with a hard G, but I totally see why you'd say it with a 'j' now. Thanks for this, now I can back myself up and tell others their pronunciation is valid too! (Btw, Canadians, how stoked are we all these films are on Netflix!?)
When i was a child i always pronounced it „ghibli with a g“. 🐨
Like in 1:10
good, that is the correct way.
Welcome to Germany
I also did
@@kirkbrownell1556 its not tho
StoryDive: "My thick Canadian accent."
Me: Accent? What accent? You like all the American channels I watch and they sound like all the Canadian channels I watch.
Also me: was born in the Canadian Arctic and raised in the most American part of Canada.
Also also me: Spends 3 days trying to figure out if that person from that 30 second video was Australian or British.
That part is kind of an inside joke because I've been called out for "sounding Canadian" many times in the comments. I agree with you. I don't think my accent sounds that different from a general American one, or at least the differences are subtle.
lol true. So many people think it's possible to correctly guess exactly where someone's from by their accents like on TV or something. Sometimes it is as simple as that. However, accents can get all kinds of hazy. For example, a person from Japan can learn English from a British professor who lives and teaches in Mexico lol
10/10 informed video thank you very much!
So technically the original foundation of the word is gib-lee. The studio borrowed this word and changed the pronunciation to jib-bu-ri (why the romaji isn't gi-bu-ri I don't know). The studio itself is Japanese and pronounce it as ji-bu-ri, so that would be the appropriate pronunciation based on the company's origin and name.
So, what, did they intentionally change the word to suit their needs, or was there a mistake in translation somewhere? That said, I personally think gib-lee sounds better. Ji-bu-ri sounds too much like jiggly to me lol.
It was probably a mistake, a lot of people don't know how foreign letters change pronounciation according to the consonnant next to it, like 'h' hardens a letter etc...
I came for jiggly. I found jiggly. ~Jiggly~
Regardless of how we personally feel about it or how we would like it to be …it is a ‘j’ sound in Japan, the studio’s origin. So it’s a ‘j’ sound. The only thing you can decide on is if you wish to go full proper Japanese pronunciation with jiburi or make it more anglo but saying it jiblee. That is all.
I think Ghibli with a hard "g" is better. I've mainly only heard Americans pronounce it Ghibli with a soft "g", and the Japanese pronounce it as Jiburi. In English "gh" makes a hard "g" sound, so sticking with correct English pronunciation, I would also tend towards hard "g" unless I were speaking Japanese, or in an Arabic dialect that uses a soft "g" in the place of a hard one.
There is no "L" in the Japanese alphabet, therefore any word with L is replaced with an R as you see in this example. My name "Holly" is pronounced "Hori" when trying to repeat the word in Japanese. (Otherwise, "Hiiragi" is how to say 'holly' in Japanese).
If there is no L, then there is no R either. However, they have an alveloar lateral tap, so something exactly in between L (alveloar lateral liquid continuant) or R (in most languages a retroflex tap or trill, in English a retroflex liquid continuant). That's why they have such trouble learning to distinguish L and R, especially if they start learning European langauges as adults.
Fascinating and informative. A touche de force. You clearly demonstrated that either way is fine.
If you're talking in japanese then do it that way.
If you're talking in english then do it that way.
Don't hate someone because of how different that person speaks GHIBLI.
What About Italians?!?!? :D
Man, "finally" indeed! It's about time somebody clarified this! This video is a godsend.
Everything you said is 100% correct. There is no 'correct' way to pronounce any word, all languages and the words in them shift and flow over time and through different speakers, but this is doubly true of names likes Ghibli. I have always pronounced it the 'Italian' way but in a British English accent because that is how I first read the word. The soft J sound is certainly more common and in-line with the Japanese pronunciation, but there it is.
I am a native-spanish speaker and we here pronounce it almost the same way as Italian :3
I'm brazilian and we pronounce it very similarly too
Same in Poland ^^ I hate it when English speaking friends correct my pronunciation of that name..
I'm American and I have always said it the italian/arabic way. Someone corrected me today.
Thank you for posting this helpful and information video. My life is now complete!
I think they pronounce it like that in Japanese, because the language doesn't have a character or sound for bli. I am studying Japanese and I have studied Korean in the past and I have seen a similar "adaptation" of foreign words for Japanese users to be able to say and write words that have sounds that might not exist in a particular language.
I have always said it with the G sound (gee-blee), because my first language is Spanish, but I agree with you that Miyazaki doesn't seem to care whether people say the name in a particular way 😊
This was very interesting, thank you for sharing!
I'm Australian and pronounce it like you. I never heard it pronounced the Italian/Libyan way so didn't even know there was confusion over its pronunciation.
Well… As an English speaker you should at least have an idea of how spelling and pronounciation work in languages like French, German, Spanish and Italian. Those are some major European languages. There is no language where GH is read like a J-sound. In Arabic transliterated into Latin alphabet, gh usually stands for a raspy sound like that of French r. In Italian, gh is used before e and i to signify the hard g because ge and gi are always read with a soft g (j).
In Japan we have no R sound. So like you mentioned Jibuli is correct. You sound right.:-)
But it's not quite a hard L either - it comes off audibly as a "soft" R more than the L sound. Perhaps that's reinforced by how romaji is shown with an r.
@@RonJDuncan I often noticed it depends on the speaker, maybe it's even a regional thing. Some people in Japan say it more like a clear L, others pronounce it more like a very soft R. But I think it's never a hard R.
@@symphony137 I suppose dialect could make a difference, but standard Kanto (Tokyo) dialect seems to be that mix between the soft r and soft l. The language is definitely nuanced. I also wonder if/how much of learning English has had an effect on the evolution of language in Japan. That could be an interesting study - or paper, by a linguist.
It's funny that I found this vid wondering if I have been saying JIBLI wrong my whole life. But it's nice to know this is one of those words that doesn't have a right answer. Pronounce it how you want, the only person looking foolish is the one saying "You're pronouncing it wrong."
Jiburi in Japanese and Jibli in English.
L is a challenge for them like Google. They pronounce it as Guguru
My family's American, but my parents were in the military/foreign service so my entire childhood was spent outside the US attending international schools. As a result, if a word is not native to English, my brain doesn't like using and Anglicized pronunciation because it sounds wrong to me. This has resulted in both Ghibli the italian pronunciation to refer to the planes and cars and such, while I use the Jiburi, or in my case "Jib'ri" pronounciation which is a weird middle ground between Japanese and Anglicized because my brain does not compute with "Jibli." Also a side note, saying b'r with a "tapped r" like in Japanese is just super fun. I cannot recall what language I've encountered in my life that does it, but it's just...fun? So you can bet if I meet a Brad, Brandon, Brett, Britney, etc. I definitely use it lol.
Beautiful, thank you. Jib-lee it is. Done.
Even though I’ve been pronouncing it incorrectly for the studio by using a hard G, it’s nice to know that I was technically reading the English letters correctly in a way that aligned with the source material (the airplane).
amazing studio. can't forget their films.
more details to this: originally, the libyan gibli refers to the east/south side of things (e.g a house) which is usually hotter. The original word is kibli in Arabic (Libyans use g instead of k in their dialect). It comes from Kibleh which happens to be east for libyans. Kibleh is another name of Kabeh in Saudi Arabia (which is in mecca , it is also what Muslims turn their faces to when praying).
We loved studio Ghibli films so much we named our dog Ghibli (J - pronunciation) and mostly we called him “Jibby”
Well considering the katakana clearly says JI-BU-RI...you’re pronouncing it correctly IMO. 😁
If Hayao wanted it to be the hard G...we do have a “GI” sound...it would’ve been written GI-BU-RI (ギブリ).
Honestly, I think you pronounced it pretty well when you said it the Japanese way.
PS - OMG, could you do a video like this about how to pronounce “karaoke”? ‘Cause “carry oh key” is worse than nails on a chalkboard. Even if they can’t say it exactly how Japanese pronounce it, how do you get “carry” from “kara”?!? BTW, this is how it’s pronounced: th-cam.com/video/nbJLscswf34/w-d-xo.html
Fun aside, in Brazilian Portuguese, the D-I sound is pronounced "Dje" so for all things Disney, they say "Djeezney"
OMG I LOVE HOWLS MOVING CASTLE I BOUGHT THE BOOK FOR IT A COUPLE WEEKS AGO
its one of the only studio Ghibli movies i’ve rewatched other than kikis delivery service
I just know Ghibli from the Maserati of my childhood in the 1960s, so I cannot think of it any way but the Italian.
greggy weggy Well technically it’s Miyazaki’s fault for saying ghibli the incorrect way in the first place. So you can say you’re doing it in defiance
100% with the J sound. The studio even plays with this in the Ghiblies (pronounced with a hard G) shorts where at the start they change the katakana from ジブリ (the actual studio) to ギブリ (the fictional studio in these shorts based off the real thing).
I’ve always said it the way you say it. Honestly it sounds much better in my opinion 😅
The strange thing is, German Wikipedia says, it's actually "jibli" in arabic!
I also say it the way you do, but both are correct. If we want to say it completely correctly, we even had to say "Stadio", with an "uh" sound.
You wrote: "The strange thing is, German Wikipedia says, it's actually "jibli" in arabic!"
It doesn't say that (and didn't say it 3 months ago when you wrote this comment).
In fact, the German wiki article even gives the Japanese pronunciation using the IPA: _Der Name Ghibli geht auf eine italienische Bezeichnung, die wiederum arabischen Ursprungs ist, zurück, allerdings mit der Aussprache _*_[dʑíbɯɺi]_*_ statt des italienischen harten „g“._
However, it doesn't mention the Arabic pronunciation at all. The only mention of Arabic is in the paragraph I quoted where it is said to be the source language for the Italian word that Miyazaki borrowed for his studio.
@@jensraab2902 Oh, so they meant "jibli" is the pronounciation they used in Japanese? Oops, I thought they meant, the Arabic pronounciation was "jibli" instead of the Italian "gibli". I think it's written a bit ambiguously. But you're right.
@@sailorcat Yes, the phrasing isn't very clear. (I might try and improve on that when I have a moment.)
They are indeed referring to the Japanese pronunciation. Note that it doesn't say Jibli; the phonetic alphabet has letters that are typical for Japanese: ɯ (which sound a bit like the German ü but more "dull") and ɺ (which is that sound halfway between r and l). So this actually expresses the Japanese pronunciation of Jiburi, not Jibli.
And to be a bit pedantic, if you write "gibli" as an Italian word it would actually be pronounced as "jibli"! In order to get a hard g in Italian you need to add an h before e and i. That's why it's spaghetti and Lamborghini! ;-)
And to add even more to the confusion, if you have a word written with gh that is a transliteration of Arabic then the sound is yet again different (neither a g nor a j) in Arabic.
@@jensraab2902 Thank you for the information!^^ I know it's "Jiburi", but I wrote Jibli to make it easier for other people who might read it. They might not know about Japanese pronounciation.
Oh yeah, right. xD I don't speak Italian, but it makes sense. I know this from other languages where a "g" is pronounced "j" when an "e" or an "i" follows.
@@sailorcat OK, I now see why you wrote Jibli!
Yeah, it's complicated! 😉
Thanks, Story Diva! My kind of video ;)
Finally? It's always been written as Jibli in Japanese. I thought it was غِبلي; the Gh is how the weird Arabic sound is written in English.
You worth a subscription. Best video. Keep ut up.
As an Italian I will always use the Italian pronunciation, which I'm sure Mr. Miyazaki himself wouldn't mind at all
Great video. Really, really great. Good work and thanks : )
I've always pronounced it in Libyan way just because of my background in Indonesian language. "Jiburi" make sense in Japanese so probably why English translated it as "Jibli".
I fucking knew I was saying it right. I knew it was impossible for me to ever be wrong about anything in my life. Thanks for the conformation. ❤
Princess Mononoke is my favorite Studio Jabooty film
I pronounce it with a G sound because my mother tongue is Lybian and we usually use this word for reference to the hot wind 🌬️
So basically it should be soft G but the Japanese themselves changed the pronunciation to hard G so the right way is the wrong way but still the right way got it.
The Japanese romanization of the Final Fantasy games is ファイナルファンタジー, or Fainaru Fantajii...but we don't call the series Final Fantajy
Thank you! Very helpful
Excelent!!👌thank you so much🙌
Just because they pronounce it that way doesn’t mean its correct. An example would be Dragon Ball, just because Akira Toriyama Calls it Doragon Bōru doesn’t mean everyone should pronounce it that way. Its obviously english.
Nice video..
Also as a side fact, There is no ''Gah'' sound in Classical Arabic in general .... if anything we say it as ''Jibli'' - "جبلي"
it sounds better anyways this way tbh ^^
It was the "gh" sound, not g
The hot wind blowing
Jagged lines across the sand
The crumbling buildings
In our minds are all that stand
Heat of the desert
Dust settles on my face
Without a compass
The soldier knows no disgrace
In the Chinese language, there's no other official translation of Ghibli other than 吉卜力 (Ji Bu Li). That's why it sounds strange (unfamiliar) when I hear English speakers pronouncing it as Geebli, as I grew up watching all of their movies ever since kindergarten and up until now.
Funny how I love SG films so much but I've been pronouncing it wrong all this time haha 😂 thanks for this video! 🧡
ジブリ
Edit: Okay cool it works!
Edit 2: The keyboard thing if you’re wondering.
I remember when someone corrected me rudely. I no longer talk to them but I hope they see this video.
I see what you did at the end there
Thank you!
It's because Hayao only read the "ghibli" name, not listened to what it sounds like. And didn't care about the 'h' after the 'g'. He once said that long after he pronounced his studio as "Jiburi", he found out that "Ghibli" is actually pronounced with hard G. Well, "Studio Jiburi" is a proper noun now, so we should say Jiburi when referring to Hayao's Studio, say Ghibli with hard G in other cases as per Italians or Lybians would say.
Totally get your points, however the word Ghibli when romanised reads like an Italian word, like Ghirardelli for example. And the correct way to pronounce that “Gh” sound is with a hard G, like in the English word goal.
So even though the Japanese pronunciation is totally different when written in kanji, the romanised version of it that we see at the start of their films all the time reads more naturally like an Italian word. I also personally think it sounds a lot better than the anglosaxon “jeebly”. That really doesn’t sound good to me. Just personal opinions however, it’s not that big of a deal :)
Pronouncing it with the "J" isn't exactly anglosaxon. It's how it's actually written in Japanese: ジブリ
Notice the first kana, ジ = Ji
It’s written in katakana, not in kanji.
I'll bow to Miyazaki, since he is his own master and this his creature, and call it Gibili (Italian transliteration of the Japanese pronunciation of the Italian/Libyan word).
At this point, the emphasis is on respect - do you respect the original word and language it was taken from or the way the founders have been calling it. I personally go with the latter - language changes all the time and having respect to the creators is more important imo.
Both are correct. It just depends on which Arabic dialect you’re using : some of the Arabs pronounce the letter ج - jeem- as j , while others pronounce it as ‘Gh’ -gheem-.. So as an Arab: Both are correct but, we should use Miyazaki’s way in pronouncing it .. Furthermore: Grammatically, Ghibli doesn’t equal Gibli , because the letter H is a Consonant letter and it makes you pronounce the letter g as g (ghost) not as j (job).
But "ghain" and "jim" are cimpletely differnet sounds, how can they possibly get mixed up?
I pronounce it exactly as you do. I’ve always realized the Japanese are going to pronounce it differently- there being no ‘L’ sound in Japanese like that in English- but it gets the name across. That’s what matters, no?
The “r+l” sound trips up most English speakers.
My friend (who acts like she knows everything about Japan) told me “oh it is definitely ‘Ga-Hib-lee’”
Hence why I am here
I’m Japanese who lives In Japan this video is somewhat correct and somewhat incorrect with some incorrect information but if you ask Japanese around 35 and below we say jib-ley older will say jib-uli. It would be close to American short cuts or slang. Depending who you talk in Japan you will get different sounding names
since I was younger I always said Ghibli (with a G), I did live in japan when I was younger which is surprising that I didn’t and still don’t say Jibli. I like to say it with a G because its original how it would be pronounced and I like to keep it that way.
'L' in English often turns into 'R' in Japanese as there is no hard 'L' in Japanese as such. So Jiburi or Jibli , anything is fine I guess?
I giggled a bit when you said the Japanese pronunciation while speaking English haha
Jibberish.....is what I'm going to use ro remember this new (to me) japanese pronunciation.
Every time I meet someone who loves Studio Ghibli too, I ask how they pronounce it 😂
My name is Gilani,
Everyone thinks its pronounces Jilanee
But its actually pronounced Gilanee
Then people think its of italian origin, but its actually arabic origin
People think that since Arabic is a lot softer than the North African pronunciations. Ji sound IS softer than Gi, right?
Yeah right, i got to know it by my Japanese friend, I asked her if she knew ghibli.. she wasn't able to identify it.. later she recognized it and said that's actually called "jiburi" in Japan
Idk, in Italian we say it in the Italian pronunciation.
For any Tamil or Korean speakers out there, you’re the most likely to get that Jibu-‘l/r’-i sound right apart from Japanese speakers. 😊
I remember hearing that Miyazaki admited that he mispronounced the word without knowing, but he left it with the "Jiburi" pronunciation because it was popular already. So I'd say that the hard g pronunciation is still the correct one.
I agree, also it sounds way better
Regardless of whether he mispronounced the airplane name…for HIS studio name, it is currently a ‘j’ sound. It’s obnoxious af to just ignore how the creator chooses to pronounce it in HIS language and accent. You’re partaking in Japanese culture…don’t Westernize it. Pronounce it like the creator does and the way Japanese people do. Why is it so hard to accept…I don’t get it…🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️
@@krisuler7734 Go tell that to the Italian folks, it's their word. Honestly, I don't mind people at all pronouncing it however they want to, especially when it comes to Japanese people, where it got so popular that it just was like that despite not actually being pronounced that way. They do get a pass tho, due to how their language and writing systems are structured.
@@KnotPhound Would you tell the director of Dune, Denis Villanueve he is pronouncing his name wrong? His name is pronounced (Den Nee Vil Nuuv) because he is french. If it was Spanish it is pronounced (Den Niss Vil-lan-Weh-Veh). Now that the Japanese have adopted the word, when referring to the studio it is a J sound. When not referring to the studio it would be a G sound.