On Sat, 03 Jun 2006 09:10:44 -0400, Spehro Pefhany wrote:
On Sat, 3 Jun 2006 22:40:39 +1000, the renowned "Phil Allison"
...
Seems some staffer at Motorola made an error in the early 80s and it has
gone on and on and on ........

Maybe someone who was sick of the breaker-breaker-one-nine-rubber-duck
CB craze of the day? ;-) Unfortunately lots of references on the
'net may just mean that the stuff was all copied from one source.

BTW, any Japanese speakers here? The Japanese characters for Hitachi
appear to be only two syllables. The characters would be pronounced
"ri4 li4" in Chinese ('sun' or 'day' and 'stand'), maybe "hi ta" in
Japanese? Is the "chi" just tacked on in English?

With Japanese Kanji, there's no telling. ;-) Fujiyama, for example,
is two Kanjis.

Mazda is the opposite-- it's three syllables in Chinese (and probably
Japanese as well). And Alps (the component maker)is two syllables in
Japanese.


In Katagana or Hiragana, Ma zu da is three, yes, but A ru pu su is _four_! ;-)
(I think they're pronounced more like Ma z' da and A r' p' s'. :-) )
To yo ta comes out just right, however. :-)

Cheers!
Rich