Is it pronounced SEE-nar or SY-nar? I have heard it both ways. I say SY-nar myself.

Good morning, 2F/2F;

Good question. I do not really know yet. I have also been using the "Sy-nar" pronounciation you employ, but there might also be people who enjoy challenging the religious groups by pronouncing it as "Sin-Ar."

Enjoy; Ralph Javins

I say it, synar - but as in how youd go about saying synthesizer - and maybe on occasion see-nar also ...

sy-nar - as in 'eye' - no

ha ha

no idea tho

Guess what I found out by reading the Wikipedia page? It is neither, technically, since it is an acronym. S.I.N.A.R. = science, industry, nature, architecture, and reproduction.

That sounds like ENGLISH to me...unless the words for science, industry, nature, architecture, and reproduction all start with the same letters as they do in English in either German, French, or Italian. Since these three languages are common in Switzerland, not to mention English, who the hell knows how it is pronounced?!

If you maintain that since the words used for the acronym are English words, then it could be pronounced any way it could be pronounced in English. Crap!

My best guess would be to apply the German pronunciation, since the inventor has a very German name: Carl Hans Koch (though Carl with a C instead of a K). In that case, it could be like Sin-are or See-nar...but definitely not Sy-nar.

SINAR also happens to be the bahasa Indonesia/bahasa Melayu word for a ray of light.
Coincidence?

I never put much believe in the "Science" etc. thing. Far too contrived.
But have no proof for the south Asia connection either.

It's 'see-nar', by the way.


P.S.

The English "Science, [etc.]" is not the orginal, but a modern day corruption.
Originally, S.I.N.A.R. stood for: "Studio Industrie Natur Architektur Reproduktion".

Still: why not RANIS, SANIR or ANSIR?
Why Sinar, that word that has something to do with photo, with light?
Who knows of a good biography of the Koch family?

Hi,
never thought about anything but Si-nar (the same beginning as in si-nce); at least this is the case in Sweden, as far as I have heard. Interesting about the acronym, never heard that before!
//Bertil

I used to say sy-nar, but when I called Sinar Bron US, they answered the phone see-nar. I assume that they answer the phone correctly, so I changed my pronunciation.

Here's what I posted at the largeformatphotography forum:

Aside from my Sinar rep calling it SEE-nar, in the late eighties I went to a demo seminar with the young man (I guess he was Koch's son) who was heading up the company.

I recall he pronounced it SEE-nar, or perhaps slightly toward SINN-ar. (German accent.) So I guess that's as authoritative answer as you can get.

More interestingly, he described what his company this way:

“Here’s the photography market.” (He drew a pyramid.)
“Here’s the professional segment.” (He drew a line near the top of the pyramid.) “Here’s the large format segment.” (He drew a line cutting off all but a tiny top.)
“Here’s the premium large format market.” (He drew a line lopping off all but an infinitesimal tip of the pyramid.)
“That’s our business.”