Pronunciation
Etymology
() From Japanese 暈け (boke, “blur”), the nominalized form of the verb 暈ける (bokeru, “to blur”). The terminal -h (by comparison with the romanization boke) is a pronunciation guide, so that it is not pronounced as IPA: /boʊk/ as it would under standard English orthography. Contrast karate, karaoke, which have undergone sound change. Used since at least 1996,Merklinger, Harold. "". The Luminous Landscape. with spelling bokeh popularized by editor Mike Johnston in the March/April 1997 issue of Photo Techniques magazine, which featured three commissioned articles on the topic, Johnston writing:
:“it is properly pronounced with bo as in bone and ke as in Kenneth, with equal stress on either syllable”.Johnston, Mike (April 4, 2004). "". The Luminous Landscape.