How do Japanese people read the pH (measure of acidity or basicity) of a solution?


I read an article (<http://www.gizmodo.jp/2013/10/post_13267.html>, in case
anyone is interested), and it got me thinking how a Japanese person would read
this passage:

> ここの水は水素イオン指数pH 9～10.5。

Do they pronounce the pH? And what about the numbers? Is it just something
like きゅう、じゅう てん ご ぐらい？Or is there some kind of suffix?

Thanks!




According to
[Wikipedia](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B0%B4%E7%B4%A0%E3%82%A4%E3%82%AA%E3%83%B3%E6%8C%87%E6%95%B0#cite_note-2),
there are three pronunciations of pH:

  1. An older pronunciation from German, ペーハー.
  2. A newer pronunciation from English, ピーエイチ.
  3. A variant on the latter, ピーエッチ.

It seems like these are all still in use, but [the long-term trend is toward
the English-derived reading](http://www.horiba.com/jp/application/material-
property-characterization/water-analysis/water-quality-electrochemistry-
instrumentation/the-story-of-ph-and-water-quality/qa-ph/measurement/1/).
According to Wikipedia, ピーエイチ was decided upon as a standard reading by JIS in
1957, and this was revised to ピーエッチ by JIS in 1984, so you may wish to follow
the standard and read it ピーエッチ.

As for the numbers, we have [a question about how to read a range of
numbers](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/8134/1478) already. In short, I
think you can read the numbers like you normally would, pronouncing the `〜`
between them as から, or very formally as ないし. I don't think you need to add a
suffix.




According to
[Wikipedia](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B0%B4%E7%B4%A0%E3%82%A4%E3%82%AA%E3%83%B3%E6%8C%87%E6%95%B0#cite_note-2),
there are three pronunciations of pH:

  1. An older pronunciation from German, ペーハー.
  2. A newer pronunciation from English, ピーエイチ.
  3. A variant on the latter, ピーエッチ.

It seems like these are all still in use, but [the long-term trend is toward
the English-derived reading](http://www.horiba.com/jp/application/material-
property-characterization/water-analysis/water-quality-electrochemistry-
instrumentation/the-story-of-ph-and-water-quality/qa-ph/measurement/1/).
According to Wikipedia, ピーエイチ was decided upon as a standard reading by JIS in
1957, and this was revised to ピーエッチ by JIS in 1984, so you may wish to follow
the standard and read it ピーエッチ.

As for the numbers, we have [a question about how to read a range of
numbers](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/8134/1478) already. In short, I
think you can read the numbers like you normally would, pronouncing the `〜`
between them as から, or very formally as ないし. I don't think you need to add a
suffix.

