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When referring to the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear incident, is "3.11" pronounced "San gatsu ju ichi nichi", or is there a shortened version, like "nine one one" or "September eleven" for the terrorist attacks on September the eleventh?

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3/11 is typically much more common in Western media (who probably like that 9/11 ring to it)... Japanese media overwhelmingly prefer the term 大震災/東日本大震災. – Dave♦ Feb 19 '12 at 8:12
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I thought "nine one one" was the number you dialed in emergencies in the US. I thought "nine eleven" was more common. – dainichi Feb 19 '12 at 8:30
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@Flaw: that claim is stated as fact in Wikipedia With citations given: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/9-1-1#cite_ref-35 – Andrew Grimm Feb 19 '12 at 11:11
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@AndrewGrimm: No, what I mean is that whenever I say it, or hear it, it's September 11th or 911... – silvermaple Feb 19 '12 at 16:30
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＞there were people who couldn't find number eleven on the phone. --- Lol in Japan we have ひゃくとうばん but no one would say 'I can't find number ten on the phone!' – Chocolate Feb 21 '12 at 5:28
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For 2.26事件 or 5.15事件, I remember learning them to be read as "にいにいろくじけん", "ごういちごうじけん," but I also hear people reading them as "にいてんにいろくじけん", "ごうてんいちごうじけん." Other than these two, as far as I know, incidents written like this seem to be read simply as if you read a number with a decimal point, like "さんてんいちいち."

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Is the vowel sound for に and ご intentionally dragged out to form にい and ごう? Why does it happen? – Flaw Feb 19 '12 at 7:39
@Flaw That is the way these numbers are usually pronounced in isolation. – sawa Feb 19 '12 at 8:10
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@Flaw One-mora digits are given an extra mora when pronouncing a series of digits, probably to make them an "equidistant" rythm. – dainichi Feb 19 '12 at 8:35

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