Pronouncing Scandinavian Names
 

Hi all...I need a couple of pointers on how to correctly pronounce the names of some Scandinavian composers and musicians. Perhaps write them to rhyme with English words?

Norwegian composer: Geirr Tveitt

Finnish Composer: Taneli Kuusisto

Finnish Composer: Leevi Madetoja

Swedish Composer: Gunnar de Frumerie

Swedish Composer: Ture Rangstrom (with dots over the O)

Thanks in advance! I hate butchering people's names, especially on the radio. :)

Just make fun of their names. It works if you can't read them.

That reiminds me, every time Gunnar Harboe posts an article, I'm always sent into a state of wondering at how you pronoune it. Is it "Gunn-er?" "Gunn-ar?" "Goo-nar?"

My previous attempts of explaining Swedish pronunciations here on the forum have been quite a disaster, but I'll give it a try. ;)

Gunnar: [guh-naar]
de Frumerie: looks Frech to me. Go with their pronunciation.

Ture: [tuh-reh]
Rangström: [raang] is a good start. The ö sounds somewhat like the e in service. I think 3: is the phonetic spelling. So
[raangstr3:m] will do fine. ;) *D

I know some of our sounds are tricky for you but I don't think you'll butcher anything. Nice though that you're interested in givining it a try.

It's Gunn-ar.

I just can't help myself... (forgive me Snorkle) :D

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a2...edish_chef.jpg
"Yorn desh born, der ritt de gitt der gue, Orn desh, dee born desh, de umn børk! børk! børk!"

And it seems like a good attempt, too, but I recorded myself saying the names anyway. Like you, I'm not sure of how de Frumerie should be pronounced. I've always just pronounced his name the way it looks, but have no idea how he said it himself.

My recording is here: http://trumgottist.com/tmp/names.mp3

:) Excellent idea Trumgottist!

Being kind of geeky when it comes to accents I find it intriguing the way you pronounce Rangström. One could assume you are from the north of Sweden and not from Gotland.

Finnish can sometimes sound like Japanese words, but said slower. That might give you a starting point. Another point to make is that there's only one way to pronounce things. I'll see it phonetically mixing english words.

Taneli: say "done" but with a soft t for the d, and then add "Ellie"
Kuusisto: "Coo" but with a soft k + "sis" + "to(w)" but with a soft t and no w.

Leevi: "Le(t)" but extend the e sound + "vi(ola)
Madetoja: start with a "mud" and quickly add an "eh", the a "to(w)" like above, and then a "ya(rn).

Unfortunately there's no way to pronounce it "correctly" in English, because the Scandinavian languages use different sounds that don't exist in English. I tend to say "GUNNer" with the E tending slightly towards an A, but I have friends who use "gooNAAR", and I'm fine with either.

In comment on Trumgottist's audio clip, the pitch pattern would be slightly different in Norwegian, and the U would be less like a short "oo" and a bit more like the French "une".

As for "Geirr Tveitt", the "ei" diphthong falls somewhere between "Gyre Tvyte" and "Gayr Tvayt". Norwegian dialects differ somewhat on this point, but in Oslo it's pronounced "æi", as the vowel in "bad" followed by an I. In some southern English dialects (cockney?) you would hear a very similar diphthong in "bathe".

Thanks so much all of you. :)

I am putting together an all Scandinavian program for these folks for March 6

...and I'd rather not sound like the Swedish Chef...; )

I made an audio file of the Finnish names. There doesn't seem to be as many Finnish posters here as there used to be, but hopefully one of them can correct me if I did something wrong.

Thanks for explaining the Norwegian name Aabn. I didn't have a clue how to describe how it's pronounced, and I don't like to record my voice.. It's so difficult to describe how you pronounce the "æ" sound, since we're almost the only ones who use it..

and I have never seen anybody called Geir with two rr's.. strange..

Ooh, I'll get onto it straight away. :)

A very basic thing to remember, though, is that Finnish is a totally different language from Swedish and Norwegian, so knowing either of those is of no help, unfortunately. Except that many Finns have Swedish surnames - but those are often pronounced in a more Finnish way (pronoun)

EDIT: Quite a good pronounciation, especially of the word Madetoja. :)

Yeah, Spider Crusoe did a good job at pronouncing the names correctly. :)

Interesting how the Finnish names seem to require stress on the first syllable...that's a bit unusual. I see what you mean about the speech pattern being reminiscent of Japanese.
The Swedish names seem to be much more sing-songy...less choppy.

People often say that about Swedish.

All Finnish words have stress on the first syllable. Spider Crusoe's pronounciation was fine, although it did sound a bit foreign.

Finnish can be one of the most monotonous languages there is. :) Then again, some say the wovels are beautiful - "alavilla mailla hallanvaara" and so on.

Although I'm Danish and so also Scandinavian (sort of), I too, has a hard time, (sometimes ;) ) pronouncing Norwegian & Swedish names. This has to do with the fact the Swedish & Norwegian have some sounds that is totally different from the sounds in Danish. [And where the Danish word for doctor would be 'læge', the Swedish word would be 'läke', meaning that you get a 'harder' k sound than the more soft g sound in Danish].

When I went to university I had to take Swedish and Norwegian since I studied Nordic Litterature (Danish). I didn'y think much of tit except that Norwegian has a sort of ch sound (I think) like in Lasse Kjus and Swedish has the the sound in 'sju' (seven) which the Danes simply can't say - and this amuses the Swedish people very much ;) :D

On the other hand, most Norwegians and Swedish people can't say
*rødgrød med fløde*. (it sort of strawberry mash with fresh cream).
Not because they can't, but because this sentence simply have to
many soft sound in them. The d in fløde and rød is soft like the english 'th' .

This is exactly why the Swedish is somewhat easier to learn as a foreigner
than the Danish language is.