An American friend was complaining that pronouncing Swedish names correctly was a pain – and he used Göteborg, Göran, Håkan and Norrköping as his “evidence”.
I bet him that I could write all Swedish names phonetically in English such that he would have no choice – even in his deep South drawl – but to pronounce them correctly. We enlisted another friend to be judge. He was – unlike me – a native Swedish speaker whose own name caused some problems for Americans – Jönsson.
I think I won more than a whiskey or two that night.
A few examples below. It seems to be possible also with Hindi words rendered phonetically in English for pronunciation by an American (even one from Boston). And getting someone with a Boston twang to even pronounce English correctly is an achievement in itself.
| Swedish Name | Rendered phonetically in English |
| Göteborg | Yette-bor-ye |
| Göran | Yo-rahn |
| Håkan | Ho-kahn |
| Jönsson | Yuhn-sson |
| Norrköping | Nor-scher-ping |
| Östergötland | Oester-yert-land |
| Kjell | Schell |
| Agneta | Ahg-nyet-a |
Tags: Swedish pronunciation
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