jamesq | Putting the Right EmPHASis on the Correct SYLlables.

There are words that everyone knows how to pronounce (in their native tongue). "Cat", "Mother", etc. There are words that people will see and think they know how to pronounce. My last name is an example - it's short so people will give it a try and better then half the time they'll get it wrong.

A few native words are not easily pronounceable if you're still learning the language. If you haven't twigged to the silent P, attempting to pronounce "Psychology" will immediately out you.

There are some words - foreign mostly - where you look at it and your brain just flat out refuses to attempt a pronunciation.

Eyjafjallajökull

As an English speaker, I'd make a first attempt at pronouncing this like so:

EYE-jaf-jal-ah-JO-kul

That's with the same hard English J and in James. Knowing a tiny bit about Iceland (mostly how to pronounce "Bjork"), I'd modify to using the soft J that sounds like "yuh" to English speakers. I also know that the ö (in German) means to pronounce the "oh" sound farther back in the mouth, like a the double "oo" in book, only more exaggerated. Second attempt would be:

EYE-yaf-jal-uh-YOO-kul

Note I still have no idea which syllables are supposed to be emphasized, or even where the syllable breaks are. Apparently this is close to correct:

ay-uh-fyat-luh-yoe-kuutl

I'm not sure where that "t" sound came from. Of course, I've tried to pronounce that and I suspect a native Icelander would still look at me like I was retarded. In fact, here is a native Icelander pronouncing it. My brain is having trouble parsing it, let alone making an attempt at repeating it.

I think step one is to simply do what arrogant English speakers have done all through history and simply commandeer the word and twist it to our own ends. Step one is to drop the "jökull" which means glacier. That leaves us with Eyjafjalla (pronounced ay-uh-fyat-luh). We can respell this in English to Ayuhfiatla volcano.

It's still wrong wrong wrong, but here's the thing: Nobody is going to be able to correct me. Hell, I'll get props for being the only person in the room with a pronunciation at all, instead of just referring to it obliquely as "The Icelandic Volcano" (shades of "The Scottish Play", except that you get tongue-tied rather then jinxed). You won't be understandable to a native Icelander whether you try their pronunciation or mine so I say we go with mine.

Say it with me folks: "Ayuhfiatla volcano". Be liberated by your imperialist vocalizations!