SC - OT -Pronounciation (was Re: SC - Danish cookbook)

[Nanna Rögnvaldardóttir]

Bonne wrote:

>Hjalti = Yalti?  (that Hj combination is easier to say than to type in a
>phonetic translation of, it's more a back of the throat sound than "Y",
right?)

Well, no, it is not quite as easy as that. My British ex-son in law never
even came close to a correct pronounciation even though he really tried.
Some time ago, I was attempting to explain to an American how to pronounce
the name and asked my big brother the professor for help. This is what I got
from him:

"If the person you want to explain the pronounciation to knows something
about phonetics, you might try this explanation:Unvoiced palatal
fricative/approximant (hj)-low back unrounded vowel (a) -unvoiced lateral
sonorant (l) - unvoiced unaspirated alveolar stop (t) -high front unrounded
lax vowel (i). In the IPA-system it would be [çaldI], except you would need
to draw a small circle under the l and d to indicate it is unvoiced.

If you are attempting to explain the pronounciation to someone who knows
nothing about phonetics you are in trouble, because as you know some of the
sounds do not exist in English. You could try to say that the initial sound
is not unlike German "ich".The unvoiced L, however, is not found in any
language an American is likely to know."

>Tell him that if he's that good lookin' and well built, no doubt the
>modeling agency would give him a nickname or stage name that would be
easily
>screamed by a fan.  Or maybe you don't want to tell him that!


You bet I don´t. I got enough girls phoning him around the clock already ...

>To some English speakers, your name automatically will get you credit for
>age and wisdom, "nana" is often a term used for "grandmother".

I know, and I used to wonder what was going on when Americans talked about
"my Nanna". Oh well, I´ll just have to accept being labelled as a wise old
woman because of my name - after all, I _am_ a grandmothe. The Icelandic and
Old Norse term is "amma", so to my granddaughter I am "amma Nanna", or
rather "ammananna".

Becoming a grandmother at 36 was fine. It was becoming an ex-mother-in-law
at 37 that really made me feel old ...

Nanna


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