Bjork's name
 

okay, everyone in that thread was arguing about her name pronounciation.

I myself pronounce it "B-yerk" because in an interview she said it rhymes with "jerk". Also it means "Birch Tree". Doesn't "byerk" and "birch" sound alike?

:innocent

In German birch is called "Birke" and I think this sounds very similar to Björk

And yes, her name sounds a bit similar to jerk but the "r" is a bit different (from the version of pronunnciation I learnt at school)

ja ne

In norwegian Björk or (Bjørk as we write) allso means "birch tree" , I pronounce it like: "Byork" or "Byerk"

I'm not sure what it actually is and have never heard anyone pronounce it, but I've always pronounced it as B-york.

I've always heard it pronounced as "Be-york." :shrug

Me too. How anything that sound like "jerk" gets in there is beyond me. Maybe if you put enough inflection on it...

But yeah, I've only heard "byork"

these things are so difficult to explain :P

but here's what I think :

the 'ö' in björk's name is phonetically for english people written as 'oe' , so the I think the corrent way to phonetically spell björk in english is by-oe-rk.

It's like by-ork but with a a hint of the 'e' sound from jerk in it too. I think an english speaker will stress the 'BY' sound as in 'By-ork' , but a native will stress the vowel 'by-Ork'.

I've always said B-york too...

But the oe made me think of another possibility... lots of Scandinavian languages have rounded vowels not found in English, and œ usually represents a vowel pronounced like "eee" but with your lips shaped like an "o" (try it and see hehe)... it sounds a bit to the native English ear as a cross between the the 'oh' and 'er' sounds maybe? I dont know. I know nothing about Scandinavian languages and I'm talking out of my butt basically :) hehehe

I've always thought it was "B-york" too. I've never heard anyone say it like "jerk" before. Sometimes I've hear people say it really fast like "B-ork"... I dunno :shrug

I think you're right , this is what I was trying to explain :P

It's 'Byork'.

Hooray! Rounded vowels rule. But I find them quite difficult to pronounce!

Someone should make a sound clip, so we know what it sounds like.

:laugh Why didn't she just pick an easier name to pronounce?

Atleast she's not asking for her full name: Björk Guðmundsdóttir

LOL better stick to the basics (her first name) then :laugh

Atleast that's a plus.

I allways thought of it as, B(very very short beh)york.

it's tough x_x

..see? can't go wrong with "eevee" ^_~

^ I've always said it that way. :shrug
Or something like... instead of "york", "gork", lol iunno.

I've heard people say "B-york" as others have stated and that's what I call her too. xD