Je suppose que la prononciation des langues scandinaves, et notamment de leurs quelques lettres un peu bizarres, vous a souvent laissé de glace comme celle qui recouvre habituellement en hiver les lacs de ces contrées nordiques. La lecture de la Grande Traversée d’Astérix et Obélix vous a surement également décontenancé. Désormais, vous serez incollable en prononciation scandinave et pourrez épater vos amis lorsque vous regarderez des compétitions de ski (je reviendrai sur la prononciation de ce terme dans un prochain épisode) ou de biathlon !

I suppose that the pronunciation of Scandinavian languages, and in particular their slightly bizarre letters, has often left you as cold as the winter weather in these northern lands. You have also probably been bewildered when reading Asterix and The Great Crossing. From now on, you will be unbeatable about Scandinavian pronunciation and you will be able to impress your friends when you watch skiing (I will come back to the pronunciation of this word in a future episode) or biathlon competitions!

Let’s start with the letters ø and ö, which are pronounced like the French ‘e’ or “euh” and not ‘o’. For example, the Norwegian towns of Bodø and Tromsø are pronounced ‘Boodeuh’ (I will come back to the pronunciation of the letter o in an upcoming episode) and ‘Troomseuh’, not “Bodo” or ‘Tromso’. The Swedish city of Malmö is pronounced ‘Malmeuh’, not ‘Malmo’.

The letters æ and ä are pronounced similarly, as ‘ey’. The verb ‘være’ (to be), which is the same in Norwegian and Danish, is pronounced “veyr”, while the Swedish word säck (bag) is pronounced ‘seyk’.

Finally, the famous a with an o on top, å. I can see your somewhat dubious looks from here. It is very simple: å is pronounced ‘o’, not ‘a’. Skål (Cheers!, which also means bowl), common to all 3 languages, is pronounced ‘skol’, and not ‘skal’! Å is in fact a modernised version of the double a (aa) found in the names of the Danish towns of Aalborg and Aarhus, which are pronounced ‘Olborg’ and ‘Oroos’, and not ‘Alborg’ and ‘Arhoos’.

Please forgive me for the next football digression, Erling Håland is pronounced “Holland” like the Dutch province, and not “Haland”, and Martin Ødegård (to spice things up a bit) is pronounced “Euhdeuhgord”, and not “Odegard”. Whenever I watch Manchester City or Arsenal matches, my ears are constantly grating from the mispronunciations of certain commentators. I have to admit that it really gets on my nerves in time.

You see, it is super simple! That is all for today. More to come in the next episode…

Vi ses (Goodbye, see you soon)! An expression common to all 3 languages…