Naked Science Forum

General Discussion & Feedback => Just Chat! => Topic started by: Eric A. Taylor on 29/04/2010 12:29:12

Title: How do you pronounce "Eyjafjallajökull"?
Post by: Eric A. Taylor on 29/04/2010 12:29:12
Though it's in the news here (in the States) almost every day, not once has one of our news caster pronounced "Eyjafjallajökull". It's always referred to as "the volcano in Iceland" or something like that.

Can someone spell it phonetically, or better yet maybe someone on the program can pronounce it?

Is it perhaps a communist conspiracy, giving erupting volcano's unpronounceable names? I taught Iceland was a NATO ally.
Title: How do you pronounce "Eyjafjallajökull"?
Post by: Make it Lady on 01/05/2010 20:56:57
http://califlorna.com/volcanic-ash-refugee-1575
Click on "Lava all around" on this blog and you will hear, not only how to say it but also in harmony.
Title: How do you pronounce "Eyjafjallajökull"?
Post by: Geezer on 01/05/2010 22:54:02
LAVAS IN THE AIR (with apologies to John Paul Young)

Lavas in the air
Everywhere I look around
Lavas in the air
Every sight and every sound

And I don't know if I'm being foolish
Don't know if I'm being wise
But it's something that I must believe in
And it's there when I look in your eyes

Lavas in the air
In the whisper of the trees
Lavas in the air
In the thunder of the sea

etc
Title: How do you pronounce "Eyjafjallajökull"?
Post by: RD on 04/05/2010 12:54:41
Allegedly a picture of the aforementioned volcano with lightning ... http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100419.html
Title: How do you pronounce "Eyjafjallajökull"?
Post by: Geezer on 04/05/2010 18:25:15
Quote from: RD on 04/05/2010 12:54:41
Allegedly a picture of the aforementioned volcano with lightning ... http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100419.html

I think it's quite legit. The rising ash carries charge, and when the potential becomes great enough there is a discharge in the form of lightning.
Title: How do you pronounce "Eyjafjallajökull"?
Post by: RD on 04/05/2010 20:26:18
My "allegedly" wasn't referring to the lightning, I was referring to the volcano:
the picture could be any old volcano, not necessarily the unpronounceable one.
Title: How do you pronounce "Eyjafjallajökull"?
Post by: Make it Lady on 04/05/2010 20:49:38
Eric, did the song I posted clear up the pronunciation problem?
Title: How do you pronounce "Eyjafjallajökull"?
Post by: Geezer on 04/05/2010 21:37:35
Quote from: RD on 04/05/2010 20:26:18
My "allegedly" wasn't referring to the lightning, I was referring to the volcano:
the picture could be any old volcano, not necessarily the unpronounceable one.

Ah! I saw some similar video on the telly of the Eyjfjilloossenpefercatsanelenbogenthingmy volcano, so it's probably legit, but I suppose there is no way to prove it.
Title: How do you pronounce "Eyjafjallajökull"?
Post by: damocles on 06/10/2011 14:25:28
There is an obvious way to (dis)prove it -- Ask an Icelander. My take on the pronunciation is something like

aiya-FYAdla-yerkoodl except that the "d"s are very soft -- a mere interruption to the "l"s coming straight out, the "r" is not pronounced but a mere vowel modifier (as in lazy English speech), and the "oo" is short as in "look", not like "oo" in "poodle".

I am not an Icelander and only have the slightest knowledge of the language. I got this by listening over and over to a recording of an Icelander saying the name. The pronunciation does not come easily to an anglophone tongue!

* belated and untimely post because this one came up in the random post heading for the forum.
** warning -- this posting did not pass the spell checker  [;D]