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Re: How do you pronounce Ylva?
in reply to a message by Karen
The name Ylva has records that are older in old Sweden and Scandinavia than the first mentionings of the name in Germany. It is found on ancient Rune Stones and after that as the name of the mother of the founding father of Stockholm Birger Jarl. Therefore the pronounciation might be more interesting in swedish rather than in german. In Sweden, Norway and Danmark the letter Y is hard for many foreign laungage speakers. If you can pronounce the Y in Yggdrasil it is the same Y in Ylva.
The isn’t really a letter in the english alphabet that quite catches the sound. Some laungage schools says to think of the ee in week but with a rounder mouth but I don’t think it takes you all the way to the Swedish Y. Write Yggrasil in Google translate and push the microphone button :) https://translate.google.com/?t=mjolnir&sl=auto&tl=en&text=yggdrasil&op=translate
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