Last weekend the nieces spontaneously decided to make a volcano in the backyard

[conuly]

(We don't know where they got that idea.)

I didn't find out about the real volcano erupting until a day or so after it happened (and I refuse to try either to spell or pronounce it, I'll just keep calling it "That volcano in Iceland that recently erupted" until it's no longer recent), but I did tell the nieces about it.

Ana: A volcano? Really? REALLY? I thought volcanoes were all in the past!

At any rate, I wonder why I didn't hear about the volcano sooner. Did I hear about it and not pay attention?

Comments

[ironychan.livejournal.com]

I looked up the pronunciation on Wikipedia, and honestly, I coudln't say it if I tried. If you play the sample, it starts off fine and then descends into what sounds like senseless mumbling. Like "Eyashfphhshtlffm." Like they started to type the word into a synthesizer, and then the cat walked on the keyboard.

It makes me wonder what English sounds like to people in Iceland.

[conuly]

English probably sounds a lot more familiar there than Icelandic does here.

[codeman38.livejournal.com]

There's a great Language Log post on the pronunciation of Eyjafjallajökull, including several clips with the correct pronunciation and even more of incorrect ones:

http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2257

Until recently, I had no idea "ll" in Icelandic was pronounced like "tl".

[codeman38.livejournal.com]

Incidentally, my favorite mispronunciation is a tie between "jah-fa-lock-uh-cull" (a random subway user that the NYTimes surveyed) and "ey-ya-fa-look-it-la" (a BBC presenter).

[conuly]

I'm still not convinced that they're not all playing a joke on the rest of the world. "Sure, a volcano just exploded, but let's prank everybody and call it an impossible name! Won't that be an amusing diversion?"

[velvetchamber.livejournal.com]

I beg your pardon, but there is a serious volcanic eruption going on, harming my people, my friends, and people are blaming us for the effects it is having on flights in the world. We don't need any of that. Our language is just fine, it is entirely unnecessary to act like that towards us even if a good number of English speaking people are phonetically challenged when it comes to Icelandic words. It would be far more useful to try to be positive in our direction, these are hard years in Iceland, and a serious volcanic eruption was definitely not needed.

[conuly]

I'm sorry.

[velvetchamber.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

[lizziey.livejournal.com]

Eyjafjallajökull

O.o

Yup, I think I will call it "that word I couldn't say if my life depended on it".

(I don't watch the news, and don't read much of it. Too many friends and family deployed ATM for it to be worth it to me)

[conuly]

Apparently it's a compound?

[lizziey.livejournal.com]

Its a word/name that I know no matter how many times I try to say it, I will say it WRONG.