Eyjafjallajokull - pronunciation help please

I figure we'll be talking about this Icelandic volcano eruption, so it'd be nice to know how the name sounds.

Give it your best shot!

Just guessing

... nothing like it's spelled!

Hekate

evidently jokell is how icelanders spell "trailing off"

But don't quote me on that.

I'd say it's...

EE yafyaya hokul

you'll sound like a local.
Popo is so impressive from the highway that snakes nearby...and then there's Orizaba. Whew!

Hehe! Cool there's a volcano too... which I'm sure came before the street:)

The "jokull" part of the name means "glacier", so the news reports are redundant when they call it the Eyjafjallajokull glacier. If I remember my Icelandic, it's pronounced something like eh-ya-fyeow-la-yoew-kuhl.

:-)

I've always had difficulty trying to understand written pronunciation rules.

That said, even after all the replies to this thread, I still have no clue how to pronounce this.

;)

I would be so royally screwed

I've delved just a bit into Icelandic history, it's really quite fascinating. The first really permanent settlers were from Norway, although there were even earlier forays by Irish monks, who lived as hermits in caves along the southern coast. However, the language is almost purely Old Norse - and due to centuries of relative isolation, the language maintained characteristics that had long died out in Norway itself.

It's sort of as if there were an island of people who still spoke Chaucerian English, in comparison to how English is spoken today. I think that if one were to live there and develop an ear for the pronunciation and syntax, it would gradually become comfortable.

I'd love to be able to learn Icelandic! Then I'd be able to read one of my favorite authors, Arnaldur Indridason in the original, instead of in translation. :)

sw

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyjafjallajökull

click listen or here http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/10/Eyjafjallajökull.ogg

at least I did.

http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/volcanic-eruption-causes-floods-evacuations-in-iceland/19439861

Scroll down to the flash video... suffer through a short ad etc. I _had_ to listen to it many times, still not sure I can pronounce it tho.

(April 14) -- When fire comes into contact with ice, the results are fairly predictable.

Early Wednesday, that elemental clash resulted in the evacuation of 800 Icelandic residents after a powerful volcanic eruption took place underneath the Eyjafjallajokull glacier. As a result, melting ice swelled rivers by as much as 10 feet, the Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management said.