I was wondering how you properly pronounce the Scandinavian name [name]Ragnar[/name]? I’ve heard it pronounced in the same way it is spelled and I’ve heard it pronounced like [name]Rayner[/name]. Also, how would you pronounce it’s female version, [name]Ragna[/name]? Which way is correct? Any berries from Scandinavia willing to answer this?
Thanks!
The Scandinavian (or the Danish, at least) pronunciation is very difficult because the ‘Ragn’ is pronounced much harder. I think the closest you get to a Scandinavian pronunciation is “RAHG-nahr”. It definitely isn’t pronounced [name]Rayner[/name], not here in Scandinavia at least. [name]Ragna[/name] is the same, just “RAHG-na”, without the ‘r’. I hope this made just a tiny bit of sense.
Actually, from my experience both [name]Ragnar[/name] and [name]Ragna[/name] are pronounce harder in Denmark than in [name]Sweden[/name] where I grew up.
You can listen to the Swedish pronunciation of [name]Ragnar[/name] here (just click on the blue arrow): Uttal av Ragnar: Hur man uttalar Ragnar på svenska, isländska, danska, bokmål
I agree, in Swedish you also roll a lot more on the ‘ra’, whereas in Denmark it’s just harsh-sounding (to be completely honest, neither of the names are very nice-sounding in Danish, they sound much better in Swedish (and Norwegian, I presume, they tend to ‘sing’ more on the words, if you know what I mean)).
This was really helpful. Thank you both so much! I’m glad it’s not pronounced like [name]Rayner[/name], I prefer [name]Ragnar[/name] much more.
I’m not sure how I managed to miss this thread earlier this spring, but I have been wondering about this name too. My husband heard it pronounced something like “rahn-yar” on a book on tape. I’ve noticed that pretty much all the Forvo pronunciations place the throaty “ngy” sound before the N though. Is our pronunciation just totally wrong, or is this the “singing” Norwegian pronunciation, or does anyone know?
It is the middle name of a friend of mine; he pronounces it the way it’s spelled. His family has a distant viking history, and [name]Ragnar[/name] is a family name.
I think DH has been watching some viking show with the main character called [name]Ragnar[/name] - which they evidently say correctly in the show, as RAHG-nar.
Listen to this: http://www.forvo.com/search-sv/Ragnar/
The g is silent, and pronounced nasally as in reign, cognac, champagne and lasagne.
The “a” is pronounced [ə]
(I speak Swedish and my father’s name is [name_m]Ragnar[/name_m].)
The female version is [name_f]Ragna[/name_f].