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by nlitsme 455 days ago
It seems Americans always screw up German names, like Gödel, Schrödinger. So are Dutch names like Dijkstra, Huygens.

I don't think there are sounds like 'ö', 'ij', or 'ui' in English. note: 'uy' is the 16th century spelling of current 'ui'.

2 comments

As far as Dijkstra and Huygens go, those are somewhat common last names where I live in Iowa, so their pronunciations have surely been Americanized a long time ago. I'd pronounce them as "deekstra"/"dikestra" and "hi-ginz," and that's how the people I know with those names pronounce them.
I only recently learned we're all pronouncing Einstein wrong
That depends on your frame of reference