How do you pronounce the first name of Jørn Utzon (designer of the Sydney Opera House)?
Does it rhyme with born, or is it like yearn? Or neither?
Also, is it usual to transliterate as Joern or Jorn, when you don’t have the slashed-o character?
“Yearn” is actually very, very close, but the vocal should perhaps be cut a tad shorter and the “r” should be a little more distinct - if that makes any sense at all. (Danish phonemes include sounds unutterable in polite company in most countries…)
Jorn makes perfect sense - the “oe” convention makes a mess of most words and is mostly used (in my experience) when it’s critical in context to not confuse o and ø.
Does that mean it’s pronounced similarly to the ö (o umlaut) in German?
Absolutely correct. The pronounciation is excactly like the German name Jörn.
Then why not use the same spelling convention-- ie, “oe”?