Was just wondering how one pronounces the Swedish name, Yngwie.
Thanks
Mr. Malmsteen’s site simply gives the Americanized pronunciation, “ING-vay”:
Bit of a hijack…
In language classification, English and Frisian belong to a subgroup of the West Germanic languages known as Ingvaeonian.
Being Swedish, I just wanted to say that Yngwie is not a Swedish name. The name is Yngve, which he changed when he started his international career. Malmsteen is bound to be changed too. The suffix -sten in Swedish names, meaning ‘stone’ is almost never spelled ‘steen’. Malm, BTW means ‘ore’. Yngve is a Viking name, probably derived from the name of the god Ing.
Unfortunately the English language lacks the proper sound for Swedish y, but you’re welcome here so we can say it out loud for you.
Verrry carefully.
It’s Swedish for “Ego”.
Swedish y is equivalent to the French u as in lune. English speakers can practice the sound by rounding their lips as they would for an “oo” sound, but instead pronounce an “ee”, all the while keeping the lips somewhat puckered and round.
For another good, deliberate example of this vowel, listen to Kevin Kline pronounce the name of his character Luc in French Kiss during the airplane scene when he first meets Meg Ryan.
I pronounce it “OY vay”