# How is "Juri" pronounced? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 22, 2006, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-juri-pronounced/353804 "2006-04-22T23:31:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2006, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-juri-pronounced/353804/1 "2006-04-22T23:31:29Z")
I would intuitively think it would be pronounced just as it is spelled. However, my friend’s Czech step-father is named “Jiri” and it’s pronounced “Yuji.” So how is “Juri” pronouned then? ---
**Author:** ![Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bambi_Hassenpfeffer)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2006, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-juri-pronounced/353804/2 "2006-04-22T23:39:25Z")
> [@Argent Towers](#): > > I would intuitively think it would be pronounced just as it is spelled. However, my friend’s Czech step-father is named “Jiri” and it’s pronounced “Yuji.” So how is “Juri” pronouned then? What language? I found references to “Juri” in Russian, Estonian, Portuguese, Japanese, Finnish, Spanish, and German in a quick Google. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2006, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-juri-pronounced/353804/3 "2006-04-22T23:54:54Z")
> [@Argent Towers](#): > > I would intuitively think it would be pronounced just as it is spelled. However, my friend’s Czech step-father is named “Jiri” and it’s pronounced “Yuji.” So how is “Juri” pronouned then? My instinct would be “YOU-ree.” ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2006, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-juri-pronounced/353804/4 "2006-04-23T00:10:03Z")
Juri as the transliteration of I-OPN (faked Cyrillic, since it doesn’t display for most people, and with the mirror image N that is the “ee” sound in Russian) would be “Yoori” as in the late Col. Gagarin. Juri as a Czech name is cognate to Jerzy as a Polish name, with a inverted caret over the R, and is, roughly, “Yer-dzhee.” In both cases they are the local rendering of “George.” ---
**Author:** ![midwestgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@midwestgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/midwestgirl)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2006, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-juri-pronounced/353804/5 "2006-04-23T01:33:33Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > Juri as the transliteration of I-OPN (faked Cyrillic, since it doesn’t display for most people, and with the mirror image N that is the “ee” sound in Russian) would be “Yoori” as in the late Col. Gagarin. > > Juri as a Czech name is cognate to Jerzy as a Polish name, with a inverted caret over the R, and is, roughly, “Yer-dzhee.” In both cases they are the local rendering of “George.” I once stayed at a guesthouse in Prague run by a man named Juri…after days of calling him “Yoo-ree”, he informed me that the “J” is pronounced similar to the way an American would pronounce it with the “J” sound rather than a “Y” sound, it sounded similar to “Joo-ree” but the “R” was kind of rolled. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2006, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-juri-pronounced/353804/6 "2006-04-23T02:12:28Z")
> [@midwestgirl](#): > > I once stayed at a guesthouse in Prague run by a man named Juri…after days of calling him “Yoo-ree”, he informed me that the “J” is pronounced similar to the way an American would pronounce it with the “J” sound rather than a “Y” sound, it sounded similar to “Joo-ree” but the “R” was kind of rolled. The “J” in Czech is definitely a “Y” sound. Perhaps he Anglicized it or it’s some regional dialect I’m not aware of, but in all Slavic languages I can think of, the “j” is pronounced as a “y.”