# How to pronounce the name of Holger Martin, German professor, 1942-2016 **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 21, 2020, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-the-name-of-holger-martin-german-professor-1942-2016/921141 "2020-09-21T12:13:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2020, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-the-name-of-holger-martin-german-professor-1942-2016/921141/1 "2020-09-21T12:13:21Z")
How should I pronounce the name “Holger” be pronounced? Holger Martin was a German engineering professor who lived 1942-2016. Would the “g” be hard or soft? Is the rest of the pronunciation as we American English speakers would typically say it? ---
**Author:** ![kk\_fusion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kk_fusion/32/15276_2.png) [@kk\_fusion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kk_fusion)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2020, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-the-name-of-holger-martin-german-professor-1942-2016/921141/2 "2020-09-21T12:31:45Z")
Hard g. The rest is best pronounced non-rhotically, i. e. [Holgeə Ma:tin]. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2020, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-the-name-of-holger-martin-german-professor-1942-2016/921141/3 "2020-09-21T14:46:53Z")
I’ve known a Holger in a professional context. Whole’-grr ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2020, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-the-name-of-holger-martin-german-professor-1942-2016/921141/4 "2020-09-21T19:29:45Z")
Where else but the Dope, right? THANK YOU BOTH!! ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2020, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-the-name-of-holger-martin-german-professor-1942-2016/921141/5 "2020-09-21T19:31:12Z")
Except that the o in Holger isn’t followed by a u sound the way “whole” is in English (oʊ). The o in the Hol- syllable in Holger is more like the o in “boss” than the o in “whole”. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2020, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-the-name-of-holger-martin-german-professor-1942-2016/921141/6 "2020-09-21T23:50:50Z")
He and his colleagues said it Whole’-grr but it may have been Englishized/Americanized. I guess it the German should rhyme with _vulgar_ in English. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2020, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-the-name-of-holger-martin-german-professor-1942-2016/921141/7 "2020-09-22T03:44:40Z")
Well, expanding your knowledge is always worthwhile, but it’s not like you have a lot to talk to him about these days. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2020, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-the-name-of-holger-martin-german-professor-1942-2016/921141/8 "2020-09-22T04:55:05Z")
> [@jnglmassiv](#): > > He and his colleagues said it Whole’-grr but it may have been Englishized/Americanized. I guess it the German should rhyme with _vulgar_ in English. hɔlɡɐ, more or less. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2020, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-the-name-of-holger-martin-german-professor-1942-2016/921141/9 "2020-09-22T12:04:47Z")
> [@Schnitte](#): > > The o in the Hol- syllable in Holger is more like the o in “boss” than the o in “whole”. A monophthong for sure, but “boss” is going to be far too open in most NA accents I know, i.e. /ɔ/ or /a/ (depending on merger) Anyway, the Wiktionary entry has a recording I find unobjectionable: [https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/Holger](https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/Holger) Also, German not being monolithic, the guy may very well have said it with /oʊ/ ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2020, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-the-name-of-holger-martin-german-professor-1942-2016/921141/10 "2020-09-22T12:35:07Z")
I’m not sure that Americans do use [oʊ] for the /o/ phoneme before an /l/ phoneme. I don’t think I do. To me, it sounds like the [ʊ] is replaced by the semivowel [ɫ], aka “back L,” similar to how I say /or/ as [oɹ], not [oʊɹ]. Of course, that German link doesn’t have a back L, so maybe that’s what sounds different. But I’d be more likely to transliterate a name like Holger into my native phonemes, rather than affect a German accent when saying the name. So I would say [ˈhoɫ.ɡɚ], “ **HOL** -guhr.” ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2020, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-the-name-of-holger-martin-german-professor-1942-2016/921141/11 "2020-09-22T15:53:07Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Well, expanding your knowledge is always worthwhile, but it’s not like you have a lot to talk to him about these days. Yeah, yeah – but I have to present about a project that uses him as a reference, so I still gotta be able to say it. I listened to Wiktionary and wind up with “Hoilgar” as an English approximation. Having spent a lifetime not pronouncing the German language, I’m not likely to do much better than that. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2020, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-the-name-of-holger-martin-german-professor-1942-2016/921141/12 "2020-09-22T17:45:39Z")
If in Germany, I would say something like “Holl-ga Mah-teen”. In an English-speaking context, I would probably Briticise the surname a bit, with the “i” in Martin like the “i” in “it” (and unstressed).