Pronuciation/ethnicity of a surname

Factual Questions
1

What are the pronunciation and ethnicity of the name “Yurkiw”? For what it’s worth, the person lives in Alberta, Canada.

2

Dunno how it’s pronounced, but FWIW found this:

Lviv being a “major city in Western Ukraine”.

3

And there is a huge contingent of the Ukrainian diaspora living in Alberta.

4

Just an informed guess, but Yurkiw looks like an anglicised spelling, so it should be pronounced just like it’s spelled.

5

[QUOTE=naita]
Just an informed guess, but Yurkiw looks like an anglicised spelling, so it should be pronounced just like it’s spelled.
[/QUOTE]

You could get hurt doing that. :slight_smile:

6

I’d guess “YUR-kyoo”.

7

I’ve noticed a lot of the Ukrainian names in Canada seem to pave passed through a German transliteration phase–Romanow, for instance, instead of Romanov.

Although apparently it’s only Canadians who pronounce Ukrainian and Polish names as if they were English: “Romanow” rhymes with “my big toe”. :slight_smile: I work with a guy whose family name is “Nowicki” and we all pronounce it “no-wicky” even though I asked him about it and it’s properly pronounced “no-veet-ski”.

I wonder wether “Yurkiw” was meant to be pronounced “Yurkeev”?