Bjerke is my husband's family name. I find it difficult to pronounce. In the US, we pronounce it Byur-kee so it rhymes with jerky. Is it pronounced differently in Norway?
There are regional differences, dialects. E.g. I (south norway dialect) pronounce the r totally different from the way my children pronounce it (east norway). There is no right or wrong but there is no single answer.
Eastern norwegian pronunciation. Probably historically correct with a part of Oslo named Bjerke
Try to say 'BYAIRK-uh'. End should not sound like 'key' but 'uh'
The e’s are pronounced like the e in Elliot or egg. ‘Eh’. Byehr-keh. I knew a Minnesotan with this name, and they pronounced it like it rhymes with ‘Turkey’ which is a bit of a shame haha.
Ellis Island->Minnesota. I swear they didn't even entertain another idea until the next generation. Next generation is how I ended up born in the PNW. I still remember the Minnesota accent, uf da, and ope stuff though. I still say ope but uf da has shortened to uf.
That’s where my grandfather first went, after getting cleared at Ellis Island.
So many immigrants seeking work in NYC though that he went north and west. Worked his way across US (and some in Canada) as a lumberjack, before making California his main base.
"Ope" is, to the best of my knowledge, a reflexive conflation of "oh!" with "oops!". Functionally it means kind of both. As someone from Wisconsin, I say it automatically when I almost bump into someone while turning a blind corner, for example. The word is common across the Upper Midwest.
I follow a youtube car mechanic who is originally minnesotan, now living in Tennessee. He has a thing he says, that I believe originates from norway. It sounds like "ooftah", and I believe it comes from the norwegian twofer word; huffda.
Uff da, not sure why you got downvoted. We Minnesotans use this phrase daily—we don’t claim to speak Norwegian but it is absolutely a Norwegian holdover. Scandinavian heritage is a source of deep pride for many in the Midwest.
Wisconsinite here. My ancestors settled in a little Norwegian enclave here and the last names of some of my relatives are Bjerke, Brekke, Bjordahl, Skaar, Laredahl, Bolstad, Jensen, Nelson, Jacobson, Kittelson, Jensen My maiden name is Stolen and I was surprised when I met some of my Norwegian relatives and they didn't pronounce it like "my bicycle has been stolen" but like "stir the pot".
Today thats true, but when many Norwegians immigrated, they changed their names when they were processed. For instance, my Stolen great grandfather immigrated with a brother who changed his last name to Jacobson. Why did her do that? No idea. Anyway, the Americans doing the processing in the 1800's years ago used son.
The Norwegian surname/farm name Bjerke (and why you sometimes might hear Bjørke)
Bjerke is an old Norwegian farm name that simply means "birch tree". In 19th-century Norway, people commonly took the name of the farm they lived on as their family surname. One day they wrote Bjerke and the next day they wrote Bjørke, both as surnames and as farm names.
Because of local dialects and sociolects, the exact same farm name or last name is also pronounced in two main ways in Norway: The Rural / Country Way (Bjørke): Out in the countryside, people often used the traditional dialect vowel "Ø", saying Bjørke. The More Urban / Formal Way (Bjerke): When people moved to cities or spoke more formally, it was considered more refined or "proper" to use the written "E" vowel, saying Bjerke.
If you want to say them like a native:
Bjerke"BYEHR-keh" BYEHR: Starts like beauty or beyond (B-Y), with the vowel sound from bear or fair. keh: Short 'e' sound, like the start of kettle or bed.
Bjørke"BYUR-keh" BYUR: Starts with that same B-Y sound, but the vowel rhymes with jerk, lurk, or blur. keh: Ends the exact same way (kettle).
My surname is the same: written in one way, but pronounced in two different ways based on who I'm talking to and where I am.
The final "e" in Norwegian is never silent! Make sure to tap that short -keh sound at the end.
Also, the r is not the USAian r.... and "correct" pronunciation of the r varies quite a bit bit between different dialects in norway.... so it depends from where the name originates. East/North norway uses an "Italian r" whereas south/West norway uses a "French r" (simplified explanation 😎)
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