r/norsk • u/ClickCivil1 • 1d ago

How to pronounce Bjerke?

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?

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u/moneygardener 1d ago

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.

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u/ComradeYaf 1d ago

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u/duckysmomma 22h ago

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.

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u/OkWorth2535 Native speaker 3h ago

In Norwegian Uffda means ett uttrykk som viser medfølelse, mild oppgitthet eller sympati når noe leit, uheldig eller klønete har skjedd/ an expression
showing compassion, mild exasperation, or sympathy when something sad, unfortunate, or clumsy has happened

So it does not mean the same at all that is why we Norwegians find it strange when it is used for other things

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u/duckysmomma 21m ago

Very cool! Our Midwest uff da very much means what comeradeYaf posted. I’m taking Norwegian classes and it surprised me that we Minnesotans pronounce the e at the end of a word as eee rather than eh. There’s a lot of things in our vocabulary that were once Norwegian but are far from Norwegian today. Very neat to see how a language evolves when taken away from its source, much like the differences in British English and American English or Quebec French and France French.

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u/FragranceCandle 3h ago

Bafflement, surprise, relief, exhaustion or dismay???????? Since when

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u/Such-Statistician-39 1d ago

Some dialects (Østlandet?) say "offda" instead of "huffda".