How do you correctly pronounce the Swedish name Jonatan?

My friend from Sweden is here in San Francisco and this will be my first time meeting him in person. His name is Jonatan, but I'm not sure how to correctly pronounce it. Is it like Jonathan without the H?





I'm thinking after the J it's a long O, like in Joe, and the "na" part is more like the sound of "net" and the "tan" part is more like "ten".





So I would call him Joe-netten, or Jonah-ten. Is this correct?

How do you correctly pronounce the Swedish name Jonatan?
I just listened to the name pronounced on the website that corneille suggested, and although the sounds are just about correct, it is stressed differently.


But for fun I looked on youtube and there are actually a few links where you can hear the name pronounced.


Don't heed the first pronunciation much, he's calling out, but the second and third are fine...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTjOsJgJ2...


Again, calling out, but you can hear it very clearly...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FX3i3hhYW...


They're both poking a little fun, but at least you can hear the name right :-)
Reply:I don't speak the language, but if I were to guess i would say the 'j' as a 'y' sound in english (based on dutch names like jon, johannas, etc) but that is only a guess.





yon - a - tan would be my take j-on (like turn the switch on), i would say tan as tan and not ten.
Reply:In spanish from Argentina it would be:





sho nah tah n
Reply:hard to explain with words
Reply:Have you seen "Everything is Illuminated?"





"JAWNFEN."
Reply:Hi!





Some rules in pronouncing Swedish:


J sounds like English Y


O sounds more like English OO


(Long) A sounds closer to English AW





So "Jonatan" may be rendered like "Yoo-nah-tawn".





Good luck and have fun with the Swede!








Ciko wapo
Reply:I think the text-to-speech-engine below is very good.


It provides the right pronunciation.


I tested it in my own language, Dutch.


But you can also key in, English, French, Spanish, German,


Italian etc words, names, or even whole sentences.





Don't forget to choose the right voice (= language).





Sorry:





Because of some glitch I can't put the link here at the moment.


Just Google with "acapela demo" (in quotation marks)


and you'll find it immediately.





I checked 'Jonatan' with the Swedish Erik and Emma voices,


and the pronunciation is correct, seems to me :


It's very Swedish.





Hope this helps, and good luck!

bleeding heart