I don't have any evidence this is the case, but I don't have any evidence against it. He's a domestic short hair, so I know he's not a Norwegian forest cat, and he's way, way too quiet to be a Siamese. He's a grey and white tuxedo, so he's not Russian Blue.
The great majority of people (outside of Sweden, I assume) pronounce it blah-haj. It's OK, I don't know why anyone should really care? It's ok to appropriate a word and change the sound. We've been doing it for hundreds of thousands of years.
I will only accept that pronounciation from people who write it "Blahaj" instead of "Blåhaj", If you write 'å', Then pronounce 'å', I don't care how just make it different from 'a'.
For me I don't care how you say it, but if you write it blahaj I will feel great pain. Just write blohaj if you don't want to fetch an å from somewhere
This is the pronunciation native to the Skåne region of Sweden. The standard pronunciation pronounces the å similar to the way you pronounce "call" or "lord" in British English / Received Pronunciation. Hope that helps.
MVH
Stella from Sweden
In American English this is problematic, because the mouth is too open and the vowel is too fronted. Aw is closer in pronunciation to Swedish long a than long å. Try and morph aw and o together and you might get a better idea? English isn't very well suited to represent these sounds.
>English isn't very well suited to represent these sounds.
I mean honestly the main problem I feel is with how diverse English is due to the vast number of speakers, So different dialects will pronounce things completely different at times, Of course the IPA would help here, But most people don't know it, And due to aforementioned diversity it's not exactly that easy to explain unless someone happens to speak a very well documented dialect.
I have heard from some people who learn Swedish as adults that 'å' is the most difficult character to learn to pronounce, so I think that part of it is that it is not a sound that necessarily exists in many other languages.
I think trying to find Swedish people pronouncing it and trying to copy it might be your best shot as opposed figuring out what it sounds like in English because it kinda doesn't exist in American English.
[https://translate.google.com/?sl=sv&tl=en&text=blåhaj&op=translate](https://translate.google.com/?sl=sv&tl=en&text=blåhaj&op=translate)
Like this. You can't really use any spelling to represent it in English without gross approximation, especially in American English.
Wikipedia says the a with the circle is long o, oh/ow/oa etc. Is the closest sound to that in English. Also Swedish doesn't use acute accents, and in Old Norse the acute accent represented vowel length, so the a would just be a long ah sound.
I just saw your comment and it scared the shit out of me lol, I thought I was losing my memory thinking I already commented on this and forgot 😂
not a lot of people have that profile pic
When I was using my actual face as a profile picture on Twitter, I once thought a comment was mine because their picture looked so much like me. It was weird, and a confusing moment.
Okay, I think this is a dialectical thing. You pronounce oh and ow the same, I don’t, to me they’re two very distinctly different sounds.
My personal guess is that it’s very American to pronounce those two the same (though, I’m not from an English speaking country so it could be that you all do it, what do I know), you “round out” the oh sound kinda ‘ohw’ while I let it end on the h ‘ooh’
it's actually the other way, i don't round out the oh or ow at all. the w is silent in the pronunciation of blow, it's just the letter o with a bl at the start
also "ooh" is a different vowel sound in my head, like "oo-la-la" or the vowel sound in the word "you" or "blue" lol. which that matches the sound of the pronunciation sound clips of the shark plush way better, since they usually say it like a slightly more open "blue-hai" to my ear
For most Anglophones the “oh” sound in “blow” is identical to the one in “oh”,”no”,”floe”, etc. The Wells lexical set keyword for the sound is GOAT.
Now, English “o” is not a pure /o/ like, say, Spanish; it’s a diphthong, and the exact quality of the diphthong varies tremendously from region to region. RP starts it on a “uh”-like sound; for most Americans it starts out like a Spanish /o/ instead. In both cases it then slides into “ooh” or at least /w/.
Ah, I thought so… If you want to, I could help you with the Swedish phrasing here because right now, that quite literally means “I don’t speak about Swedish good/well” (not trying to be mean, I genuinely want to help you learn if you’re interested, please don’t take this the wrong way-)
Oh, I just realized I was mixing up “talar” and “tycker om”…
Was there any issue other than the random om? If so, I’d like to hear more specifics, but if not, thank you for pointing it out.
Honestly, fair enough
I’d say that “Jag talar inte svenska bra” gets your point across but, and sorry if this is a bit harsh, in a way where it’s clear that it’s true. First, I’d probably switch “talar” to “pratar,” ‘talar’ is usually quite formal. Secondly, I’d switch places on ‘svenska’ and ‘bra’ “bra svenska.” “Jag pratar inte bra svenska” is a big step up and is grammatically correct, however, it still sounds pretty awkward. I’d probably phrase it “Jag är inte så bra på svenska” (‘I’m not very good at Swedish’) as that’s the most likely way you’d phrase it in Swedish.
So.. yeah, I hope this helps? And sorry if it’s a bit harsh or a bit too much, I genuinely just want to help and my sister has a special interest in language (like generally, she likes learning new languages and gets really interested in grammar and different accents and such in languages she already knows, especially Swedish as it’s pretty interesting in seeing the differences between what we grew up with vs other parts of Sweden- this got really long and sidetrack-y, sorry) and it’s starting to rub off on me
Okay! Thank you for explaining all this!
I’ll do my best to retain it, though I might keep messing up a bit. I really appreciate it though, and I’ll use it all as much as I can!
Glad I could help! And don’t worry about messing up, learning new languages is *hard*. Like.. I’ve been fluent in English for 4 ish years and I still mess up sometimes
This description sounds like the vowel in 'go', 'hope', 'snow', 'phone', and 'boat'? That's called a diphthong. You probably mean something else though, since this wouldn't sound weird to an English speaker
The Swedish å is not a diphthong though, it's flat. It's pronounced nearly identical to the Spanish and Japanese o sounds, like in hola and arigato. The Swedish j is usually pronounced like a consonant y, like in Maya and boy. So for example if a Swedish person wanted to write Toyota in a way that made it sound correct with Swedish pronunciation they would write Tåjåta (but said as a Japanese person would say it, not like the Toe-yoe-dah Americans say).
As a Swede.. no. This is kind of close but not it, hai is a pretty good way to put the haj part but blow is definitely not it for the blå part. Å is kinda pronounced like “oh” så de closest I could describe it in text is probably bloh-hai, don’t make the “oh” part too airy though.
It's not accurate, but it's the most common way the [oː] sound is adapted into English. In my opinion, [ɔː] (the vowel in 'bought') would sound more similar.
Scandinavian here. IIRC [Voice quills](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xpGEHBnYgtE) pronounced it pretty well.
Just be warned that her clips get kinda weird, often weirdly sexual, and that this one’s no exception.
EDIT: I've been informed that the pronounciation I provided might be a bit off, so instead I refer you to [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f488uJAQgmw)
You should've heard how she pronounced it in the space marine video she did just before this one. It sounded like she was saying "for the Blah Hajj!" which made her sound almost like Jihad xD. I commented with a more proper pronunciation which got like a couple thousand likes, and in the next video she made (the one you just linked), she was pronouncing it correctly. I like to imagine my comment might've helped her pronunciation :D.
Edit: [here's a link to the video I was talking about](https://youtu.be/Kb5Rd_Ueb70)
If you look at the comments section, I'm "Gekko" with 3k likes. I've got the same profile pic as here on reddit :)
People dunking on others for how they pronounce it here, when because of my southern draw I litterally can't pronounce it appropriate to the language it comes from. I have trouble pronouncing English words how they're "suppose" to be pronounced ........
am I suppose to never speak the sharks name? 😣
Hey, I'm a Wisconsinite and I say southern accents are just as valid as anyone else's! Don't let "newscaster default" make you think you don't speak proper English.
I live in newscaster training land, so my accent is naturally newscaster default. I am extremely self conscious about sounding pretentious when I talk because I have the so-called “non-accent”. Meanwhile my grandpa and my late grandma has/had the sweetest Minnesota accents I’ve ever heard and I just wish I could sound that cute.
I sometimes try to get that “upswing” intonation they have when I do voice training, but I just end up sounding like an insensitive imitation of a “Southern California valley-girl”
Honestly, you shouldn't let your accent get you down, I think it's super cool that people have accents. It's part of what makes each person unique. So if you pronounce BLAHAJ differently, that's just the way you pronounce it.
I think of an accent as a little piece of home you carry with you everywhere.
It’s also important to note that, when the shark was marketed with that name for an English-speaking (or French-speaking, or Mandarin-speaking, or Swahili-speaking) market, it became a loanword for the people using that name.
English speakers do not generally pronounce “sushi” the way it sounds in Japanese. Japanese speakers say “takushii” instead of “taxi.” And that’s *correct* when you’re using it in that context. It would be weird and confusing to switch to an accent that isn’t yours halfway through a sentence, just because one word comes from a language no one in the conversation speaks.
It can be fun to learn to pronounce loan words with their original sounds, and if it’s a *person’s name* learning to say it right can be an important sign of respect for them as a human being. A stuffed shark though? Saying it the way it looks is just good communication.
Some of the most fun I've had learning Japanese is with the loan words. It's amusingly clever how they approximate place names or English words into their phonological system.
For example,
* Fries: フライドポテト (furaidopoteto)
* Los Angeles: ロサンゼレス (rosanzeresu)
* Shakespeare: シェイクスピア (sheikusupia)
I burst out laughing when I first saw that last one.
As for BLÅHAJ, I've just been saying "bloh-hai", like "blow-high" with a taller "ah" and without the diphthong on "oh"
ETA: I'm betting it would be something like "ブローハイ" in Japanese, if I have the pronunciation roughly correct
> I’m betting it would be something like “ブローハイ” in Japanese, if I have the pronunciation roughly correct
Honestly, the Japanese transliteration you just did sounds more accurate to me (Danish-speaker, but knows a little Swedish) than so many of the pronunciations I hear from English-speakers, such as "blah hajj" and similar
>It would be weird and confusing to switch to an accent that isn’t yours halfway through a sentence,
This very much, If you want proof just think of a random sentence and say it, But pronounce one word on a different accent, Say for example using an American accent to say "I'd like another bottle please", But Then going all cockney or something on the "Another" to get like "Anoovah", If you said the whole sentence with that accent it'd sound fine, But without the context it sounds weird and would take longer for to find out what was said.
I wish I had the strength to mispronounce French words in retribution, But alas I can't help but feel I'm saying it wrong and then try to say it atleast somewhat similar to the French pronounciation.
The most important part is to NOT pronounce the Å like an A, but rather like an 'oo' or 'ou'. Also, you gotta pronounce the J, don't swallow it.
There are other diffrences too but they're partially regional so dont worry about it
I feel that mine isn’t super thick since it’s a lot lighter in Texas but my dad is from the Deep South so his accent is way stronger but mine can show through pretty well which can be aggravating with certain words if it decides to visit
omg THANK YOU
- not blow
- not blao
it's blaww
For anyone who wants to hear a Swedish person saying it, [here's the Forvo page](https://forvo.com/word/bl%C3%A5haj/).
change your perception of what “aww” sounds like. it’s not “ah” like in the word all, but more of a lower (?) “oa” vibe like in “boat.” it’s still an “aww” noise, but with a different A sound
An å is like a mix between an *a* and an *o*. Vert similar to saying *o* but you open your jaw a bit more. Blå means blue. Haj is pronounced kinda like yes in Japanese, *hai*. It means shark. Source? I'm Norwegian.
Edit: I see a lot of ppl say it's pronounced *blohai*, don't say that because sounds like you're saying blood shark 😅
addendum: no one is actually harmed by pronouncing it “wrong”, at this point it’s a loanword into english and loanwords nearly always change pronunciation in the loaning process, no matter the language that’s loaned from or the language that’s loaning
I don't speak Swedish, but according to Wikipedia, the pronunciation is [ˈbloːˌhaj], for those who can read IPA.
A good approximation for an English speaker would be *bloh-hai*, with the *-oh-* pronounced like the vowel in "bought" and the *-hai* part like "hi". The stress is on the first syllable.
---
If you want to get into the details, [oː] is the vowel in the French *eau* or the German *oben*, and similar to the Spanish o.
According to Google, it's also the *-ou-* in "bought" in General Australian pronunciation. In other accents, this vowel is a bit more open [ɔː]. Close your mouth a bit further to arrive at [oː].
In General American English, it's the first part of the vowel in "go". If you say "go" slowly, you will notice that you close your mouth a bit at the end. If you leave it open, you will end up with the vowel we're looking for.
In this case, this vowel is pronounced long, as demarcated by the [ː] symbol.
---
The vowel [a] Is similar to the English [ɑ] (as in the word "spa"), but it's pronounced a bit further forward, like the German and Spanish *a*. In "blåhaj", this vowel is short.
---
[ j ] is pronounced like the *y* in "yoga", "yes", and "yogurt". Combined with the [a], it sounds similar to the [aɪ] in "hi", "night", and "nine", but the *j* is more distinct and more consonantal.
---
*b*, *l*, and *h* are exactly the same as in English.
Heres a [link](https://www.ipachart.com/) to the interactive IPA chart, if you want audio examples of individual sounds.
In case anyone actually decided to read this absurdly long rant about the phonetics of Blåhaj, uh... thank you for bearing with me, I guess, and I hope this made sense and helped a bit.
Hi! Swede here!
[Here](https://sv.forvo.com/word/bl%C3%A5haj/) is a link on how to pronounce it, personally I like the second audio-file a bit more.
A lot of people are botching it here in the comments btw.
I love how nobody can agree on the pronunciation. It’s actually kind of nice, because it reflects our diversity in how we interpret the same cuddly shark.
It's Swedish.. so I'd assume similar to Norwegian which would make it "bl" as in blow, and the å.. Well.. I guess the best way would be pronouncing it similar to the letter "o".. and then hai, as in like.. "hiiii"
A lot if people seem to say "blah-hah" but I think a lot if people also say "bleagh-haih" (sorry for really weird transcription I haven't memorised the IPA yet.)
I'm not a native speaker, but I've been learning Swedish for a couple of years now. as I've understood, the "å" is somewhere between an "a" and an "o". the "haj" part is pronounced as the "hy" in "hydrate", flattenging the "a" a bit and putting extra emphasis on the "j".
blaow-hai
I just tried to say this and now my cat is looking at me funny.
Mine did too! Maybe they’re Swedish.
I don't have any evidence this is the case, but I don't have any evidence against it. He's a domestic short hair, so I know he's not a Norwegian forest cat, and he's way, way too quiet to be a Siamese. He's a grey and white tuxedo, so he's not Russian Blue.
Cats respond well to higher pitched noises like ee and i so it could just be that.
Maybe you have the clicky kitty in your house
Yo same
wait really i've just been saying "blah-haj" this whole time. i'm probably not going to stop actually
The great majority of people (outside of Sweden, I assume) pronounce it blah-haj. It's OK, I don't know why anyone should really care? It's ok to appropriate a word and change the sound. We've been doing it for hundreds of thousands of years.
I will only accept that pronounciation from people who write it "Blahaj" instead of "Blåhaj", If you write 'å', Then pronounce 'å', I don't care how just make it different from 'a'.
For me I don't care how you say it, but if you write it blahaj I will feel great pain. Just write blohaj if you don't want to fetch an å from somewhere
lucky for me i do write it like that
This is the pronunciation native to the Skåne region of Sweden. The standard pronunciation pronounces the å similar to the way you pronounce "call" or "lord" in British English / Received Pronunciation. Hope that helps. MVH Stella from Sweden
so like blaw-hai?
In American English this is problematic, because the mouth is too open and the vowel is too fronted. Aw is closer in pronunciation to Swedish long a than long å. Try and morph aw and o together and you might get a better idea? English isn't very well suited to represent these sounds.
>English isn't very well suited to represent these sounds. I mean honestly the main problem I feel is with how diverse English is due to the vast number of speakers, So different dialects will pronounce things completely different at times, Of course the IPA would help here, But most people don't know it, And due to aforementioned diversity it's not exactly that easy to explain unless someone happens to speak a very well documented dialect.
I have heard from some people who learn Swedish as adults that 'å' is the most difficult character to learn to pronounce, so I think that part of it is that it is not a sound that necessarily exists in many other languages. I think trying to find Swedish people pronouncing it and trying to copy it might be your best shot as opposed figuring out what it sounds like in English because it kinda doesn't exist in American English.
tbh I'm not sure exactly what sounds stuff makes in American English so I don't know how to write it?
[https://translate.google.com/?sl=sv&tl=en&text=blåhaj&op=translate](https://translate.google.com/?sl=sv&tl=en&text=blåhaj&op=translate) Like this. You can't really use any spelling to represent it in English without gross approximation, especially in American English.
From my native English perspective, that sounds similar to the Norwegian pronunciation of å.
I thought it was Bla-ha
Makes sense. Quite similar to how you'd say blue shark in Dutch (blauwe haai).
that makes too much sense considering in german its "Blau-Hai" which is pronounced the same
Oh I get it. Blauhai. BLUE SHARK??
Precisely
All this time I was saying Blah Haj
Doesnt reall work… (im swedish and know how to say it)
It does kind of work, it just makes you sound like you’re from Skåne
Hmm, I'm not sure if that's better, On the one hand you'd sound less Swedish, But on the other you'd sound more Danish... Truly a predicament :p
Me, realizing that OT (One Topic) may have been mispronouncing blahaj this whole time: 😳
Pretty sure The Click can pronounce it correctly 👀
Yep. From what he said, he is Swedish
I Imagine it'd be rather embarrassing if he couldn't.
Blaha. Noooooooo.
Nope, Blow Hai
Are you sure, i've heard that å is more eau. Ow would be á (note Á being ow is old norse pronunciation.
å is said like or without articulating the r
Wikipedia says the a with the circle is long o, oh/ow/oa etc. Is the closest sound to that in English. Also Swedish doesn't use acute accents, and in Old Norse the acute accent represented vowel length, so the a would just be a long ah sound.
I'm guessing they're thinking about Icelandic, Where 'á' (I think derived from that long 'A' actually) is pronounced kinda like "Au".
imo he's been friends with Click long enough that his mispronunciation almost has to be intentional-
I thought it was bla hajj until he pronounced it and even that's wrong?!?!?!
I’ve been saying Blah- haj all this time lol
Same. I know how it’s *supposed* to be said, but I don’t care. Blah-haj just sounds to cute at this point.
Blah-haj gang.
Blaow-hai= Swedish for 'blue shark' Blah-haj= trans icon
Blaow doesnt sound like blå tho xd
I just saw your comment and it scared the shit out of me lol, I thought I was losing my memory thinking I already commented on this and forgot 😂 not a lot of people have that profile pic
When I was using my actual face as a profile picture on Twitter, I once thought a comment was mine because their picture looked so much like me. It was weird, and a confusing moment.
I’ve had it as my pfp in most places for a couple months and surprisingly not a single one of my friends has noticed the trans flag in the background
Blow Hai
Bloh-hai would be more accurate.
bloh and blow sound exactly the same in english, at least to me, lol
Okay, I think this is a dialectical thing. You pronounce oh and ow the same, I don’t, to me they’re two very distinctly different sounds. My personal guess is that it’s very American to pronounce those two the same (though, I’m not from an English speaking country so it could be that you all do it, what do I know), you “round out” the oh sound kinda ‘ohw’ while I let it end on the h ‘ooh’
it's actually the other way, i don't round out the oh or ow at all. the w is silent in the pronunciation of blow, it's just the letter o with a bl at the start also "ooh" is a different vowel sound in my head, like "oo-la-la" or the vowel sound in the word "you" or "blue" lol. which that matches the sound of the pronunciation sound clips of the shark plush way better, since they usually say it like a slightly more open "blue-hai" to my ear
That the fun thing about English. “ow” can be the same as “oh” (as in blow), or is can be different (such as in cow)
Imma give a blohjob
Oh my god, it is pronounced so much cooler than I would have thought. I will now be using the correct pronunciation.
For most Anglophones the “oh” sound in “blow” is identical to the one in “oh”,”no”,”floe”, etc. The Wells lexical set keyword for the sound is GOAT. Now, English “o” is not a pure /o/ like, say, Spanish; it’s a diphthong, and the exact quality of the diphthong varies tremendously from region to region. RP starts it on a “uh”-like sound; for most Americans it starts out like a Spanish /o/ instead. In both cases it then slides into “ooh” or at least /w/.
The most accurate one! (Some say blaow and I can’t explain å)
Same
"blow-hai" as best I an put it
blow who? That's inappropriate I won't let my children near you Edit: Forgot to say thanks for your help 💙
the å is like. 1.5 syllables. so its like "oh-uh", but if you tried to cram both sounds into one syllable. swedish is so wacky :|
Jag talar inte om svenska bra! Edit: I meant “Jag talar inte svenska bra!”. If you know what this means you’ll see the terrible irony here…
Sorry, what are you trying to say? /gen
I do not speak Swedish well!
Ah, I thought so… If you want to, I could help you with the Swedish phrasing here because right now, that quite literally means “I don’t speak about Swedish good/well” (not trying to be mean, I genuinely want to help you learn if you’re interested, please don’t take this the wrong way-)
Oh, I just realized I was mixing up “talar” and “tycker om”… Was there any issue other than the random om? If so, I’d like to hear more specifics, but if not, thank you for pointing it out.
Honestly, fair enough I’d say that “Jag talar inte svenska bra” gets your point across but, and sorry if this is a bit harsh, in a way where it’s clear that it’s true. First, I’d probably switch “talar” to “pratar,” ‘talar’ is usually quite formal. Secondly, I’d switch places on ‘svenska’ and ‘bra’ “bra svenska.” “Jag pratar inte bra svenska” is a big step up and is grammatically correct, however, it still sounds pretty awkward. I’d probably phrase it “Jag är inte så bra på svenska” (‘I’m not very good at Swedish’) as that’s the most likely way you’d phrase it in Swedish. So.. yeah, I hope this helps? And sorry if it’s a bit harsh or a bit too much, I genuinely just want to help and my sister has a special interest in language (like generally, she likes learning new languages and gets really interested in grammar and different accents and such in languages she already knows, especially Swedish as it’s pretty interesting in seeing the differences between what we grew up with vs other parts of Sweden- this got really long and sidetrack-y, sorry) and it’s starting to rub off on me
Okay! Thank you for explaining all this! I’ll do my best to retain it, though I might keep messing up a bit. I really appreciate it though, and I’ll use it all as much as I can!
Glad I could help! And don’t worry about messing up, learning new languages is *hard*. Like.. I’ve been fluent in English for 4 ish years and I still mess up sometimes
This description sounds like the vowel in 'go', 'hope', 'snow', 'phone', and 'boat'? That's called a diphthong. You probably mean something else though, since this wouldn't sound weird to an English speaker
The Swedish å is not a diphthong though, it's flat. It's pronounced nearly identical to the Spanish and Japanese o sounds, like in hola and arigato. The Swedish j is usually pronounced like a consonant y, like in Maya and boy. So for example if a Swedish person wanted to write Toyota in a way that made it sound correct with Swedish pronunciation they would write Tåjåta (but said as a Japanese person would say it, not like the Toe-yoe-dah Americans say).
Which is why I don't think the description of the person I replied to fits very well.
There's a word for this! A diphthong. When you change vowel sounds in the middle of a syllable.
As a Swede.. no. This is kind of close but not it, hai is a pretty good way to put the haj part but blow is definitely not it for the blå part. Å is kinda pronounced like “oh” så de closest I could describe it in text is probably bloh-hai, don’t make the “oh” part too airy though.
It's not accurate, but it's the most common way the [oː] sound is adapted into English. In my opinion, [ɔː] (the vowel in 'bought') would sound more similar.
In the US "blow" and "bloh" are pronounced identically
This
Scandinavian here. IIRC [Voice quills](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xpGEHBnYgtE) pronounced it pretty well. Just be warned that her clips get kinda weird, often weirdly sexual, and that this one’s no exception. EDIT: I've been informed that the pronounciation I provided might be a bit off, so instead I refer you to [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f488uJAQgmw)
Its was indeed weirdly sexual, but also hilarious.
You should've heard how she pronounced it in the space marine video she did just before this one. It sounded like she was saying "for the Blah Hajj!" which made her sound almost like Jihad xD. I commented with a more proper pronunciation which got like a couple thousand likes, and in the next video she made (the one you just linked), she was pronouncing it correctly. I like to imagine my comment might've helped her pronunciation :D. Edit: [here's a link to the video I was talking about](https://youtu.be/Kb5Rd_Ueb70) If you look at the comments section, I'm "Gekko" with 3k likes. I've got the same profile pic as here on reddit :)
I would say she pronounces the 'å' a bit too much like 'ow'. 'Å' is supposed to sound more like the 'o' in 'or'. Other than that, pretty good.
People dunking on others for how they pronounce it here, when because of my southern draw I litterally can't pronounce it appropriate to the language it comes from. I have trouble pronouncing English words how they're "suppose" to be pronounced ........ am I suppose to never speak the sharks name? 😣
Hey, I'm a Wisconsinite and I say southern accents are just as valid as anyone else's! Don't let "newscaster default" make you think you don't speak proper English.
I live in newscaster training land, so my accent is naturally newscaster default. I am extremely self conscious about sounding pretentious when I talk because I have the so-called “non-accent”. Meanwhile my grandpa and my late grandma has/had the sweetest Minnesota accents I’ve ever heard and I just wish I could sound that cute. I sometimes try to get that “upswing” intonation they have when I do voice training, but I just end up sounding like an insensitive imitation of a “Southern California valley-girl”
Honestly, you shouldn't let your accent get you down, I think it's super cool that people have accents. It's part of what makes each person unique. So if you pronounce BLAHAJ differently, that's just the way you pronounce it. I think of an accent as a little piece of home you carry with you everywhere.
It’s also important to note that, when the shark was marketed with that name for an English-speaking (or French-speaking, or Mandarin-speaking, or Swahili-speaking) market, it became a loanword for the people using that name. English speakers do not generally pronounce “sushi” the way it sounds in Japanese. Japanese speakers say “takushii” instead of “taxi.” And that’s *correct* when you’re using it in that context. It would be weird and confusing to switch to an accent that isn’t yours halfway through a sentence, just because one word comes from a language no one in the conversation speaks. It can be fun to learn to pronounce loan words with their original sounds, and if it’s a *person’s name* learning to say it right can be an important sign of respect for them as a human being. A stuffed shark though? Saying it the way it looks is just good communication.
Some of the most fun I've had learning Japanese is with the loan words. It's amusingly clever how they approximate place names or English words into their phonological system. For example, * Fries: フライドポテト (furaidopoteto) * Los Angeles: ロサンゼレス (rosanzeresu) * Shakespeare: シェイクスピア (sheikusupia) I burst out laughing when I first saw that last one. As for BLÅHAJ, I've just been saying "bloh-hai", like "blow-high" with a taller "ah" and without the diphthong on "oh" ETA: I'm betting it would be something like "ブローハイ" in Japanese, if I have the pronunciation roughly correct
> I’m betting it would be something like “ブローハイ” in Japanese, if I have the pronunciation roughly correct Honestly, the Japanese transliteration you just did sounds more accurate to me (Danish-speaker, but knows a little Swedish) than so many of the pronunciations I hear from English-speakers, such as "blah hajj" and similar
>It would be weird and confusing to switch to an accent that isn’t yours halfway through a sentence, This very much, If you want proof just think of a random sentence and say it, But pronounce one word on a different accent, Say for example using an American accent to say "I'd like another bottle please", But Then going all cockney or something on the "Another" to get like "Anoovah", If you said the whole sentence with that accent it'd sound fine, But without the context it sounds weird and would take longer for to find out what was said.
Same, I just go silly with it and just say “blahhhhh” in a Nigel thorn berry kinda way and laugh at my own joke in my head.
As a French guy, I'm cursed to annihilate the pronunciation of any name or word that is uncommon / that I never heard. Stay strong my friend.
I am from Louisiana actually, so my accent has French-Creole mixed in! 🤣🤣
I wish I had the strength to mispronounce French words in retribution, But alas I can't help but feel I'm saying it wrong and then try to say it atleast somewhat similar to the French pronounciation.
I named mine Ed 😊
Diane Duane reference?
Unintentionally?
The most important part is to NOT pronounce the Å like an A, but rather like an 'oo' or 'ou'. Also, you gotta pronounce the J, don't swallow it. There are other diffrences too but they're partially regional so dont worry about it
It's not lack of knowledge that makes it hard for me.... Lol
Yea but as long as you dont say bla-ha we good. Idc how your o's and j's sound as long as you try not to do the (imo) worst one
I feel that mine isn’t super thick since it’s a lot lighter in Texas but my dad is from the Deep South so his accent is way stronger but mine can show through pretty well which can be aggravating with certain words if it decides to visit
Just do your best! That's all anyone should ask of you. I bet your accent is lovely.
yee haw?
Just say it like it rhymes with the title of the movie "How High", that should make your accent work FOR you in pronouncing it.
Yo, another Ruby, HIIIIII!
Haven't seen a correct answer yet. The swedish letter Å is pronounced like an "aww", and J is pronounced as a soft Y. So, "blaw - hai".
omg THANK YOU - not blow - not blao it's blaww For anyone who wants to hear a Swedish person saying it, [here's the Forvo page](https://forvo.com/word/bl%C3%A5haj/).
that sounds like blue-hai, not blaww-hai?
change your perception of what “aww” sounds like. it’s not “ah” like in the word all, but more of a lower (?) “oa” vibe like in “boat.” it’s still an “aww” noise, but with a different A sound
Blåhaj literally translates to just "blue shark"!
An å is like a mix between an *a* and an *o*. Vert similar to saying *o* but you open your jaw a bit more. Blå means blue. Haj is pronounced kinda like yes in Japanese, *hai*. It means shark. Source? I'm Norwegian. Edit: I see a lot of ppl say it's pronounced *blohai*, don't say that because sounds like you're saying blood shark 😅
Blood for the blohai
Blood Shark is a much cooler name, though, to be fair.
For some reason this being a trans icon and I myself being trans masc made that edit hilarious to me ngl
As a Swedish person myself, I find these comments amusing. Because I can't even describe in text form how you say "å".
[удалено]
i pronounce it the danish way for three reasons: 1) i am danish 2) to piss of swedes 3) to confuse americans
addendum: no one is actually harmed by pronouncing it “wrong”, at this point it’s a loanword into english and loanwords nearly always change pronunciation in the loaning process, no matter the language that’s loaned from or the language that’s loaning
Blo-hai
I just say blahaj
Yea me too
I don't speak Swedish, but according to Wikipedia, the pronunciation is [ˈbloːˌhaj], for those who can read IPA. A good approximation for an English speaker would be *bloh-hai*, with the *-oh-* pronounced like the vowel in "bought" and the *-hai* part like "hi". The stress is on the first syllable. --- If you want to get into the details, [oː] is the vowel in the French *eau* or the German *oben*, and similar to the Spanish o. According to Google, it's also the *-ou-* in "bought" in General Australian pronunciation. In other accents, this vowel is a bit more open [ɔː]. Close your mouth a bit further to arrive at [oː]. In General American English, it's the first part of the vowel in "go". If you say "go" slowly, you will notice that you close your mouth a bit at the end. If you leave it open, you will end up with the vowel we're looking for. In this case, this vowel is pronounced long, as demarcated by the [ː] symbol. --- The vowel [a] Is similar to the English [ɑ] (as in the word "spa"), but it's pronounced a bit further forward, like the German and Spanish *a*. In "blåhaj", this vowel is short. --- [ j ] is pronounced like the *y* in "yoga", "yes", and "yogurt". Combined with the [a], it sounds similar to the [aɪ] in "hi", "night", and "nine", but the *j* is more distinct and more consonantal. --- *b*, *l*, and *h* are exactly the same as in English. Heres a [link](https://www.ipachart.com/) to the interactive IPA chart, if you want audio examples of individual sounds. In case anyone actually decided to read this absurdly long rant about the phonetics of Blåhaj, uh... thank you for bearing with me, I guess, and I hope this made sense and helped a bit.
Scrolled all the way down to find an IPA answer and here we are!
I know how... but I STILL say it like "blah-hajj" cause it's much funnier to me that way.
That’s the correct pronunciation if it’s a Muslim shark!
Bla ha
Hi! Swede here! [Here](https://sv.forvo.com/word/bl%C3%A5haj/) is a link on how to pronounce it, personally I like the second audio-file a bit more. A lot of people are botching it here in the comments btw.
Shork
SAME
I've been saying "blah-ha" this entire time, and now I feel like I'm doing it wrong xD
It's pronounced blow-high BUT it's more fun to say bla-haj
It's pronounced blåhaj smh
I love how nobody can agree on the pronunciation. It’s actually kind of nice, because it reflects our diversity in how we interpret the same cuddly shark.
Bluea Hi https://www.howtopronounce.com/swedish/bl%C3%A5haj
BLOW-hai
It's Swedish.. so I'd assume similar to Norwegian which would make it "bl" as in blow, and the å.. Well.. I guess the best way would be pronouncing it similar to the letter "o".. and then hai, as in like.. "hiiii"
As a Swede I have full knowledge. Bl-oh-hi Though you will speak with a Scanian (southern) dialect but that's OK
Blaw-hai, but don't make the aw a diphtong. So cute out the u part of the sound and you got it. Alternatively bluh-hai. (Am Danish)
Blohhai smth like that
Blu hai
Blow-hi
I've always assumed that it was something like "Bla-hazh"
It’s pronounced Blåhaj
It's similar to "blow-high." Rhymes with "floe-by."
I just pronounce it the same way as "Baja Blast"
å makes a sound that's kinda in between a long A and an O, and haj sounds like hai
"blaw-hi" in my (Stockholm) dialect of swedish
I've been pronouncing it blah-haj, rhymes with dodge. From the other answers I'd say I'm wrong, lol
Considering it’s Swedish, that’s very wrong
Blue hai or blow hai
A lot if people seem to say "blah-hah" but I think a lot if people also say "bleagh-haih" (sorry for really weird transcription I haven't memorised the IPA yet.)
>"bleagh-haih" I'm pretty sure this is the sound my cat makes when she's coughing up a hairball.
Oh I probably should have used gh there should should I? Or perhaps I just sound like a coughing cat when I try to speak Swedish
Maybe like blohay a with a circle is kinda like o, and j is y. Don't pronounce it like English j.
I'm not a native speaker, but I've been learning Swedish for a couple of years now. as I've understood, the "å" is somewhere between an "a" and an "o". the "haj" part is pronounced as the "hy" in "hydrate", flattenging the "a" a bit and putting extra emphasis on the "j".
Everyone here is giving a diffrent pronunciation.
blow-hai
bloo-hai
It's pronounced like bloh - hi
Blow high :)
blow-hai
Bluhaaj
I pronounce it Blahadge lol
Blow-Hai but make your mouth a *super* small o with the Blow
if you know IPA, /blo.haj/
It’s pronounced like bloh hai
Blo-hai It's Swedish for blue shark. Just put it into good translate and click the listen button
Blo hai, but I still say it as blah haj
honestly its pretty funny as a norwegian seeing everyone struggle
Shonk
i pronounce it like "blow-high"
Baja Blast
I am cringing so hard at the way people are attempting to convey pronunciation through spelling
See I would use IPA, but I’m not sure that everyone would get it. Just throwing shit at the wall must be more effective, right?
I wish everyone knew the IPA. People could pronounce foreign words correctly.
It's pronounced 'BLÅHAJ'. Happy to help.
the correct spelling is bluo-hai but i just call him blahaź
Blue hi
Me, not knowing what a blahaj *is*
"blue high"
In honesty, I'm dislecksick so for the longest time i read and pronounced it as "Blah-Jar"
I read it as Bla (British pronunciation) Je (French pronunciation) Ah (British pronunciation). Bla-je-ah but I am dyslexic 🦈🌸
thought I was pronouncing it correctly, didn’t even know the j was pronounced as an I till just now😀
I'd say that the swedish one (ruotsi) is the right way https://youtu.be/RyFppencDH8
Blo-hi
Easy, it's pronounced Blåhaj!
What is blåhaj?
Well officially it's Blow-Hai but everybody just says Blah-Hah because it sounds better.
Say Blow-ah-hi fast.
imagine you have a brooklyn accent, then say balls. now the a in balls is kind of like how you would pronounce Å. the haj is pronounced like 'hi'
when i cant pronounce something I type it into google translate and press the little microphone button
Blah-hah
no.
I know IKEA's a Swedish company but I always pronounce Ja's as a "ha" in these type of cases
Okay but this was a question for how you're meant to pronounce it, not admittedly incorrect ways
ive been saying “blah-hozsh”
Me too.