How to pronounce "Geir"

[Oldrottenhead]

Note from 64Guitars:

This discussion started in the topic for Honker's new song "so close and yet so far". Since we were getting sidetracked from the song, I thought I'd move the off-topic stuff here.

But James you old bugger, about time you learned to pronounce my name now I think you need to come over for another lesson

sorry gaia

[64Guitars]

But James you old bugger, about time you learned to pronounce my name now I think you need to come over for another lesson

Sinner!

For penance, my son, you must say three Hail Marys and write a song where the last word of every line rhymes with Geir (fire, wire, higher, aspire, mire, tire, liar, ... ).

 

[64Guitars]

sorry gaia

GAIA?

[Oldrottenhead]

was a phonetic apology

[Greeny]

I had always assumed it was pronounced 'gear'! I'll be able to get it right when I meet him now 

[64Guitars]

I had always assumed it was pronounced 'gear'! I'll be able to get it right when I meet him now 

I thought it was pronounced 'gare' (as in 'heir') until I asked and Geir posted this:

https://songcrafters.org/community/index.php?topic=8592.msg115335#msg115335

[Greeny]

Sounds like phonetically 'gai-a' to me.

Or something like that! The 'a' sound at the end is more abrupt than I'd imagined.

[Oldrottenhead]

Sounds like phonetically 'gai-a' to me.

i'd say that is spot on, even tho i know how to pronounce it, i cant shake the habit of saying gear

[Kenneth]

MMMMM Geir you smell great!  



And in Canada I have been pronouncing it as "Gear" too, but working on fixing that!

[64Guitars]

The creator of that fragrance (Geir Ness), who is from Oslo, Norway, seems to pronounce it 'gear' in this video (at about 0:30).


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJCq9jFmr5M

I found that video via this page:

http://www.basenotes.net/threads/227732-Correct-Pronunciation-of-Geir

Someone on that page had this to say about the video:

"I played the video to a fellow Oslo citizen and we are scratching our heads because here in Oslo they don't pronounce "Geir" like the "gear" of "shifting gears". Its closer to the English "guy" with a trilled /r/ at the end.

Edit: HaHa! On the following page (http://www.kk.no/496432/faa-fart-paa-forbrenningen) is yet another training video put out by Geir and his friend Jan Thomas (scroll down the page to find the video). They are speaking Norwegian in the video and early on Geir introduces himself and pronounces his name correctly - like one would do here in Oslo. I'm just guessing, but perhaps the other pronunciation has 'caught on' over in the US and to not confuse people too much, he's chosen to continue with that pronunciation over there."

I was curious about the title of that page ("Få fart på forbrenningen") so I copied it into Google Translate and found that it means "Speed up metabolism" (fart = speed).