# Swedish: Pronunciation of Klebér Saarenpää



## PiotrR

Hello. How do you pronounce _Klebér Saarenpää_? Is it something like this?
X-SAMPA: /kle:_Fb@r sa_Fr@npE:/
IPA: /klêːbər sârənpɛː/

That's what I heard on YouTube... I think.


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## Tjahzi

I'd go with ['kʰleːbər 'saːrənpɛː].


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## PiotrR

Thanks! That might be what I heard in the video. I assume that [aː] is a regional pronunciation of Standard Central Swedish /ɑː/?


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## Tjahzi

Well, since this is not a native word (a Finnish proper name really), there is no true standard pronunciation and as such you can probably find various differing forms. My reason for using [aː] rather than [ɑː] is that it's the Finnish realization. Many people would probably prefer [ɑː].


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## PiotrR

Thanks.



Tjahzi said:


> Well, since this is not a native word (a Finnish proper name really)


The first name is Portuguese by the way  But that you probably know.


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## Gavril

> I'd go with ['kʰleːbər 'saːrənpɛː].



About your transcription of -*ää* as [ɛː]: if you're going to pronounce Saarenpää in the Finnish way, the final vowel is closer to [æ:]. Granted, the person we are talking about is from Sweden, so perhaps he pronounces the -_ä-_ in his name as if it were a Swedish letter.


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## Ben Jamin

The conjunction of first name Kléber and surname Saarenpää seems to be highly unusual. Jean-Baptiste Kléber was a French general of Alsatian origin. His name was originally German, the French introduced the accent ovrt the first "e". Saarenpää is a Finnish surname, pronounced in Finnish with a double a and a double ä. The "a" in Finnish is pronounced like in Italian, and the "ä" like "a" in "back" in British English. How a person using such an unusual set of names (apparently living in Sweden) pronounces his name god only knows.


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## Tjahzi

Indeed you are right Gavril. However, while [æ:] exists in Swedish, it only occurs before /r/ as an allophone of [ɛː], which is why I decided upon the latter. Meanwhile, [aː] also doesn't occur naturally in Swedish, but much more frequently occurs in loan words, names of foreign origin and other languages.


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## PiotrR

Thanks again, everyone!



Ben Jamin said:


> How a person using such an unusual set of names  (apparently living in Sweden) pronounces his name god only  knows.


Klebér _is_ a Swede. He was born in Uppsala, and he is of Brazilian (and apparently, also Finnish) descent.


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## Ben Jamin

PiotrR said:


> Thanks again, everyone!
> 
> 
> Klebér _is_ a Swede. He was born in Uppsala, and he is of Brazilian (and apparently, also Finnish) descent.


But this still does not give us a clue about the pronunciation. He has many variants to choose among:
Kleber: Brazilian, French, Swedish
Saarenpää: Finnish, Swedish, Brazilian.


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## Tjahzi

As I'm sure you have noticed, people tend to pronounce their names in accordance with the phonology of their native language, and as such, I'd say it's reasonable to believe that _Kleber _pronounces his name like or very close to what is described above.


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## Ben Jamin

Try the IVONA text to voice homepage, choose the Swedish speaker, and you'll get a good approximation.


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## Ben Jamin

Tjahzi said:


> As I'm sure you have noticed, people tend to pronounce their names in accordance with the phonology of their native language, and as such, I'd say it's reasonable to believe that _Kleber _pronounces his name like or very close to what is described above.


If they are children of foreign parents they may also keep wholly or partially the original pronunciation of the name. My own daughter does it, a Norwegian radio anchor with an English surname pronounces her name meticulously with the English, not Norwegian "r".


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