"IKEA in Swedish"

June 2, 2013 7:19 AM

Teaches You How to Pronounce Their Products via
posted by infini (16 comments total)

But it's fun to walk around and do my "Swedish Chef" interpretation of the furniture names.
posted by Renoroc at 7:26 AM on June 2, 2013 [2 favorites]

Actually, they just use the names on the Stockholm metro map. Note Alvik, for example.
posted by infini at 7:33 AM on June 2, 2013

One glaring omission is the Swedish pronunciation of "IKEA."
posted by needled at 7:49 AM on June 2, 2013 [3 favorites]

"IKEA in Swedish"

Stockholm Swedish that is. There are 100 dialects of Swedish which is not bad for a language with only 9m speakers.
posted by three blind mice at 7:52 AM on June 2, 2013

Nobody likes the Popli kids.
posted by arcticseal at 8:19 AM on June 2, 2013

THANK YOU JESUS!!!
Now I finally know how to say my toilet brush's name!
posted by GoingToShopping at 8:32 AM on June 2, 2013 [2 favorites]

needled: I'm forever defending my refusal to say "eye-key-uhhh" to my friends.
posted by a halcyon day at 9:16 AM on June 2, 2013

This is a weird form of corporate hypercorrectness. The fact is, if you actually pronounce the names "correctly" in pseudo-Swedish then monolingual American warehouse workers just give you blank looks. When you say "bee-yark-uh-den" instead of "buh-jork-uh-den" the only actual result is that you don't get the table you're asking for.
posted by RogerB at 9:18 AM on June 2, 2013 [1 favorite]

This is a weird form of corporate hypercorrectness.

The corporation is not actually behind this, I'm pretty sure.
posted by kenko at 10:14 AM on June 2, 2013

Ikea naming follows a system, because Ingvar Kamprad is dyslexic:

Kamprad created a naming system where he gave names to each piece of furniture. For example, large furniture is given names of Swedish places, chairs and desks have men’s names, and garden furniture is named after Swedish islands. This system was easier for Kamprad to remember and visualize each product, since most of the names were of places familiar to him.

posted by djb at 11:03 AM on June 2, 2013 [1 favorite]

A halcyon day: At least in Arabic, it's [aɪkɪ:'a] ("aye-key-ah"), not [ɪ:keɪ'a] ("ee-kay-ah").
posted by erniepan at 11:04 AM on June 2, 2013

Also relevant
posted by erniepan at 11:08 AM on June 2, 2013

She ends all the names on an upgoing note, like they were questions (someone called it the "moronic interrogative"). Please don't get the impression that Swedish nouns are generally pronounced this way.
posted by springload at 1:19 PM on June 2, 2013

Well, yes, Swedes tend to end just about everything on upgoing notes, making them sound like they are always surprised. Still, they manage to get a beautiful language out of it..
posted by mumimor at 3:13 PM on June 2, 2013

Nej men det gör vi väl ändå inte, mumimor?
posted by springload at 4:35 PM on June 2, 2013 [1 favorite]

RogerB: "This is a weird form of corporate hypercorrectness. The fact is, if you actually pronounce the names "correctly" in pseudo-Swedish then monolingual American warehouse workers just give you blank looks."

How is a website that teaches the Swedish pronunciations of Swedish words "hypercorrectness"? It's not like a site that tells you the "proper Scottish way to pronounce Egg McMuffin", despite the fact that McDonald's is American. We're talking about an actual Swedish chain, staffed with lots of Swedes.

Now, using the Swedish pronunciation in whatever non-Swedish country you're in? Yeah, that would be hypercorrectness. But a site that just says "this is how it's pronounced in Sweden" is not hypercorrectness.
posted by Bugbread at 11:58 PM on June 3, 2013