Jarlsberg cheese (1966)

[Laurence Horn]

At 4:00 AM -0500 3/10/03, Frank Abate wrote:
>Dear listers,
>
>...
>One additional bit -- how do Americans pronounce "Jarlsberg"?  With the
>initial sound like that of an initial Y, or like that of an initial J?  I
>dunno.
>
Always with a /y/ initially in my experience, and I'm sure I would
have noticed an initial affricate if I'd ever heard one.  If
anything, that Germanic /y/ for "j" overextends, as when Garrison
Keillor on Prairie Home Companion pronounces "jalapeño" with an
initial /y/ instead of /h/ or even /x/.  Another form of
hyperforeignism that this time isn't derived from the French, but of
course in Minnesota they're likely to have a lot more /y/ for "j"
native speakers than either /zh/ or /h/ for "j" speakers.

Larry