So many Corner readers speak Norwegian, it now emerges–and really, who’d a thunk it?–that pronouncing the name of my favorite young pianist, Leif Ove Andsnes, represents a matter for controversy. I will post the following email, then stop, directing all Norwegian Cornerites to Derb instead.

The posting on the pronunciation of ‘leif’ and ‘ove’ is wrong. I’m a Norwegian-American and my best friend growing up had Ove as his middle name. Anyway, here’s how the whole name should be pronounced:
Layf-oov-e-and-snes
In Norwegian, the letter ‘o’ is pronounced like the English ‘oo’ sound. So in Norwegian for example, the capital of Norway is pronounced ‘oos-loo’. And Leif is not ‘Leaf’. It’s like the word ‘lay’ with an ‘f’ at the end. The ‘e’ in Ove is like the ‘e’ sound in ‘end’. And Andsnes is basically pronounced the way it’s spelled. The ‘A’ is pronounced like the ‘a’ in ‘wand’.
Hope this helps!