How do you pronounce "Czernowin" (last name of a person from Israel)?

Looks Russian. I would guess Zir-now-en (maybe in not en) but I am guessing as an American. Best to ask the person how they prefer their name be pronounced.

I’ll send it to an Israeli jelly. Not sure if he has been around lately.

Your guess seems pretty good, I think. Were you going with “cher NOV in” or “CHAIR nov in”?

Otherwise, “zer NOUN” wouldn’t be out of place, either, I think. I’d ask the person wearing that nametag.

Heck, if you can Google some people with that name, then ask them.

Actually, as I think about what you and @CWOTUS wrote, I think Russian does not have the W sound, so probably it would be V in Russia. But, in America it would be pronounced W or the name would be changed to V, unless it was a person who recently immigrated. In Israel I have no idea which way they would go with the pronounciation. Israelis pronunce W when they speak English, so almost impossible for me to guess now that I think about it.

I just realized I can send it to a Russian jelly also.

The Hebrew alphabet has a letter Tsade or Zadi (pronounced “tz“or “ts” or a harsh “z”) and a letter Vav, pronounced similar to an English v.

So that would make Tzer NO vin if you used the Hebrew letters (which make much more sense for an Israeli than using the Cyrillic alphabet.)

Fascinating, please keep the answers coming! Person is female if it matters.

I could tell you exactly if you showed me the Hebrew.

Good point, Rarebear – the Wikipedia entry has the full name spelled out in Hebrew: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaya_Czernowin

@florican Are you trying to find out how that composer pronounces her name? I can add “classical music” and “composers” to your topics so maybe someone in the music word will come to this Q.

Looking at the Hebrew, @gailcalled was on the right track. The first letter is a Tsadek and there are two Yuds so it would be pronounced Tsa-er-no-in. The transliteration is misleading. It probably was from Russian where the first consonant was pronounced similarly to Tsar.

Has anyone sent this question to @zensky?

Tschernovin

I sent it.

Here’s the Hebrew: צ״רנוין

First letter (on far right, remember) is the Tsadek, then the interior Nun, then Vov, then the final Nun.

The woman in question is a native Israeli, hence the use of the pronunciation of the Hebrew alefbet.

Her first name is easy; I know women named “Chaya.” You gargle the “ch” like the Scottish “loch” or the German “Bach.”

In Sholem Aleichem’s stories about Tevye the Milkman, one of his daughter’s was called “Chaya.”

This might as well also be a Polish name; try: Tscher-no[h]-ven

[the R is pronounced strongly, like the one you’d hear a Scottish person pronounce while saying butter.

Tzir-NOW-yin Maybe Tzir-NOW-vin

Tseer-no-vin.