Pronunciation of Dutch royal names

[Somebody]

Based on the discussion on the pronunciation of Adélaïde; I was thinking that many non-Dutch (or Belgian) members might not know the Dutch pronunciation of the names of the various members of the Dutch royal family.

Starting with two former queens:

The name of princess Beatrix is to be pronounced as Bay-ah-trix [two long vowels; final one is short] (not Bee-ah-trix).

Her mother Juliana was not called Djoo-lee-ah-nah (like Ju in June) but J{non existent sound in English}-lee-ah-nah. [all 'long vowels']
* The non-existing sound is [y(:)] in phonetics.

Edit: underlined means emphasis.

[Somebody]

Another royal name that is very likely to be pronounced incorrectly is Beatrix' sister princess Irene. In Dutch, the pronunciation consists of 3 syllables: Ee-ray-neh
* neh refers to another unknown sound in English - it is rather close the 'e' in 'her'; the 'e' (a very common sound in Dutch at the end of words; almost all verbs end in '-en' - the same sound can be found in the name of the king: WillEm) is [Y] in phonetics.

Laurentien surely also raises questions; let me try:
Lou (like loud but without d) - rehn (short vowel like net) - teen (but pronounced much shorter).

Willem-Alexander; note that the W in Dutch sounds much more like a 'V' to most English speakers - but it's somewhere in between a V and W in English.
So: W/Vill- l[Y]m (see Irene) - ah (short as if father) lec - san - der (d[Y]r)

Mabel is easy as her name is English; not Dutch.

Pieter is basically Peter but the 'ie' sound is shorter than the first 'e' in Peter.

[Iain]

Originally Posted by Somebody

Based on the discussion on the pronunciation of Adélaïde; I was thinking that many non-Dutch (or Belgian) members might not know the Dutch pronunciation of the names of the various members of the Dutch royal family.

Starting with two former queens:

The name of princess Beatrix is to be pronounced as Bay-ah-trix [two long vowels; final one is short] (not Bee-ah-trix).

Her mother Juliana was not called Djoo-lee-ah-nah (like Ju in June) but J{non existent sound in English}-lee-ah-nah. [all 'long vowels']
* The non-existing sound is [y(:)] in phonetics.

Edit: underlined means emphasis.

Most English speakers tend to pronounce the former Queen's name as BEAT-RICKS.

[Somebody]

Originally Posted by Iain

Most English speakers tend to pronounce the former Queen's name as BEAT-RICKS.

Interesting. Good to know. She doesn't come across as a 'beating' type of person.

Just like my former boss's boss's boss (etc) whose name (Boasberg) would by the English pronunciation of it in Dutch by translated to 'Angry Mountain' - but I've hardly ever seen him angry on his mountain at the top of the organization

[TLLK]

As an American who has always lived on the West Coast, I would pronounce her name: "Bee-Tricks." (My cat just looked up in confusion as I keep repeating the same name over and over.)