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To Swedish speaking people

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I just wanted to know if Gessle surname is a Swedish one, and if it is, then why it doesn’t follow pronunciation rules of Swedish... I mean, knowing what I know now of Swedish, I think it should be pronounced “Yesle” instead of “Gesl”. Do you know any other one with that surname and is it pronounced the same way or is just “our kid” that made a change to English pronunciation?

Per was on a radiointerwiew in the Swedish channel P4 once when he got a question about his surname. He answer that he was the only swede (can’t recall if it even was the only one in the world, maybe it was) with that name.

The thing is that his mother didn’t like the surname they have back then. So she change it to Gessle. He told the old name in the interwiew, but I don’t remember it - but it was something like Gessle. About the pronunciation people really don’t agree all the time, at least for a couple of years ago. So the chance that anyone would know anyone with that name is very small I guess.

C’ ya!

@ frodi wasnt it his father who changed the surname coz of some difficulties with the relatives ?
im not sure.
i dont know how to pronounce gessle, in the biography they wrote that a radio moderator always said it wrong, he said yesle instead of gessle, but, please dont quote me.

i dont speak swedish or anything, but apparently you are supposed to pronounce it something like “Guess-lah” ??? i dunno, but I think Gessle sounds better, pronounced just as its spelt!

@Parre: Yeah, I thought the same! The original surname was Johansson, BTW...

It was Per’s grandfather who changed it when he got into a fight with his brother. “Gessle” is a taken name, which means no one else in Sweden can use it.

Sorry, but it wasn’t his grandfather but his father who changed it..., you can read it all in Roxette - Die autorisierte biographie (original in swedish)
JAAP

Probably it was his father. It was some time ago he had that interwiew and I din’t pay all my attention to it I guess.

C’ ya!

G can be pronunced like J or in some cases.... there is to wats to pronounce a G

I studied G is always pronounced like “Y” in front of e, i, y, ä and ö. This, as long as g is not preceded by an n in the groups “ng”, where it is pronounced G like in front of a, o, u and å. So it should be “Yesle” in Swedish. So “ingenting” is pronounced more or less as is written but Gyllene Tider’s (Yülene tider) keyboard player is “Yöran -or Yoeran” Fritzsson and “Gift” (poison) is pronounced “Yift” instead of being like English’s gift.

Ok, so in fact it’s Per Johansson... There are too many Per Johansson’s in Sweden, maybe like 20.000! It’s nice that they changed it.

I’m swedish...

Well, I suppose you all got the facts right in the end here... but in case someone still are confused...

It was Per’s father who changed their surname from Johansson to Gessle when Per was just a little boy. In the Roxette book, it says he got tired of that common name, but later I have heard that it was some disagreement with HIS father. Per’s grandfather that is.

And as for how to prunounce Gessle, it shall be pronounced just as it is spelled. Gessle, that is. You are right about that is brakes the pronounciationrules in the swedish language... But since it is a taken name that does not matter. I think...

Anyway... I hope this helped a little...

/little_girl

*gg* The artist formerly born as Per Johansson *gggg*
one question: whats a taken name ??

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