Van Gogh goes or Van Gogh coughs? Is there a commonly accepted British English pronunciation?

The question changed during the formulation from

What is the correct 'British English' pronunciation of Van Gogh?

to

Is there such a thing as a 'correct' English pronunciation of a Dutch name -- specifically of Van Gogh?

Failing that, is there at least a commonly accepted convention? For personal usage I'm interested in 'British English' variants including Irish English, but extra padding concerning US variants would not go amiss.

Wikipedia gives the correct Dutch IPA pronunciation as [ˈvɪnsɛnt ˈʋɪləm vɑŋ ˈɣɔx] and even has an audio file of same.

The solution might be to use the correct Dutch pronunciation, but it doesn't sit naturally with me. This answer on the ELU site made me think there might not be a definitive answer.

Another consideration is that there is often no one established “correct” pronunciation for foreign names in English. Usually for famous or well-known people, some kind of conventional pronunciation is established over time, but what that pronunciation will be is not always predictable. Some people try to pronunce names as close to the original language as they can. This means that it would be difficult to figure out how to spell these names if it was based on how English speakers pronounce them


Google wasn't as helpful as I thought it would be. Several sites gave the correct Dutch pronunciation and noted that English native speakers (both sides of the Atlantic) pronounced it incorrectly. But then I found an ever so British perspective

Something that drives British people absolutely bonkers is hearing an American "mispronounce" the name of Dutch post-impressionist Vincent van Gogh. Pangs of rage fill up the collective consciousness as the nation retorts in one voice: "it's VAN-GOFF, not VAN-GO!"

Though not a big fan of the style of the piece, as an Irish English-speaker this is also the pronunciation I use. So can I assume in British and Irish English usage that Van Gogh rhymes with cough??


There's an interesting note on the Wikipedia entry:

The pronunciation of Van Gogh varies in both English and Dutch. Especially in British English it is /ˌvæn ˈɡɒx/ or sometimes /ˌvæn ˈɡɒf/. American dictionaries list /ˌvæn ˈɡoʊ/, with a silent gh, as the most common pronunciation. In the dialect of Holland, it is [ˈvɪnsɛnt fɑŋˈxɔx], with a voiceless v and g. He grew up in Brabant and used Brabant dialect in his writing; his own pronunciation was thus likely [vɑɲˈʝɔç], with a voiced v and palatalised g and gh. In France, where much of his work was produced, it is [vɑ̃ ɡɔɡ(ə)].

I would have put this as a comment but it's too long and I didn't feel I should truncate it.

When I listened to the sound file file there, I was surprised it was so different from the 2 variants (van go and van goff) I've previously heard people debating.

I removed the cross-references from the quote but see original note at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_van_Gogh#cite_note-6


It may not be correct, but in my experience as a native south Londoner the name is pronounced GOFF. There's a recent meme showing the artist not being able to wear a face mask properly, as you see it hanging from his remaining ear.

This pronunciation has probably stuck due to its use in a lot of British humour. Consider this example:

The scene is the back yard of an art gallery. Two men come out of the gallery carrying boxes. Their delivery van has been driven away. "Where the van go?" asks one, "it's van goff, not van go you tart," says the other.