I am inclined to say ee-yah-go but I’ve never heard anyone pronounce it in real life. American English. It has the same origin as the names Jacques and Santiago, no?
I’ve heard both, but my instinct is to say Yahgo. American.
I think that when you say Yahgo, a lot of people will hear a kind of swallow “ee” in front of the y sound, so there isn’t so much difference between Yahgo and iYahgo. It’s just a tiny breath and you get the ee sound in there.
When you are classically trained in choral music, the Y sound is almost always pronounced “ee-AH” So that it sounds more clear on stage. The name could be pronounced “Ya-go” in Shakespearian times but they said “ee-AH-go” onstage for the same reason choral musicans do. Remember that they were onstage with no modern microphones and the original theater was open air. That’s part of why actors used to have these odd affectations in the early 20th century. They were still being trained to pronounce things so they were clear in theaters without sound systems.
Also remember that Shakespeare liked to play with pronunciation to fit things into Iambic pentameter. I am not sure, but I think at that time moved had one syllable – and two only when it made iambic pentameter work better. It wouldn’t surprise me if Shakespeare drew out the name to add an extra syllable now and then to fit the meter better.
It’s a diphthong (ea) and thus comes with the flexibility of pronunciation that all diphthongs have. But the beat falls on the (ee) AH (go).
Think of Yahoo! (or perhaps, don’t).
@keobooks; Lovely answer. The early English poets took the same liberties with other verbs that end in “ed,” just as they shortened things, such as e’er or ne’er, to accommodate the metrical considerations.