Not a laxative, Alex

Argh. Alex Trebek just pronounced Sergei Korolyov's name (category: Russian scientists) like this: ko-ro-lee-ov.

No. Nononononono.

His name is more often spelled (in English) Korolev; in Russian it's Королев (or, if you're using the letter generally reserved for school texts, Королёв). That vowel (ё) is a jotated O, though when following a palatalizable consonant such as Л (L), it's an O showing that the consonant is soft (palatalized), which sounds pretty much the same as the Yo (as in Yo ho ho!). (Yes, it's tricky having the Ё be both things, but you get used to it.) What it's not, however, is two vowels, as Alex pronounced it: EE-OH.

This transliteration is an attempt to show that the -ЕВ ending of Королев should be pronounced as if it were -ov with a glide (jov or yov), not -ev (jev or yev). It's admirable, especially considering the number of people who still say "Krushchev" with the YEV ending. (Actually, that final V should be an F, but that's a whole other topic...)

At any rate, Alex should have gotten better briefing than that. The father of the Russian space program is Sergei Korolyof - ko ro lyof - in three syllables, not ko ro lee ov.

Oh, the title? Russian has four of these so-called "soft" vowels. One is in the city Ryazan (rja, with a palatalized R). I will never forget a British documentary I saw once that called it "Rye-a-zan", which really does sound like a laxative, no?