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Top Document: Irish FAQ: Irish Names [9/10]
Previous Document: 1) Does anyone have a list of Irish first names?
Next Document: 3) Are there any books of Irish names?


2) How do you pronounce that?


	You may have noticed that there's a fair bit of duplication
	above.  There are anglicised spellings, Irish spellings and
	slight variations of the same name, even in the modern Irish
	spelling.  Some of the variations are probably regional.  This
	guide is, needless to say, incomplete and may contain serious
	mistakes.

	Here are approximate transiliterations for the letters that
	don't exist in English.  The slash above the letter is called a
	fada in Irish, meaning long, because it lengthens the vowel).

	á  =  aw - awe, crawl  (a - flat in Ulster)
	é  =  ay - hay, bray
	í  =  ee - feed, creep
	ó  =  o  - owe, flow
	ú  =  oo - cool, fool (more like the French word for "where")

	Some of the consonants are pronounced differently.

	s  =  sh (when it is in the stressed syllable)
	bh =  v
	dh =  g
	mh =  w
	th = h

	Note that the letters j,k,q,v,w,x,y,z do not occur in Irish.
	The letter c is always pronounced hard, as in cow, never soft
	as in cigarette.

	Irish spelling insists on grouping "fat" vowels and "thin"
	vowels when they are separated by a consonant.  The fat vowels
	are a, o and u.  The thin vowels are e and i.  So if a word
	would have a fat vowel followed by a consonant (or several)
	followed by a thin vowel breaks the rule:  a vowel must be
	inserted to balance the spelling.  Thus "Osín" is wrong; it must
	be "Oisín"; "Sibhán" must be turned into "Siobhán".  The
	extra letter is generally silent.




Top Document: Irish FAQ: Irish Names [9/10]
Previous Document: 1) Does anyone have a list of Irish first names?
Next Document: 3) Are there any books of Irish names?

Part00 - Part01 - Part02 - Part03 - Part04 - Part05 - Part06 - Part07 - Part08 - Part09 - Single Page


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