All these names make sense when one understands Irish grammar and pronunciations, but I can absolutely see how people elsewhere would struggle with these.
Ah Ok. I get ya. I wouldnt say I "studied" Irish despite doing it for 16+ years lol. I can read and write it, and speak it, but the actual intricacies of the phonetics is beyond me.
18 Comments
FrankTheHealer@lemmy.world · 35 pts · 2y
Caoimh - kweeva
Siobhán - Shivawn
Sinead - Shin-ade
Níamh - Neev
Grainne - Grawn-ya
Sorcha - Surka
Bláthnaid - Blawnid
Clíodnadh - Clee-ona
Órlaith - Oar-la
Ciara - Kee-ra
All these names make sense when one understands Irish grammar and pronunciations, but I can absolutely see how people elsewhere would struggle with these.
Tum@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 2y
I wonder if its an accent thing but I've allways heard Niamh as "Nee-uv" and not "Neev" and I know quite a few Niamhs.
theRealBassist@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 2y
Nee-uv is correct. The 'i' carries the stress, as indicated by the accent, so the 'a' turns into an unstressed vowel /ə/.
To anyone else who has studied Irish, this is purposely a simplification.
Tum@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 2y
Ah Ok. I get ya. I wouldnt say I "studied" Irish despite doing it for 16+ years lol. I can read and write it, and speak it, but the actual intricacies of the phonetics is beyond me.
theRealBassist@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 2y
I did an MA in Welsh and Celtic Studies at Aberystwyth.
I did a few courses involving Old Irish and Scottish Gaelic, and while I enjoyed them I definitely can not speak any lol
Ond, mae fy Nghymraeg ddim yn ofnadwy.
Nepenthe@kbin.social · 5 pts · 2y
Oh... I always though Siobhan was really pretty, but it turns out I was just pronouncing it wrong.
Hiccups2go@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 2y
Thanks for sharing this! Found a few others as I was looking up my family members names:
Kevin - Caoimhín Maeve - Meadhbh
StrongHorseWeakNeigh@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 2y
youngalfred@lemm.ee · 43 pts · 2y
Play on the name Niamh, pronounced Neeve
jerrythegenius@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 2y
javasux@lemmy.world · 32 pts · 2y
Irish spelling rules are actually very internally consistent, they just don't use the Latin alphabet the same way that English does. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_orthography
jerrythegenius@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 2y
Cheems@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 2y
A lot of people think that Gaelic is what Irish actually is. Which they are two different languages
ReadyUser31@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 2y
Because Irish is literally a different language. You wouldn't ask the same thing about French or Vietnamese or whatever.
jerrythegenius@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 2y
themeatbridge@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 2y
Because "v" isn't a letter in Irish, but it is a phoneme approximated by "mh" or "bh."
sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml · 7 pts · 2y
I imagine it is similar to peeve
TheOctonaut@mander.xyz · 6 pts · 2y
Neeve in the north/east of Ireland, Nee-uv in the south/west where I'm from, making this meme even more annoying.
AdmiralShat@programming.dev · 1 pts · 2y
This comment said:
Somebody please tell me how that's pronounced... Please... I beg of you.
southsamurai@sh.itjust.works · 14 pts · 2y
Say it ain't Siobhan
Rand0mA@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 2y
Tell that to Aoife
Quetzalcutlass@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 2y
I'll submit Scáthatch as the one I was most relieved to learn the correct pronunciation of.