Irish Names : microblogmemes

[–] FrankTheHealer@lemmy.world 35 points 8 months ago (3 children)

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 points 8 months ago (1 children)

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 points 8 months ago (1 children)

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 points 8 months ago (1 children)

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 points 8 months ago

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 points 8 months ago

Oh... I always though Siobhan was really pretty, but it turns out I was just pronouncing it wrong.

[–] Hiccups2go@lemmy.world 4 points 8 months ago

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 points 8 months ago (4 children)

[deleted]

[–] youngalfred@lemm.ee 43 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Play on the name Niamh, pronounced Neeve

[–] jerrythegenius@lemmy.world 13 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Damn I thought english was bad. How do you get neeve from niamh?

[–] javasux@lemmy.world 32 points 8 months ago (1 children)

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 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Oh I thought they meant irish as in irish english (the dialect, like how I speak australian english)

[–] Cheems@lemmy.world 4 points 8 months ago

A lot of people think that Gaelic is what Irish actually is. Which they are two different languages

[–] ReadyUser31@lemmy.world 16 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Because Irish is literally a different language. You wouldn't ask the same thing about French or Vietnamese or whatever.

[–] jerrythegenius@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago

Yeah I know lol, I was thinking irish english

[–] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 7 points 8 months ago

Because "v" isn't a letter in Irish, but it is a phoneme approximated by "mh" or "bh."

[–] sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 7 points 8 months ago

I imagine it is similar to peeve

[–] TheOctonaut@mander.xyz 6 points 8 months ago

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 points 8 months ago

This comment said:

Somebody please tell me how that's pronounced... Please... I beg of you.

[–] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 14 points 8 months ago

Say it ain't Siobhan

[–] Rand0mA@lemmy.world 7 points 8 months ago

Tell that to Aoife

[–] Quetzalcutlass@lemmy.world 5 points 8 months ago

I'll submit Scáthatch as the one I was most relieved to learn the correct pronunciation of.

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