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Storm Ciara

It's an easy mistake to make, I initially thought Ciara was pronounced Kee-ara because that's how you pronounce the Itialian "Chiara" and the spellings are so close. There's no rhyme or reason to Irish names, all those Siobhans and Grainnes, I mean Saoirse comes out as "Sear-sha". It's almost like a whole different language.
Almost ;)

I know nobody is going to believe me, but ... Irish spelling is completely regular and phonetic.

The problem is that Irish has twice as many consonant sounds as English, but only uses 18 letters of the alphabet (no j,k,q,v,w, x, y or z), so we have to use clusters of letters (like mh,bh for the "v" sound) for some sounds, and also, like in Italian, the sounds of consonants in Irish will change depending on the vowel next to them. In Irish there are about five or six like this, not just G and C as in Italian (and C and G in Irish don't change their sound.. Italian's not a good starting point for learning Irish!).

This broad/slender vowel rule is the reason why the S in Siobhán is soft ("shove-AWN"), but hard in "Saoirse" ("SEER-shuh") and "Sorcha" ("SUHR-kha"). C, meanwhile, is always hard, so Ciara is "KEER-a", not "SEER-a" or even "CHEER-a".

The three-letter group -aoi- always sounds like the vowel sound in "ear", so now you know how to pronounce "Aoife" too. Actually, if you ever do meet an Aoife, she'll be really impressed that you pronounced her name correctly... it's actually an easy name to say, but there's something about the mass of vowels that throws everyone who tries to read it.
 
Almost ;)

I know nobody is going to believe me, but ... Irish spelling is completely regular and phonetic.

The problem is that Irish has twice as many consonant sounds as English, but only uses 18 letters of the alphabet (no j,k,q,v,w, x, y or z), so we have to use clusters of letters (like mh,bh for the "v" sound) for some sounds, and also, like in Italian, the sounds of consonants in Irish will change depending on the vowel next to them. In Irish there are about five or six like this, not just G and C as in Italian (and C and G in Irish don't change their sound.. Italian's not a good starting point for learning Irish!).

This broad/slender vowel rule is the reason why the S in Siobhán is soft ("shove-AWN"), but hard in "Saoirse" ("SEER-shuh") and "Sorcha" ("SUHR-kha"). C, meanwhile, is always hard, so Ciara is "KEER-a", not "SEER-a" or even "CHEER-a".

The three-letter group -aoi- always sounds like the vowel sound in "ear", so now you know how to pronounce "Aoife" too. Actually, if you ever do meet an Aoife, she'll be really impressed that you pronounced her name correctly... it's actually an easy name to say, but there's something about the mass of vowels that throws everyone who tries to read it.

This is really useful information - thank you, Irish names have been a bugbear for me - and now a little bit of light is entering.
 
Strange effect from Ciara here in the North. Two suction hooks fell off the wall yesterday morning.

The pressure dropped to the 950s mB. I can only think this caused the suction to leak away.
 
Strange effect from Ciara here in the North. Two suction hooks fell off the wall yesterday morning.

The pressure dropped to the 950s mB. I can only think this caused the suction to leak away.
Correct, but probably not 'suction'. Just not enough pressure to hold them on the wall. (I have a thing about 'centrifugal' and 'centripetal' too)
 
The three-letter group -aoi- always sounds like the vowel sound in "ear", so now you know how to pronounce "Aoife" too. Actually, if you ever do meet an Aoife, she'll be really impressed that you pronounced her name correctly... it's actually an easy name to say, but there's something about the mass of vowels that throws everyone who tries to read it.
I’ve met an Aiofe, but only after I’d heard her name pronounced. I had fewer problems then because it resembles “Eva” so I imagine it’s the Irish “Eva” or “Eve”. Saiorse throw me totally because I’d only ever seen it written, in the case of the actress Saiorse Ronan. I had enough knowledge of Celtic languages to guess the “shuh” ending, but the start was a mystery. I imagined it to be “Sarsha”, thus making it an Irish take on “Sasha”. That’s what it will be, I thought. Wrong. That’s what makes the Aines, Grainnes and Saoirses so difficult, there isn’t an equivalent in other European names. In continental Europe the run of the mill Helenas, Karolinas, Pietros, Stefans and Joses can be guessed at, it’s only the outliers like Wojciech and Przemyslaw that don’t give you a clue.
 
Environment Agency starting to make usual excuses. Hebden Bridge and Mytholmroyd have been hit repeatedly and every time they are told that new defences will be installed and every time they are not. I suspect if it were Dulwich or Kensington in London work would have started the very next day!
 
Environment Agency starting to make usual excuses. Hebden Bridge and Mytholmroyd have been hit repeatedly and every time they are told that new defences will be installed and every time they are not. I suspect if it were Dulwich or Kensington in London work would have started the very next day!
I’ve met an Aiofe, but only after I’d heard her name pronounced. I had fewer problems then because it resembles “Eva” so I imagine it’s the Irish “Eva” or “Eve”. Saiorse throw me totally because I’d only ever seen it written, in the case of the actress Saiorse Ronan. I had enough knowledge of Celtic languages to guess the “shuh” ending, but the start was a mystery. I imagined it to be “Sarsha”, thus making it an Irish take on “Sasha”. That’s what it will be, I thought. Wrong. That’s what makes the Aines, Grainnes and Saoirses so difficult, there isn’t an equivalent in other European names. In continental Europe the run of the mill Helenas, Karolinas, Pietros, Stefans and Joses can be guessed at, it’s only the outliers like Wojciech and Przemyslaw that don’t give you a clue.

I have a mate who's a Saiorse. She pronounces 'Sore sha'.
 
@guest ... would she be from Ulster, by any chance?

If I didn't mention it earlier, Saoirse is simply the Irish word for "freedom". Its use as a given name is reasonably new, first appearing in the 1920s (unsurprisingly), and it became popular again in the 1990s: Saoirse Ronan is from that wave.

@stevec67
Aoife is indeed the Irish version of "Eve/Eva". Áine (AW-nyeh) shouldn't be too difficult either, as it's the Irish form of "Ann".

Gráinne (GRAW-nyeh) is an old name - not sure what it means, but most likely has something to do with the word "grá", meaning love.

... Both Áine and Gráinne feature the soft-n sound (used because the n is beside an i), so it sounds like the n in "new" rather than the hard n (of "now").


...and foreign names are always a bit.. foreign. Personally, I never understood how you could start with Alexander/Alexandra and end up at "Sasha"
 
@guest ... would she be from Ulster, by any chance?

If I didn't mention it earlier, Saoirse is simply the Irish word for "freedom". Its use as a given name is reasonably new, first appearing in the 1920s (unsurprisingly), and it became popular again in the 1990s: Saoirse Ronan is from that wave.

@stevec67
Aoife is indeed the Irish version of "Eve/Eva". Áine (AW-nyeh) shouldn't be too difficult either, as it's the Irish form of "Ann".

Gráinne (GRAW-nyeh) is an old name - not sure what it means, but most likely has something to do with the word "grá", meaning love.

... Both Áine and Gráinne feature the soft-n sound (used because the n is beside an i), so it sounds like the n in "new" rather than the hard n (of "now").


...and foreign names are always a bit.. foreign. Personally, I never understood how you could start with Alexander/Alexandra and end up at "Sasha"


@KrisW Yes, from County Down. Drinks like a fish, swears like a trooper. She's great.
 
From the Daily Mash:

The Daily Mash said:
NEW Irish employee Kyla Burns has surprised her colleagues by revealing there are no hidden letters in her name.

Staff at London-based accountants Madeley-Finnegan greeted her warmly, but became visibly nervous when the time came to add her name to the tea and coffee rota.

Colleague Nathan Muir said: “She seemed nice and very genuine, but we got burned last month when Aisling Kelley visited from the Dublin office.

“I’m not accusing every Irish person of smuggling a few extra letters in their name, but that’s exactly how they get away with it.

“So you can imagine our relief when Kyla spelled her name and every single letter could be accounted for – like a proper name.

“After that she really bonded with the rest of the team, apart from being a little offended with our incorrect use of the word ‘crack’.”

Meanwhile, a name badge reading ‘Kaieyloagh Ní Byrnes’ was thrown in the bin moments before Kyla was taken on a tour of the office.

Irish names have been a constant source of irritation to the English since the 19th century, when many Irish families started hoarding extra letters in case of a shortage.
 


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