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Without checking, how would you pronounce these Irish names

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Aoife - Alfie
Caoimhe - Kay-oh-me
Orlaith - O-lah
Padraig - Pa-drick
Eoghan - E-gan
Sorcha - So-cha
Niamh - Neem
Saoirse - Sar-say
Feidhelm - Fee-him
Tadhg - Tag

I probably did horrible, but it's the only way I can get them to sound good phonically in my head.
 
I knew Padraig and Saoirse because of family members. Most of the others I came pretty close because I'm not entirely unfamiliar with Irish/Gaelic. I've spent a reasonable amount of time in Ireland.
 
Not so sure about Niamh, my partner is named that and although everyone I know pronounces it Neev, her Irish father pronounces it differently, almost like it's two syllables instead of the one.
 
My mother is named Niamh and your partner's father is correct.


I dated a Niamh for four years and her family and friends would all pronounce it slightly differently. Its an accent thing more then anything else. She got plenty of " nee-uph"s. I called her Neev. Among other things.
 
I had a lodger named Siobhan once. One day a package arrived addressed to her and I was like, 'Cyo-barn? wrong house sorry.' and sent it away. I'd never seen the name written down before and would never in a million years have guessed that is how you spelled 'Shevaughn'.
 
Fíachra
Oisín
Caoímhe
Shulagh
Íosaf
Ruaidhrí
Dáithígh

Fia-cra
Ush een
Qwee vah
Shoe lah
Yus ef
Ruor ree
Dah hee
 
The only reason this is difficult is because the way Irish is transcribed is as awkward as fuck. If you wrote a 'v' instead of a 'bh', and so on, nobody would have these problems. The names themselves aren't inherently hard to pronounce.
 
How about some place names?

Dun Laoghaire
An Gaeltacht

Also another name:-

Naoise

At least that's how I've seen one person spell it. Lol
 
Huh, I always thought this one was
Quee-va
. That said, I've only met one Caoimhe in my life so perhaps she was stitching me up. I prefer your version.

People seem to use both pronunciations, I've known and heard of a few people that use differing ones.
 
I started out pretty good!

.. But then i checked the answers, i got nothing. Wouldn't it make more sense to just use the letters that correspond to the sound when it comes to writing down names :(?
 
I love irish names, even though I can't pronounce them. The only one I got right was Saoirse and that was because of Seahorse Ronin. I also almost got Aoife (pronounced it "I-fa" instead of "Ee-fa")
 
I got none of them LOL

Reminds of this Irish Pub in The Hague; we came in at St Patrick's Day, and the bartender went full Irish at us for like 20 minutes, we didn't understand what he was saying. He ended his story looks at us all expecting and stuff, and we were just "sorry, mate, we're natives, we have no idea what the hell you were on about." he starts laughing, pulls a few stouts, hands them over to us, holds one up and says "well, bless ya hearts, but yer Irish t'day!" and we all drank. Turns out, we were the only Dutch in the place that night :D
 
Aoife - Ahwaf
Caoimhe - Caoymeu
Orlaith - Orlate
Padraig - Padreg
Eoghan - Iogan
Sorcha - Sorcha
Niamh - Niam
Saoirse - Saoyrse
Feidhelm - Faidelm
Tadhg - Tadg

I'm french.
 
I got none of them LOL

Reminds of this Irish Pub in The Hague; we came in at St Patrick's Day, and the bartender went full Irish at us for like 20 minutes, we didn't understand what he was saying. He ended his story looks at us all expecting and stuff, and we were just "sorry, mate, we're natives, we have no idea what the hell you were on about." he starts laughing, pulls a few stouts, hands them over to us, holds one up and says "well, bless ya hearts, but yer Irish t'day!" and we all drank. Turns out, we were the only Dutch in the place that night :D

99% of Irish people would have the exact same experience
 
I got none right.

I thought Niamh was spelled similarly to Liam, but I was proven completely wrong. My ex girlfriend's wow character was name Niamh, so I always went with "Neeahm".
 
I got none right.

I thought Niamh was spelled similarly to Liam, but I was proven completely wrong. My ex girlfriend's wow character was name Niamh, so I always went with "Neeahm".

'mh' (and sometimes, but not always 'bh') in Irish are pronounced as 'v'.

Bhí is pronounced 'vee', is the word for 'was'
Bhfuil is pronounced 'will', is the present tense 'to be'

It's all very confusing. I can't speak the language at all (I wish I could) but I know all these constructs at least.
 
I don't know why but I get flashbacks of Broken Sword here, all I see in my mind is Georgie.

I managed to get most right to be fair.
 
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