Re: A question on pronunciation

[mn13189@WCUVAX1.WCU.EDU]

Poster: mn13189@WCUVAX1.WCU.EDU



On Wed, 15 Jan 1997, James and/or Nancy Gilly wrote:
> At least in Ireland today , Eithne is pronounced as ETH-na, or ET-na, rather
> like the volcano in Sicily.  The "th" is somewhere between the "t" and the
> "th" of modern English. 

I have learned that just because it is so in modern Gaelic, does not mean
it was so in medieval Gaelic.  Most people on this side of the Big Blue
Thing would pronounce Deirdre as DEER-dra.  Over in Ireland (I understand)
it is pronounced DEER-dree.  Now, from what I know (I don't remember my
source book), the ancient way of pronouncing the name was DARE-dra, which
is closer to our American pronunciation than modern Irish.

> In the eight years that I lived in Ireland I never
> met anyone whose name was pronounced "Enya", but it would seem to be some
> form of Ainne, or Anne.  There is an Irish name pronounced Ay-gon, with two
> equally stressed syllables.  I do not know if this is related to Eoghan, and
> if it is, if the pronunciation applies to the Scots form.  
> 

Maybe.  Maybe not.  Gaelic in Scotland and Ireland was pretty much the
same (aside from regional dialects) until about the 17th century when
changes really started taking place on both sides of the Irish Sea.
Considering even the word "Gaelic" is pronounced differently in modern
Scotland and modern Ireland, I wouldn't make any assumptions.

Aye,
Eogan

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