Re: A question on pronunciation

[mn13189@WCUVAX1.WCU.EDU]

Poster: mn13189@WCUVAX1.WCU.EDU



On Thu, 16 Jan 1997, James and/or Nancy Gilly wrote:
> Again the information that I have is for modern Irish pronunciation, but in
> eight years spent between Galway and Dublin, with a lot of friends from all
> over the island, both north and south, I never heard Deirdre pronounced
> DEER-dree once.  I first heard that pronunciation after I came back to the
> US.  DARE-dra is still in use in some of the regional accents.

My information there came from an Irish exchange student at my old high
school.  I can't remember which part of Ireland she was from.

> We also have to remember that there are far more regional accents in Ireland
> than there are in a similar sized area of the United States.  An Irish
> speaker from Donegal will sound nothing like one from Kerry, or even Galway,
> AND THEY MAY NOT EVEN BE ABLE TO UNDERSTAND EACHOTHER.  This difference in
> accents was even more pronounced before the advent of easy travel, radio,
> and television.

This statement is also true of medieval Scots, English, French, and most
likely any language you care to name.  Dialects are fun!  Considering the
fact that most manuscripts in the middle ages were reproduced by reading
aloud to a room full of scribes, you can get situations like a man from
Kent reading text written by someone from London, to a room full of
scribes from all over England, and they all have to try and spell out
their interpretations of the readers interpretation of the original
language!  No wonder there was no standardized spelling before the
printing press!
Aye,
Eogan

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