Names which you mispronounced for years, before eventually realising...

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I wonder what it was like when the seimhiú was written the old way with a ponc instead of the h.... :beard:

Ha, I don't know! The old dot could be brought back, to those who don't know about it the H is just confusing. At least then people who aren't familiar with Irish would know that the word is mean to be pronounced in a way that they aren't familiar with, rather than trying to say things like Siobhán as 'see-ob-han' and suchlike. :tongue:

Maybe it's a bit late now. Imagine using an unsimplified surname like Conchobhair today, you'd have to get used to being 'Mr/Mrs Con-chob-hair'

Reply 181

aeterno

Original post by dobbs

Original post by Annie72

Original post by SsEe

You're all awesome! :awesome:

Reply 182

KatieKate

Original post by Etoile

They are two different places, but pronounced differently :confused:

Oh.

Cool.

Reply 183

Annie72

Original post by aeterno

You're all awesome! :awesome:

+ rep..... :smile:

Reply 184

spiral1

hahahah I used to call sean.... scene!

Reply 185

Craig_D

Original post by Jim_Taylor

My friend Siobhan gets angry when I say it like shu-born. I finally learnt after she would hit me each time I got it wrong :biggrin:

LOL

Unless she spells it Siobhán you can rightly call her 'sha-van', rather than 'sha-vorn'. :biggrin:

It always confuses me that when the name was Anglicised the á was replaced with a, yet the lenited bh was retained. I don't know why they didn't convert all the letters, and make it into Shavorn or whatever. It was only half-Anglicised, same goes for Sean/Seán.

Reply 186

medbh4805

Original post by Craig_D

Unless she spells it Siobhán you can rightly call her 'sha-van', rather than 'sha-vorn'. :biggrin:

I think it's because a lot of people seem to believe an seimhiú doesn't matter (even, depressingly, among some Gaeilgeoirí). It irritates me to no end when people leave it off my name. "Grainne" means something completely different from "Gráinne" - I insist vehemently that it's a misspelling :fuhrer:

Reply 187

NornIronKitKat

I'm a Siobhán and I've lost count of the number of different pronunciations and spellings I've had.
The Critical Care Unit at the hospital is full of Irish nurses and so we've a huge number wonderful names: Aoife, Aisling, Niamh, Sian. I felt right at home doing my work experience there!

Reply 188

JOR2010

Original post by philistine

... your now incredibly foolish mistake.

I'm almost afraid to admit this, but until last night, I always pronounced Goethe as 'go-uff', when it's actually 'gert-uh'.

I feel so ashamed. :emo:

Go.

EDIT: It was during All Quiet on The Western Front, where the tutor says to the class, 'he wants to be all like Goethe and Schiller'. Thank you, for pointing out my ignorance.

:smug:

Arkansas. Or perhaps Kreacher, from the HP novels.

Reply 189

user settings

Original post by philistine

... your now incredibly foolish mistake.

I'm almost afraid to admit this, but until last night, I always pronounced Goethe as 'go-uff', when it's actually 'gert-uh'.

I feel so ashamed. :emo:

Go.

EDIT: It was during All Quiet on The Western Front, where the tutor says to the class, 'he wants to be all like Goethe and Schiller'. Thank you, for pointing out my ignorance.

:smug:

Iron, the one used to get rid of creases on clothes.
I pronounced it as Iron until one of my friends corrected me after 16 years.

Reply 190

Foghorn Leghorn

Original post by scriggy

Hermione.

Yeah it's pronounced; heroin

Reply 191

White Trash

Her-me-own

For Hermione. Who the **** creates a children's book character whose name is impossible to get right? Retard.

Reply 192

elisabethr

Neeeem (Niamh)

Her-mee-own (Hermione)

Mat - huw (Matthew)

Hug–huh (Hugh)

Then again, I couldn't spell my name until I was seven. :confused:

Reply 193

Cool Cat

Original post by Emily:-)

I knew there'd be a lot of Irish names in this thread :laugh:

In Northern Ireland, you can generally tell who is a Protestant and who is a Catholic because the Protestants (like the English) look at Irish names like Fionnuala, Roisin, Caoimhe, Siobhan etc with blank faces!

LOL I fulfill this stereotype stupidly well :colondollar:

I am learning though! :proud:

Reply 194

Nephilim

Original post by GeekyNick

Eoin (as in Eoin Colfer)

I had read most of the Artemis Fowl books before I realised it should be "Owen" and not "E-oin" (Rhyming with coin) .

Judging by his website it must happen a lot ...

I thought it was pronounced as Ian :colonhash:

.

BTW, Arkansas is a french pronunciation of a Quapaw (Native American tribe) word.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 195

Lollyage

Phoebe.

Always thought it was 'Phow-eb' :colondollar:

Reply 196

Jabberwox

When I was really little I couldn't for the life of me work out how to pronounce 'Bartholomew'

It was just a really huge word when I was tiny :frown:

Reply 197

battycatlady

Sinead

For years I thought it was sin-ee-ad until someone told me it was 'shin-aid'.

Also I used to read Arya as something stupid like area.

And I used to think siobhan was see-o-ban, which isn't even a name at all :')