How to Pronounce Irish Names 🗣️👂🇮🇪☘️ (and other Irish words): A quick guide
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Published 2017-03-20
It can seem daunting to meet someone whose name you've seen written down, but have no idea how its pronounced & this is especially true with Irish people. This is because a lot of our names are based on Irish orthography (spelling & pronunciation rules).
Having a full understanding of this can take some getting used to, so instead of giving a thorough lesson, I decided to simplify things and give the most practical tips that work the majority of the time. I realize that I had to generalize and there are a few exceptions, but what I covered in this video will genuinely help you the vast majority of the time :)
(I also referred to lenition, implying that it only happens with the letter 'h', but this ignores when it happens with a 't' at the start of words. I didn't bring that up in this video because making notes of all the little things like that would have made this much longer and the remaining rules don't apply as much to names)
I hope I show in this video that it's really not that bad - Irish spelling is very consistent actually, especially when compared to English. If you keep the rules of thumb from the video in mind, you should find it much easier, whether you have Irish friends, or are learning the Irish language :)
To prove the point, here is the video I mentioned near the end, where I read a ridiculous poem in English:
• "The Chaos" (English is tough stuff!)...
Otherwise, I referenced some other links, so be sure to check out my page on Irish resources here: www.fluentin3months.com/irish-learning-resources/
And here is a playlist of videos about learning Irish and videos that I've made IN Irish (with subtitles):
• Irish: Videos in and about Irish lang...
Since a few people were asking, here's a link to the background music: audiojungle.net/item/long-way-from-home/20608935?r…
I expect nitpicking in the comments because of things that aren't perfect (not possible to be thorough in a short video), but I hope some of you get genuine use out of this!!
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All Comments (21)
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I'm so happy this video is so well received. Thank you everyone!! For further tips on any Irish pronunciations I couldn't get to in the video, see my comments below on that. If you liked it, please subscribe to my channel for more fun tips on language learning and much more, and feel free share this video with whoever you think would benefit from watching it! For a next recommended video along the same general theme to watch on my channel, check this one out for a laugh: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJFayFOASMg
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People who can't pronounce niamh properly is my biggest pet piamh.
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My irish teacher always said there’s no thugs in irish only hugs.
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My grandmother, who has been in the US for about 90 years now (she's 98) still pronounce my name as padrig (Patrick) ... more specifically she says, "yer moi padrig"
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Learning broad vs slender will definitely help one understand why Irish is written the way it is.
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Irish: "Once you learn a letter or letter combination, you can pronounce any new word." English: "Through tough thorough thought"
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My husband speaks the language and he's from Ireland. I swoon every time he speaks it. It's so pretty.
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I’m an old man, but I still dream of spending quality time in Ireland while I learn the Irish language.
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Always admired my Irish friend 'Evan' for spelling her name in 8 letters when 4 would have been enough.
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I don’t know why I’m watching this I’m already Irish
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"Irish is phonetic" Me: yay I can learn it easily immediately descends into vortex of anti-phoneticness
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Beautiful language, beautiful people, beautiful country. Love from Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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How cool that Tomás is written in the exact same way for both Irish and Portuguese!
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Shout out to my parents for giving me the easiest Irish name to pronounce
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Love the Irish sounds. It gives me the image of good old times where the globe were more diverse in terms of culture and language. Mystic and enchanting Irish pronunciations.
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As delighted as I am to hear some of this broken down for me, I can't stop looking at the man speaking. He's gorgeous! And his warm voice sounds skin to a warm breeze.
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NO-ONE has EVER explained that to me as simply and straightforwardly as you have done. I gave up learning years ago, I might just start again. THANK YOU BENNY!!
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What I find sad, is that most people dont even know that Irish is a language :(
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This makes reading books set in Ireland, or with Irish characters so much easier to read! Thank you!
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