How to pronounce Celtic words and names

ileolai:

geekgirlsmash:

literary-potato:

todosthelangues:

Step 1: Read the word.
Step 2: Wrong.

A REAL LIST OF ACTUAL NAMES AND THEIR (approximate) PRONUNCIATIONS:
Siobhan — “sheh-VAWN”
Aoife – “EE-fa”
Aislin – “ASH-linn”

Bláithín – “BLAW-heen”

Caoimhe – “KEE-va”

Eoghan – Owen (sometimes with a slight “y” at the beginning)

Gráinne – “GRAW-nya”

Iarfhlaith – “EER-lah”
Méabh – “MAYV”
Naomh or Niamh – “NEEV”
Oisín – OSH-een or USH-een
Órfhlaith – OR-la
Odhrán – O-rawn
Sinéad – shi-NAYD
Tadhg – TIEG (like you’re saying “tie” or “Thai” with a G and the end)

One of those has 9 superfluous letters.

Irish orthography is actually 100x superior to and makes much  more sense than English once you understand how it works. 
You’ll pretty much never come across a situation where the same vowel combination is pronounced 560986095865 different ways [for example: heard, beard, heart, fear, dearth]. ‘’aoi’’ is always ‘’ee’’. ‘’

ái’’ is always ‘’aw’’. Now you can read those few words in the above list you can pretty much read 2/3rds of Gaeilge words correctly, even if you don’t know the meanings of the words yet. 

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