funny irish spellings

[mcmc]

Ever notice so many words with Irish-Celtic background aren't pronounced like they're spelled? Like I heard that Tuatha de Danaan is pronounced, Tua de Dan. And a harper named Toirdhealbhach O' Cearbhallain (not sure if all spelled right) they pronounce, turlee o carolan. My real question is, does that mean long ago all those letters WERE pronounced, and if you did so,would it sound like a more ancient version of the language?

[Clanad]

Keep in mind that any written language is preceded by a lengthy period of oral transmission only. That is, the language is spoken, in some cases for hundreds, if not thousands of years before it set to pen (or stylus). The first attempts to replicate the spoken language in written form simply tries to mimic the sounds with the alphabet available to the writer. I've studied the first attempts to write down the Cheyenne tribe of Native American's language. It was first accomplished by a Catholic priest in about 1858. The use of English alphabet to reproduce the sounds he heard from the speakers doesn't correlate to our ear very well, but the TsiTsiTsas (Cheyenne's) didn't and still don't have an alphabet of their own. I suspect that ancient languages came into written form in much the same way...

[gw1]

mcmc, because we're Irish, do you think our words should be like English pronounications of the letters as you understand them in English, but we're not allowed to have our own interpretation of those same letters. It is atitudes like that that have won the English such welcome acceptance in every country they have colonisied!!!

[bernardo]

They are pronounced as they are written, but the rules for translating written letters into sounds are more complicated in Irish than they are in most other languages. A lot of the vowels are "extra" letters which merely indicate whether consonants are hard or soft (palatalised). If you get to know all the rules, you can get the pronuncialtion correct - it's not like English where you sometimes have to learn each word separately even with the same spelling (like -ough words).

[THECORBYLOON]

mcmc so the English surname of "FEATHERSTONEHAUGH," pronounced "FANSHAW," isn't funny at all then.......

[woofgang]

was gonna say the same., In Irish, they are pronounced like they are spelled!!

[Grunty]

It's disappointing, isn't it, that other nations pronounce and spell their words in their own ways. As a simple example, consider the Spanish man's name Jorge. But believe it or not, there are things about us that the Irish find funny.

[twopennorth]

You could say the same for English, though couldn't you?

I don't know how to reply to gw1 but think s/he should calm down a bit. It was a reasonable enough question - from someone who never said they were English, Irish or anyother nationality. Time to get that splinter out of your rear end gw1.

[mcmc]

It's me again, who asked the original ?. I don't know how to "reply" to these replies, except by pretending I'm sending an answer in. No offense intended, gosh, far from it. I just like Celtic things (music, poetry, myth, etc) and wondered if the spelling would be a link to the past somehow. Like "knight" used to be pronounced with the "k" and the "gh." I love the sound of Gaelic and every time I read a name or word that has lots more letters than I can figure out how to say, I feel I'm missing out on the true beauty of it. That's all I meant! Thanks for such quick answers!