[Teerah]

Could I have a little help with the pronunciation of this pretty name. I know it has been covered before but I am not entirely clear on it.

Is it AY-va with ay as in say/day

Or is it AVE-ah with the ave as in gave/rave

Many thanks if you can help

Tara

[byhookorbycrook]

Ay va

[Teerah]

Thankyou!

[PurpleFistMixer]

Wait, what's the difference between those two? The "a" in gave/rave is the same "a" as in say/day... o.O

[Teerah]

It wasnt the "a" sound I was asking about, it was the whole of the first syllable I meant, ie, was it an "ay" sound or an "ave" sound as broken down in the first post

[An gal gréine]

AY-AH-VA

[Aard]

AY-va = AVE-ah


I mean, right? Also, IPA should be a requirement for all future pronunciation threads! (I'm only half-joking.)

[Teerah]

Not in my accent they arent

PS what is IPA?

[Aard]

IPA is the International Phonetic Alphabet. It gets around the issue of different people having different accents, and the fact that often in English the same letter can have multiple realisations (as such, using English spelling as an approximation of pronunciation invariably leads to confusion).

[P. Breathnach]

Originally Posted by Aard

... using English spelling as an approximation of pronunciation invariably leads to confusion.

Whereas, for Irish, spelling and pronunciation actually work very well together. If you read a word that you have never heard, you should be able to pronounce it reasonably correctly in your particular dialect.

Not that it's much help to OP, but the perfect answer to the question of how Éabha should be pronounced is "as it's written (provided that you are speaking Irish)".

[Teerah]

Thanks for the explanation Aard and for everyones input.

[Aard]

Originally Posted by P. Breathnach

Whereas, for Irish, spelling and pronunciation actually work very well together. If you read a word that you have never heard, you should be able to pronounce it reasonably correctly in your particular dialect.

Yep! I've always found that to be true. It works the other way too; if somebody tells you a word, it shouldn't be difficult to spell it. Irish spelling is almost completely regular.

[An gal gréine]

If it's Irish pronunciation then Éabha is similar to Fionnuala...
Fionn-u-a-la
or in English
Finn-oo-la

[Cailleachdubh]

Ok, how is Éabha like Fionnuala exactly? They have nothing in common pronounciation wise!!

[An gal gréine]

In English, for some reason, people dont pronounce the underlined below.

Éabha
Fionnuala
Caitríona

In Irish it's there to be pronounced.