pronunciation of the name Eilis

cathalsma

I would really appreciate it if the forum could give me some advice about pronouncing the name "Eilis". I know that it can be pronounced with the first vowel sounding like the "e" in "Hey", but can that vowel also be pronounced like "eye" (like the first syllable in "Eileen")?

The latter pronunciation is the one that my husband and I have been using with our daughter (who is now 21 months old), but sometimes family members pronounce it the other way and I'm worried that we have it wrong.

Also, does the use of fadas affect the name's pronunciation?

Thanks in advance for your help.

joolsveer

cathalsma wrote:

I would really appreciate it if the forum could give me some advice about pronouncing the name "Eilis". I know that it can be pronounced with the first vowel sounding like the "e" in "Hey", but can that vowel also be pronounced like "eye" (like the first syllable in "Eileen")?

The latter pronunciation is the one that my husband and I have been using with our daughter (who is now 21 months old), but sometimes family members pronounce it the other way and I'm worried that we have it wrong.

Also, does the use of fadas affect the name's pronunciation?

Thanks in advance for your help.

I pronounce it eyelish

thesage

I would have said it was Eilís... eye-leesh. But yeah, without a fada it'd be eye-lish. I'm sure I've heard somebody pronounce it Éilis before too... Ay-lish.

cathalsma

Thanks -- I should have said that we pronounce it EYE-lish. And since we live in America (my husband is from Belfast but alas got no Irish in school) we tend to write it without a fada, though I think on the birth certificate we wrote it with a fada on the second "i".

So am I to understand that with no fadas, it would be pronounced eye-lish? But would that be a "correct" version of the name?

thesage

Eilís with the fada seems to be the standard version. That's pronounced eye-leesh. But it's much of a muchness.

kleefarr

eyelis ??

dranoel

There's an Eilís on the soap Ros na Rún. You can watch archived programs at www.tg4.tv under 'dráma cartlann'. She's the unfortunate wife of the careworker in charge of the home for teenagers. At the end of the last series she discovered that one of the children was the illegitimate daughter of her husband and her sister the village cop - great stuff

eilissinead

Hi there!

Just noticed this so I said I'd leave my comment...


My name is Eilís! It is pronounced AY-LISH

eye-lish is spelt, Eilish....no fada and a H....

x

Aard

I was under the impression that is was spelt "Éilís", with two fadas, hence the pronunciation of the first syllable as "eye", similar to how it's pronounced in the word "éirigh".

OP, don't worry - your pronunciation is fine! The use of fadas does change the pronunciation, but seeing as how you live in the US, not many people are going to know the difference


EDIT: Whoa, old thread!

An gal gréine

Checking out various sources, I found that Eilís is the regular spelling
and pronounced Eye-leesh.
If you wish to put a fada on the E, it would be AY-leesh. Think of
Éamonn, éan, éigin.
Without any fadas, it'd be Eye-lish.

cathalsma

Thanks, all! We put Eilís on her birth certificate and I feel reassured that at least we didn't go horribly wrong. We tend to pronounce it EYE-lish (I realize that with the fada the second syllable should be more like "eesh" so we'll keep that in mind.) Funny that a lot of people in Ireland and in the US want to call her AY-lish (AY as in "hay") but what I've learned on these boards is that there would need to be a fada on the E for that to work so I guess we're in the clear.

Aard

This is longterm thread-commitment by the OP. Others, take note.