Eye-land or I-uh-land?

Thirdfox

I was wondering how do people pronounce the name of this country?

I say I-land myself but people (foreigners from the US, China etc. etc.) often get confused with the word island and ask me which island I come from...to which I refer "THE island"

On foreign stations though (now this may only be the US or something) I often hear Ireland being pronounced as Eye-uh-land. Is this actually the more correct pronunciation?

How do you pronounce our country's name?

seamus

Em...

Eye-er-land surely?

I've never heard anyone call it "Island" or "Iuland".

Although British accents pronounce "er" as "uh" or "ah", so often British people will call it "Eye-uh-land".

arybvtcw0eolkf

Funny enough I pronounce it IRELAND.

And here's what Ireland mean's to me (big cheesy moment)..

I is for internment of the innocent and free
R is for resistance to the laws of tryany
E is for the English who have torn our land apart
L is for the love of freedom in every Irish heart
A is for the answer we`re all searching for
N is for one nation and an end to this long war
D is for the dream of millions longing to be free.

That`s how I spell Ireland, that`s what Ireland means to me.

star-pants

Would have thought it was more Are-Land
or as above 'eye - or - land'
I've heard it pronounced I - OR - LAND or IRE (as in anger)- LAND

EIRE ftw I think lol.

another good american said 'you were in Galloway? I'd love to visit Galloway'

cance

Mairt wrote: »

I is for internment of the innocent and free
R is for resistance to the laws of tryany
E is for the English who have torn our land apart
L is for the love of freedom in every Irish heart
A is for the answer we`re all searching for
N is for one nation and an end to this long war
D is for the dream of millions longing to be free.

put your wifes cheerleader outfit and pompoms on, then say that again, while eating a banana.

mike65

Ar-land

Mike.

ps mairt - bleugh do you have a violin to go with that?

Agamemnon

It's IRE-land, I've never heard people not pronounce the 'r'.

Although Ian Paisley calls it Arland as in "the Arish government".

_blank_

Ar-land? WTF?

Eyer-land

The poll options are a bit tbh.

dame

Thirdfox,

Of course people have been asking you what island you're from, you've been saying you come from eye-land, Dumb-Ass.

There is an "R" in the word. It is not a silent letter. Use it.

Correct pronunciation is I-ER-LAND or IRE-LAND.


I can't believe that you don't know how to pronounce the name of the country you come from.
Go back to your cave, Troll.

Ishmael

I-RRRRR-land. Similar to I R baboon, except speaking quicklier

Pherekydes

OP:

How do you pronounce IRE?

Troll is right.

Thirdfox

Maybe I don't come from this country?

I can't believe you would judge someone as a troll when you have no supporting evidence.

When you say the correct pronounciation is I-ER-LAND could I see some sort of evidence for that?

For example the OED states that the word is pronounced: ˈaɪələnd

whereas Merrion Webster uses:
ˈī(-ə)r-lənd

unfortunately I do not understand dictionary notation but there is a distinctive lack of an R in the OED version on the word.

http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50121066?single=1&query_type=word&queryword=ireland&first=1&max_to_show=10
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ireland

ArphaRima

I think the Americans can pronounce Ireland better than we can. It is IRE not OUR or ARE. I certainly used to pronounce it ARE-Land.

Peared

Unless you're a brit Thirdfox I dont get why this question exists.

I-uh-land my green shamrocky ass.

Thirdfox

Slow coach wrote: »

OP:

How do you pronounce IRE?

Troll is right.

How do you pronounce Thames? Silent letters are present in the English language - being mistaken about a word (which I still have not seen proof of) does not make one a troll.

Dirty Dave

Thirdfox wrote: »

Maybe I don't come from this country?

I can't believe you would judge someone as a troll when you have no supporting evidence.

When you say the correct pronounciation is I-ER-LAND could I see some sort of evidence for that?

For example the OED states that the word is pronounced: ˈaɪələnd

whereas Merrion Webster uses:
ˈī(-ə)r-lənd

unfortunately I do not understand dictionary notation but there is a distinctive lack of an R in the OED version on the word.

http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50121066?single=1&query_type=word&queryword=ireland&first=1&max_to_show=10
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ireland

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ireland

/ˈaɪərlənd/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[ahyuhr-luhnd]

In other words
EYE - UR - LAND or
I - ER - LAND if you prefer

Thirdfox

Dirty Dave wrote: »

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ireland

/ˈaɪərlənd/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[ahyuhr-luhnd]

In other words
EYE - UR - LAND or
I - ER - LAND if you prefer

Thank you for giving a serious reply to my question. I had seen that site's suggestion as to pronunciation already but was wondering does the fact that the Oxford English Dictionary give a different one (ˈaɪələnd) mean that the r is not pronounced (according to British English)?

Does Ireland tend to lean more towards British or American pronunciations anyway?

I probably should have posted this thread in a language forum - but I wanted to see what do the average Irish person say... unfortunately in AH you always get the abusive posters (who have been reported of course).

Terry

dame wrote: »

Thirdfox,

Of course people have been asking you what island you're from, you've been saying you come from eye-land, Dumb-Ass.

There is an "R" in the word. It is not a silent letter. Use it.

Correct pronunciation is I-ER-LAND or IRE-LAND.


I can't believe that you don't know how to pronounce the name of the country you come from.
Go back to your cave, Troll.

Warning given.

Terry

Thirdfox wrote: »

Thank you for giving a serious reply to my question. I had seen that site's suggestion as to pronunciation already but was wondering does the fact that the Oxford English Dictionary give a different one (ˈaɪələnd) mean that the r is not pronounced (according to British English)?

Does Ireland tend to lean more towards British or American pronunciations anyway?

I probably should have posted this thread in a language forum - but I wanted to see what do the average Irish person say... unfortunately in AH you always get the abusive posters (who have been reported of course).

We use our own pronunciations, rather than leaning towards British or American ones.

smashey

West Britain.

Ire-land.

Dirty Dave

Thirdfox wrote: »

I probably should have posted this thread in a language forum - but I wanted to see what do the average Irish person say... unfortunately in AH you always get the abusive posters (who have been reported of course).

Sorry buddy, I'm from Djibouti.

Pherekydes

Thirdfox wrote: »

How do you pronounce Thames? Silent letters are present in the English language - being mistaken about a word (which I still have not seen proof of) does not make one a troll.

What the fcuk has Thames got to do with it? There are millions of words in the English language, and lots of them don't have silent letters, Ireland included. Not our fault you can't say the word correctly.

The correct pronunciation is:

IRE (one syllable) LAND (one syllable).

Simple really.

Hagar

Terry wrote: »

We use our own pronunciations, rather than leaning towards British or American ones.

Bravo.

Thirdfox

terry wrote:

We use our own pronunciations, rather than leaning towards British or American ones.

But in this instance, in Ireland anyway, it is pronounced the same as the American version rather than English?

Thanks for the clarification - I'll be changing the way I say it then (or simply use Eire and confuse them even more).

mike65

We should all say it like the french do. Sexy.

Mike.

bytesize

Terry wrote: »

We use our own pronunciations, rather than leaning towards British or American ones.

Yeah well said. Most civilized Irish people speak better English than across the river too.

smashey

Slow coach wrote: »

IRE (one syllable) LAND (one syllable).
Simple really.

You should post in Spell Czechs. Oh wait...

Hrududu

But in this instance, in Ireland anyway, it is pronounced the same as the American version rather than English?

No the Americans pronounce it Eye-er-land. The other pronunciation (and the correct one in my view) is Ire-land. Two syllables. The British tend to not pronounce the R and end up calling it (like you said in your OP) Eye-land.

Doctor DooM

Thirdfox wrote: »

But in this instance, in Ireland anyway, it is pronounced the same as the American version rather than English?

Thanks for the clarification - I'll be changing the way I say it then (or simply use Eire and confuse them even more).

Neither, they both say it incorrectly most of the time.

dame

Hrududu wrote: »

No the Americans pronounce it Eye-er-land. The other pronunciation (and the correct one in my view) is Ire-land. Two syllables. The British tend to not pronounce the R and end up calling it (like you said in your OP) Eye-land.

Exactly.

Ireland should be pronounced in the correct, Irish way, not this British version you've been using and confusing people with. Eye-land, my eye.

seamus

Thirdfox wrote: »

But in this instance, in Ireland anyway, it is pronounced the same as the American version rather than English?

Neither really. The British don't pronounce their r's, but then the americans tend to slur their pronunications. The Irish pronounce the "Ire" part very clearly, "Eye-er", whereas the Brits may say "Ah" and the Americans would say something closer to "Ar".

fricatus

Slow coach wrote: »

The correct pronunciation is:

IRE (one syllable) LAND (one syllable).

Simple really.

Hear hear!

If the British pronounce "iron" as "ion" or "Maria Anderson" as "Marie-er Anderson", that's their problem.

And this "Arr-land" thing you hear, especially in Dublin, drives me cracked!

star-pants wrote: »

another good american said 'you were in Galloway? I'd love to visit Galloway'

Hehe, good one... I've heard that one as well. How hard is it to say "Galway"?

I hate the way Northerners mispronounce my city too - even one of RTE's political correspondents in the late '80s-early '90s, guy with a comb-over, forget his name, would say Water-FORD.

Thirdfox

Hrududu wrote: »

No the Americans pronounce it Eye-er-land. The other pronunciation (and the correct one in my view) is Ire-land. Two syllables. The British tend to not pronounce the R and end up calling it (like you said in your OP) Eye-land.

Okay - having learnt English in England I can see where I got the idea that Ireland had a silent R. Of course I'll change my pronunciation now to Ire-land.

So much antagonism on a simple question! :eek:

Hagar

Afaik the word Ireland is a corruption of the original anglicisation of Eire to Eireland.
Maybe Faith will come along and set us straight.

dame

Your poll is worthless since it doesn't contain the correct option.

smashey

Take it to linguistics & etymology.

Outer Bongolia

This thread is the weirdest thing I've seen today. And I looked at bestiality earlier on

Terry

Thirdfox wrote: »

Okay - having learnt English in England I can see where I got the idea that Ireland had a silent R. Of course I'll change my pronunciation now to Ire-land.

Therein lies the problem.

You should have come to Ireland to learn English.

Thousands of Spanish people will stand by me on this one.

seamus

Also, nobody says "Eire" in Ireland, unless you're a gaelgoir as you point out.

The Irish particularly hate the sound of a British accent saying "Eire". It used to be a term of abuse, but that was back when my grandfather was my age. Modern Irish people don't hate the word, we just don't use it.

Whispered

Mairt wrote: »

Funny enough I pronounce it IRELAND.

And here's what Ireland mean's to me (big cheesy moment)..

I is for internment of the innocent and free
R is for resistance to the laws of tryany
E is for the English who have torn our land apart
L is for the love of freedom in every Irish heart
A is for the answer we`re all searching for
N is for one nation and an end to this long war
D is for the dream of millions longing to be free.

That`s how I spell Ireland, that`s what Ireland means to me.

Here here!

microgirl

Thirdfox wrote: »

Okay - having learnt English in England I can see where I got the idea that Ireland had a silent R. Of course I'll change my pronunciation now to Ire-land.

So much antagonism on a simple question! :eek:

Ok, if English isn't your first language, and you learned English in England, you're probably going to have got the wrong idea about a LOT of words and their pronunciation. As someone else pointed out, the English in general (southern English anyway) don't usually pronounce the R in words. This is NOT the same as said R genuinely being a silent letter, it's purely accent. Etymologically/grammatically/linguistically/whatever-ally it's not silent, not like the G in "foreign" or the P in "psychology", which are incorrectly pronounced in ANY accent. However, it also means that there is nothing wrong, strictly speaking, with NOT pronouncing the R in words, if that's the accent you have. But it is just accent.

For example: the English pronounce the word "car" as "caah" or "cauh", but the R is not actually silent. Equally Londoners can pronounce the word "flower" as "flaaagh", but there is no A in the word, nor are the O, W or E silent

OTOH however, just so you don't think we Irish are perfect, I've heard many, many non-native English speakers (mostly the Spanish and Italian students who come here in the summer) who've learned English here pronounce "cat" as "cash", because of the very soft Irish T. Except their ears can't quite pick up the difference between an Irish T and SH, so they over-pronounce the SH sound, making it simply wrong.

_blank_

I hate soft Ts.

Haysh them.

Goldenquick

Dont' stress about it Thirdfox, have a listen around you and you'll see that half the Irish people can't pronounce th - eg: thorn becomes torn, three becomes tree, Bertie Ahern is a prime example.

AlmightyCushion

Mairt wrote: »

Funny enough I pronounce it IRELAND.

And here's what Ireland mean's to me (big cheesy moment)..

I is for internment of the innocent and free
R is for resistance to the laws of tryany
E is for the English who have torn our land apart
L is for the love of freedom in every Irish heart
A is for the answer we`re all searching for
N is for one nation and an end to this long war
D is for the dream of millions longing to be free.

That`s how I spell Ireland, that`s what Ireland means to me.

I'd hate to see you at a spelling bee, you'd be there all day.

missmatty

Oy, Rickaaaaaaay

P.S They're both coming back to EastEnders btw. oh god.

echter

i pronounce it like eye - r - land.

jor el

Outer Bongolia wrote: »

This thread is the weirdest thing I've seen today. And I looked at bestiality earlier on

Your sig is the weirdest thing I've seen today. That's just strange and hypnotic.

seamus wrote: »

Also, nobody says "Eire" in Ireland, unless you're a gaelgoir as you point out.

I always thought Eireann was the Irish for Ireland, that's what I learned in school anyway. I never heard the word Eire till I started ordering things from the UK and it was written on my address.

Modern Irish people don't hate the word, we just don't use it.

For most people Ireland is Ireland, any other word just seems wrong.

Some interesting Wiki links on pronunciations
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiberno-English
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhotic_and_non-rhotic_accents
Irish English is generally a rhotic dialect.
Rhotic speakers pronounce written /r/ in all positions, while non-rhotic speakers pronounce /r/ only if it is followed by a vowel sound

Could explain why some (not all) English people (Geordies anyway) pronounce Ireland as I-a-land or I-Land. Think of the guy that does the voice over on Big Brother and imagine how he'd say Ireland.

DesF wrote:

I hate soft Ts.

Haysh them.

Stay clear of Ross O'Carroll-Kelly then.

TwoKingMick

So many experts.

microgirl wrote: »

Ok, if English isn't your first language, and you learned English in England, you're probably going to have got the wrong idea about a LOT of words and their pronunciation.

A different idea, not a wrong idea. There is no reason that pronouncing /r/ sounds is any more or less correct than not doing it.

microgirl wrote: »

As someone else pointed out, the English in general (southern English anyway) don't usually pronounce the R in words. This is NOT the same as said R genuinely being a silent letter, it's purely accent. Etymologically/grammatically/linguistically/whatever-ally it's not silent, not like the G in "foreign" or the P in "psychology", which are incorrectly pronounced in ANY accent. However, it also means that there is nothing wrong, strictly speaking, with NOT pronouncing the R in words, if that's the accent you have. But it is just accent.

Yes is is the same as a silent letter. In non rhotic accents /r/ is usually a silent letter, genuinely. Etymologically pronouncing /r/ is not better, in many cases the original word has no /r/ sound but later accents added them because of the presence of the letter. In other words, us rhotic speakers (Irish, most Americans) actually started to pronounce the word incorrectly.

microgirl wrote: »

For example: the English pronounce the word "car" as "caah" or "cauh", but the R is not actually silent. Equally Londoners can pronounce the word "flower" as "flaaagh", but there is no A in the word, nor are the O, W or E silent

flaaagh is not pronounceable in English. Unfortunately trying to describe pronunciation using the same letters as are causing the problem is next to impossible.

Awful Scut Mk2

microgirl wrote: »

OTOH however, just so you don't think we Irish are perfect, I've heard many, many non-native English speakers (mostly the Spanish and Italian students who come here in the summer) who've learned English here pronounce "cat" as "cash", because of the very soft Irish T. Except their ears can't quite pick up the difference between an Irish T and SH, so they over-pronounce the SH sound, making it simply wrong.

Ha, ha, ha. That brings back memories.

I used to live with a Spanish guy who I told 'just copy the Irish people you work with if you want to learn how to use English like a native speaker'.

A few weeks later, he was going around saying 'Rightss' all the time. Turned out his boss was from Mayo.

Wrt closer to England or America, we're definitely closer to the States, loads of Spaniards I know who learnt English here can watch US films without much difficulty, but when it comes to British ones........

Tzetze

Ire Land (brought to you by Ronseal)

Noun: ire I(u)r [N. Amer], Iu(r) [Brit]
1. A strong emotion; a feeling that is oriented toward some real or supposed grievance
2. Beligerence aroused by a real or supposed wrong (personified as one of the deadly sins)

(Wordweb)

Mossy Monk

Worst poll ever. I do however pronounce it Ireland.