Damn Sampiro, that made my brain hurt. I know your last name, and I cannot connect it in any way with that word.
Johanna’s post is near right-on.
Some things to consider:
The early Irish learned the Latin alphabet from the Welsh, whose language had already gone through some major sound changes by the time the Irish got it. This is why, in Old Irish, initial ** is like **, but in the middle or at the end of a word, ** is like [v]. To solve this, in middle Irish they added an [h] to the second one. So “Classic b” is **, while “Diet b,” now with [h]!, is [v].
“Slender” and “broad” are pretty much the same as Russian “palatalized” and “non-palatalized.” If the Irish had learned to spell from the Russians, things would be a lot simpler. Unfortunately, they did not, so they did the best they could. The slender sounds come before [e] and *, and the broad sounds before [a], [o], and . So an Irish speaker would consider [s] and [sh] the same sound, but he or she would just know that [sa] goes “sa” and [se] goes “she.”
Then, in middle Irish, a whole bunch of screwy things happened. First, sounds that used to be distinct fell together, so that [dh] and [gh] became indistinguishable, but with a twist: broad [dh] / [gh] is a kind of gargly sound found in Arabic and other languages, not unlike the French [r] but more like the [gh] in “Baghdad.” Slender [dh] / [gh] is more like “y” as in “yes.” There are a lot of these pairs, and it makes the language confusing. I don’t even want to talk about the vowels, because it’s traumatizing. Just for a glimpse, let’s take the Old Irish name “Find” (pron. “fyin,” with a palatal [f]. You just have to know that the [n] isn’t palatal because the proto-Celtic form was *windos). In Middle Irish, they started to spell this “Fionn,” because it was a real * with a tiny little [o] off-glide. Then, just to confuse us all, it became a tiny little * on-glide followed by a real [o].
Okay. Now to the real word: Duibhdhiormaigh
d = d
u = [the d is broad; the historical vowel is (u)]
i = i
bh = v
dh = y
i = [the preceeding (dh) is palatal]
o = o, but reduced to a schwa
r = r
m = m
a = [the preceeding (m) is broad)
i = i
gh = y, but after the * it’s basically silent.
DIV-yur-mee.
Johanna’s analysis is right on. I should add that there will be tremendous variation in the dialects, and the rules for Scottish Gaelic are the same with with delightful added complications.
Wow. All this Dermot-ology is making me itchy.
Dr. Drake, that was remarkably clear.
I no longer fear Teh Irish. 