I’m trying to figure out the correct spelling an pronunciation of the legendary Irish hero known variously as Cuchulain, Chuchulann, Ku Culann, etc., depending on who you talk to or what book you read. Anyone know what the ‘proper’ spelling and pronunciation of his name is?
Hey, that’s nothing. Try and get Celtists to pronounce “samhain”.
I’ve mostly seen Cuchulainn.
It’s pronounced sort of like “koo-hoo-lin”.
Although in Cuchulainn, the “ch” is pronounced somewhere between an “h” and a “k” sound.
Like a German or Scottish “ch” or a Spanish “j”.
Much harsher than an English “h”, not quite as harsh as an English “k”.
I’ve seen various spellings, although I think the one you show first is the most common I’ve seen.
I know of him mostly through texts, but I do have a reading of Campbell’s Hero with a Thousand Faces on audiocassette, and the guy reading it pronounces it cuh-HOO-lunn. Almost C’HOO-lunn.
Of course, I’ve heard enough mispronunciations on audiotapes (On McCullouch’s John Adams, Edward Hermann pronounces “Havehill” as “Haver-Hill”, instead of “Haver’ill”. Christopher Lee, reading Poe’s works, apparently didn’t realize that “Esquimaeux” is really “Eskimo” dressed up in 19th century letters.)
Since the Tain Bo Cuailnge was compiled long before English had standardized spelling (to say nothing of the fact that Irish at the time did not have a written form), it is not surprising that there are many variants. The Encyclopedia Mythica article is currently off-line for revision, but the spelling they choose is Cuchulainn. I have most frequently seen that spelling, minus the final n.
I’ve always heard it pronounced a shorter second syllable. So it would be “koo-hu-lin” not “koo-hoo-lin”. But like most words in Irish its probably pronounced differently depending on which part of Ireland the speaker is from.
That of course should have read “I’ve always heard it pronounced WITH a shorter second syllable…”
Or, Koo-koo-lin (or lain). It is rather close to choo-choo train! :eek:
Or you could imagine that it’s similar enough to Kukulkan to give esoteric weight to an “Irish discovered America” theory. 
Or you could pronounce it Chthulhuchainn and drag Lovecraft into the whole rigmarole…
As an aside, the Pogues, in their song “The Sick Bed of Cuchulain” pronounce it with k sounds. Koo-Kull-in.
They done be Irish, although that pronounciation fits the song better than Kuh-Hoo-lin.
My rowing club had a boat named the “Cuchulain”. We pronounced it the kuh-hu-lin. It was named by some former members of the Scottish persuasion so I’m not sure how accurate our pronunciation was. I didn’t realize it was the name of an Irish hero; it always made me think of Lovecraft (as jayjay suggestd).
There’s a large statue of the guy in Dublin - so what you should do, is head over there and check the spelling !
I’ve heard Dubliners pronounce it Koo- CULL-un.
And a cool statue it is.
Here it is at the bottom right of the page
The legend goes that he was injured and knew he was dying. He tied himself to a tree. The opposing forces would not attack while he was alive. The crow landing on his shoulder signaled to them that the hero was in fact dead.
Yep that’s right.
I’m NOT an expert in this but I’ve always more or less pronounced it Koo-Choll-Un. “Koo” rhymes with moo, “Choll” rhymes with doll, “ch” as in Loch", “Un” to rhyme with fun. Stress on “choll”.
With Irish there’s always the get-out clause of “Yeah, you say it that way in Connaught but…”