Zihuatanejo
capicola
Siobhan
How that spells She-vawn has got me futterly Ucked.
Occurrence.
shrug Irish isn’t English. There are two kinds of S, broad (like English S) and slender (like English SH). Before an I, it’s slender: si = she.
Bh is pronounced like English V in most dialects. It’s B plus H because it’s historically what happened to the B sound in particular phonetic environments. (Which, incidentally, is also why they don’t use SH for the English “sh” sound, but for an H sound instead.) This Bh is broad, and so it has to be flanked by broad vowels: and o in the front, which is sort of pointless but is a rule of Irish spelling, and the Á following which is long and makes the “aw” sound. N is N.
So, Siobhán = Si + (o) + bh + á + n = English-spelling Shee + () + v + aw + n.
Without the accent, the “a” would sound like the a in “sad”, right?
Dr. Drake, take a stab at “Seamus”? (“Shamus,” I think?)
Same thing:
Se = slender S (“sh”) + E with its Continental value (“ay,” as in Spanish or Italian) = Shay
M is broad, so it needs a pointless broad vowel in front (a)
US = us
Se + (a) + m + u + s = shay + () + m + u + s.
I’m not sure if short “a” is always as in “sad,” but it sometimes is. There’s a lot of variation by dialect.
facade seems to defy all logic. let’s not get started on colonel.
Neither the British nor American pronunciation of lieutenant makes me very happy either.
It’s the same is Siobhan, except easier to wrap your head around. Really, people love to comment on the lack of an “h” in Irish S-names, but what I don’t get is how they find that much harder than say understanding that the two "c"s in San Francisco can be pronounced differently based on the letter following.
For Irish (and I think Scottish sometimes, it looks to me like Manx doesn’t do this but I could be wrong), it helps if you realize that the character “h” is not really in the alphabet, but it is a character used to indicate lenition of the previous character. It just happens to be an h. Before "h’, a dot accent mark was used. If you want the “h” sound, use “sh” or “th.”
Niamh and Saoirse even make sense, once you know the rules! (That “ao” pair is one of the least apparent though).
That’s because it’s spelled “façade.”
American lieutenant is at least close enough.
American “lew-tenant” makes sence. British “lef-tenant” makes no sense.
I was on Bill Nighy’s Wikipedia page yesterday and notice that at the top it said “this is the page for the British actor. For the scientist Bill Nye, click here.”
I was like “WTF?” until I saw the pronunciation guide next to Nighy’s name. Apparently his is also pronounced “Nye.”
Er…dammit, sorry - I would have never guessed that’s how you PRONOUNCE it.
“Shee-vawn” is lovely to hear (that HAS to be from “Yvonne” or vice versa), “Sigh-OB-han” not so much. Thanks for the lesson.
Oh, no, you’re not getting away that easy; you have to at least give us the pronunciation equivalent. Please?
Niamh = Neeve (or thereabouts).
I didn’t realise that hors d’ouevres and “orderves” were the same thing for a long time.
You mean it’s NOT “horse dooverz”? :o
Thanks for “Niamh.”
Neither does putting an “o” in “maneuver”, which at least makes sense by French rules.
And the response to “You remember the name of the town, don’t you?” from the Family Guy episode:
I would’ve thought it has some X’s in there or something.
Sear-shaw, maybe with more of a “schwa” sound at the end than a drawn out “aww.” Wikipedia put it as /ˈsɪərʃə/ on arguably the most famous personwith that name. The “ao” = long “i” part is what I was referring to.
Aloysius.
Story of my life with a Polish last name.