# Pronunciation of "Taliesin" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 2, 2006, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-taliesin/355032 "2006-05-02T01:33:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![brianmelendez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/65b543/32.png) [@brianmelendez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brianmelendez)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-taliesin/355032/1 "2006-05-02T01:33:25Z")
The Welsh bard’s name – how is it properly pronounced? ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-taliesin/355032/2 "2006-05-02T02:01:10Z")
I’m not Welsh, but I say it is like Tal - yes-in. Someone might come along to express it more tidily and properly linguistically. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Spavined\_Gelding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@Spavined\_Gelding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spavined_Gelding)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-taliesin/355032/3 "2006-05-02T02:27:04Z")
Spring Green, Wisconsin, the site of Taliesen East, Frank Lloyd Wright’s original workshop, is just a few hours east of here. It is pronounced “Tally-ay-zon” by the locals. But we have a Madrid pronounced “Mad-rid” and a Trier pronounced “Tree-air” and a Tripoli pronounced “Trip-pole-la.” What do we know? ---
**Author:** ![lno](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a8b319/32.png) [@lno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lno)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-taliesin/355032/4 "2006-05-02T03:20:17Z")
Don’t forget Wisconsin’s “Prairie du Chien” as “Prairie du sheen”. You can’t trust what any of those cheese-eaters say. [sub]Menomonie, doo doo, dah doo doo[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-taliesin/355032/5 "2006-05-02T03:21:31Z")
I thought it was pronounced “Tal-EYE-ess-in” but I don’t know why. Basically, how **Spavined Gelding** pronounced it. I’d like to get official word so I don’t keep saying it wrong if I am. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-taliesin/355032/6 "2006-05-02T03:25:34Z")
I’ve always heard “tally- ES-en”, but I’m sure that’s the American pronunciation. I don’t know if that’s correct in Welsh. ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-taliesin/355032/7 "2006-05-02T03:28:49Z")
> [@Rubystreak](#): > > I thought it was pronounced “Tal-EYE-ess-in” but I don’t know why. Basically, how **Spavined Gelding** pronounced it. I’d like to get official word so I don’t keep saying it wrong if I am. Well, I did live and work in Wales for a time without anyone throwing things at me for bad speech, but I daresay U.S. placenames are allowed to be, um, “quaint”. 🙂 As far as I know, for one example, they even pronounce “Bryn Mawr” oddly in your far-away country of which I know little. 🙂 The poster **Elenfair** would be a good one to ask, it now occurs to me. But it’s way past sleepy time here, so _nos da_. ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-taliesin/355032/8 "2006-05-02T03:35:56Z")
Nine of ten sites on Google agree that it’s… (doot dee doot doo) …Tally-ESS-in. Hope this helps. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-taliesin/355032/9 "2006-05-02T12:29:06Z")
Just so y’all can point and laugh, my art teacher (and therefore I) pronounced it “Tol-Yee-Sun” and I have exaggerated the vowels so you can get the Southern accent involved. The key syllable is the Yee one. Over the nearly 40 years it’s been since then I have observed a lessening in the strength of long vowels as a generalization to pronunciation in my area. The long a in area (first syllable) has given way to a short e or a schwa sound. And almost any name derived from the Hebrew has had its long vowels replaced with short ones. Example: Isaiah is less an Eye-Zay-yuh thing and more a Ee-sigh-yuh one. And Moses has gone from Moh-zez to Muh-shuh.