Help with Irish words....

[Mrs.Clayton]

Howth---how is it pronounced?
"both"-but with an 'h'? or
"oat"

Dun Laoghaire-- that's "dun leary" right?

How am I suppose to travel to Ireland and pronounce these names correctly??
I'm going to embarrass myself over there.
Help if you can!
Mrs.Clayton

 

[zooropamanda]

You're correct with Dun Laoghaire and Howth Im not sure. I thought it was How-th.
I did a 6 week Irish galeic course once and it has to be the most confusing language on Earth.

 

[bono-vox]

Howth is pronounced Hoath

 

[bono-vox]

Oh yeah and there is a place called Drogehda its not far from Dublin but its pronounced Drawda

not Draw-ge-da

 

[elizabeth]

LOL - I love traveling around ireland and learning the language from the gaelic/anglicized road signs!!

It took me a loooong time to learn about Dun Laoghaire!!

Most are easy to figure out. Another fun game is to read liscence plates and guess the county based on the gaelic name. Sometimes they are intuitive...sometimes NOT!

 

[Mrs.Clayton]

bono-vox, thanks.
Any other tricky ones?

 

[bono-vox]

Yeh ill try tell you some more if i cant hink of any..most of them have been angliscised anyway so they shouldnt be too hard to pronounce, will u be staying in places in and around Dublin or whereabouts will you be?

 

[bono-vox]

oh i love the car signs so much

 

[Lovey Dovey]

Originally posted by zooropamanda:

I did a 6 week Irish galeic course once and it has to be the most confusing language on Earth.

That was done purposely to confuse the English!

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*Ya Just cant get enough, of that Lovey Dovey stuff...*

" And to think I actually TOUCHED that tight, hard body!" - Miss MacPhisto

 

[jezebel]

And Quay, as in Wellington Quay, is pronounced "kay" not "qway".

I got corrected by cabbie right quick on that one. Silly Yanks

 

[FizzingWhizzbees]

I'm adding my goofy story about not understanding other languages. I went to an Irish bar the other week...and I wanted to go to the bathroom, only the doors had 'ladies' and 'gents' written in Irish. And I don't speak it - obviously. So I had to stand outside the bathroom for like ten minutes until someone more educated than me went in so I could figure out which was which. I was too embarassed to just ask someone

 

[LuvLady]

Originally posted by jezebel:
And Quay, as in Wellington Quay, is pronounced "kay" not "qway".

I got corrected by cabbie right quick on that one. Silly Yanks

That's odd, here the word "quay" is pronounced "key"....

 

[jezebel]

maybe bono vox can tell us the correct pronunciation of quay?

 

[cloudimani]

its pronounced "key".
Some of the Irish county names are quite hard to get the tongue around too:
Gaillimh (Galway)
Dun na ngall (Donegal)
Atha Claith (Dublin)
Corcaigh (Cork)
Doire (Derry)
etc. (sorry if spelling isnt quite right)

Anyway, what about Termonfeckin and Hackballscross?

(what were these English thinking of???)

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?*~cloudimani~*?

 

[elizabeth]

Originally posted by FizzingWhizzbees:
I'm adding my goofy story about not understanding other languages. I went to an Irish bar the other week...and I wanted to go to the bathroom, only the doors had 'ladies' and 'gents' written in Irish. And I don't speak it - obviously. So I had to stand outside the bathroom for like ten minutes until someone more educated than me went in so I could figure out which was which. I was too embarassed to just ask someone

you're right, this was terribly confusing for me the first time. Because women is "mna" and men is "fir."

but if you just use the first letters....m/f, you will end up in the wrong irish bathroom!!

 

[cloudimani]

btw, you probably hear Howth pronounced as "Hoth" or "hoat" because generally it would be said by someone from Dublin, the rest of us speak properly

jk - I would just say Howth, but thats me. (dont get me wrong, I really like the Dublin accent, much nicer than mine anyway, said he digging furiously)

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?*~cloudimani~*?

 

[cass]

you are a tricky one aren't you".
So it's the word "tricky" I've been wondering about all these years.

[This message has been edited by cass (edited 02-18-2002).]

 

[bono-vox]

"you are a tricky one aren't you" uhm we just usually say that when we mean its hard to get to know you or get you to talk openly bla bla...nothing bad tho, usually said in a jokey way

 

[cass]

Ta bono-vox phew!!
I had this slight nagging feeling it may directly translate to "flaming bore"

 

[bono-vox]

Originally posted by jezebel:
maybe bono vox can tell us the correct pronunciation of quay?

Key

 

[bono-vox]

Lol no if he meant flaming bore we'd just say ur a boring aul eejit