gaelic pronunciation

[O'Callaghan]

Tuatha is pronounced as TOO-A-HA. It's the same for both Irish and Scottish Gaelic. It can mean 'people', 'tribe', or 'group'. In the case of the Tuatha Dé Danann, it means 'people of the goddess Danu.' The 'th' sound (as pronounced in English) doesn't occur in the Goidelic language family. It does occur in the Brythonic Celtic languages, such as Welsh where it is represented by 'dd' or 'th'.

Like for example, I have an old friend called Gwyneth, who is not from the county of Gwynedd (in fact she's not even from Wales), but they are pronounced the same. From what I can remember, I think Welsh used the letter 'eth' (can't work out how to type it) at one time, like English once did for the soft 'th', but doesn't have the hard 'th' of the old letter 'thorn', or at least never used that letter anyway. The letter 'eth' looked a bit like a 'd', only different, which would explain why they represent it now as 'dd'. I didn't know that Gaelic doesn't have these sounds.

Nor did I know about Danu. I also mistook De for of/from like it is in a gazillion other languages, but if I thought about it I knew Irish had a genitive case because of Eirann (spelling?), hence De must be goddess (same root as deity I assume) and Danann must be genitive for Danu, right? So what does Fir Bolg (or even Firbolg as I've also seen it) translate to, or is that even gaelic?

[ardchoille]

I have two that I would like to learn how to pronounce:

'S Rioghal Mo Dhream

and

Ard Choille!

MacGregor clan motto and war cry, respectively. I've heard several different variations of the second one; ard-ko-ill, ard-koyl, ard-kola, ard-koll (long "o" in all four), but which one is correct?

[slohairt]

Like for example, I have an old friend called Gwyneth, who is not from the county of Gwynedd (in fact she's not even from Wales), but they are pronounced the same. From what I can remember, I think Welsh used the letter 'eth' (can't work out how to type it) at one time, like English once did for the soft 'th', but doesn't have the hard 'th' of the old letter 'thorn', or at least never used that letter anyway. The letter 'eth' looked a bit like a 'd', only different, which would explain why they represent it now as 'dd'. I didn't know that Gaelic doesn't have these sounds.

Nor did I know about Danu. I also mistook De for of/from like it is in a gazillion other languages, but if I thought about it I knew Irish had a genitive case because of Eirann (spelling?), hence De must be goddess (same root as deity I assume) and Danann must be genitive for Danu, right? So what does Fir Bolg (or even Firbolg as I've also seen it) translate to, or is that even gaelic?

Yes, dia is the word for deity, and dé is the genitive case. Danann is indeed the genitive for Danu. (Also spelled Dana, though unconnected to the female personal name.)

Éireann is the spelling you were looking for, I believe.

Firbolg is Irish, taken from Fir Bolg, meaning 'men of the bag' (or pouch). No dirty jokes please, folks, this is a family-friendly forum!

[Casper]

Oh, and Sláinte is Irish, pronounced "Slaan-sha". Slàinte is the Scottish, pronounced "Slaan-j".

Well, that's the Ulster pronunciation at least.... slightly different in Connaught and Munster. Likely due to the Scots influence.

[DWFII]

I'm thinking ban sidhe is pronounced "ban shee" and mo chridhe is pronounced "mah kree."

Am I right?

And if I am is dh always silent?