Aisling Pronunciation

[John83]

Laois is Leesh, like the popular tourist destination county. Does the e change it?

It does in Naoise (Nee-sheh). Or at least, it did in the case of the one Naoise I can recall having met.

[pineapple stu]

Yeah, it'd be Laoi-shuh. Not Leesha. And again, you're looking to roll the aoi diphthong into one rolling sound rather than dismiss it is an ee.

Laois in English is Leesh. It's correct in the way Dún Laoghaire is Dun Leary. (Just seeing as we're getting into technically correct pronunciation).

[seand]

Definitely Ashling! I'd say Caoimhe is somewhere between Keeva and Queeva (three-quarters the way to Queeva), likewise I'd say my son's name Eoghan is about 1 and a bit syllables! It's not Ow-en, it's not Own but somewhere in between.

I've been called Seen before, and I know a Sadhbh who was memorably called Sad-huh-buh-huh once!

[awec]

Hope is seand pronouned?

[John83]

Hope is seand pronouned?

seand is already pronouned as seand, not "Hope". Imagine seand referring to himself as Hope? It's a girl's name, for heaven's sake.

[awec]

Don't know why I typed Hope instead of how.

Also, I reckon that I've made a mistake and his name is actually Sean D instead of Seand. Houl on while I go fetch my embarassased face!

[Kingdom]

Davey, I work with a girl called Laoise, and she and we pronounce it Laois-eh. Beautiful name.

[seand]

To clarfiy, I'm Sean D, pronounced Shaun Dee!

[tetsujin1979]

To clarfiy, I'm Sean D, pronounced Shaun Dee!

really? I've been pronouncing it sean'd, as in "you just got sean'd!"

[KevB76]

my cailin always had a laugh at Siobhan (Syoban), Roisin (Raisin), Aoife (Ayoeefee) and Grainne (Grainy). I told her she was dead right in her pronunciation.

I've heard Chow-me for Caoimhe, not a bad stab at it I thought, taking the Italian approach !

[Den Perry]

Ask George Hamilton. He seems to be an expert and pronounces names differently from all others

eg Pedros Mendes is pronounced "mendesh" by georges
alves is "alvesh"
Jaap Stam was "Stum"

I'm not saying he's wrong......

[passinginterest]

Hamilton was asked about this a few times and he said he always trys to find a member of the team's back room staff or someone from their country to give him the correct pronunciations, that seems to account for why he can often differ so much from other commentators.

I'd try to find a quote to back this up but I'm feeling a bit lazy. I may come back with it later.

[pineapple stu]

Yeah, I heard him say that as well alright.

[stann]

Hamilton famously goes the extra mile to get the proper pronunciations alright, he's spoken about it before, and by all accounts he's invariably got the correct one.
Which kind of leads me to the slightly depressing thought that's there's not a single foreign back-room person or journalist out there with a sense of humour.