How to pronounce "Caireal"?

[Hamish]

Hi, everybody. We're just starting out as a folk trio playing
traditional tunes and rather like the name "Caireal" meaning "1 Noise,
clamour. 2 Outcry. 3 Sound of distant music. 4 Harmony, melody. 5
Carol. 6 Chirping of birds" as it's sort of humorously relevant. Our
only problem is we don't know how to pronounce it. (What the vowel
sounds are and where the emphasis should be: that sort of thing. From
the guides I've looked at I'm pretty sure the first sound is a hard
"k", then I get less confident...)

Your help would be most gratefully received! Thank you.

--
Hamish

[fredriley]

Hi a Sheumais

Thanks for the post, and sorry it's not arrived until today but I've
had to set up new member moderation on this list on account of
spammers, and I've been away these last couple of days. Anyway, to
your query:

On 30 Sep, 10:09, Hamish <donotuset...@hotmail.co.uk> wrote:
> Hi, everybody. We're just starting out as a folk trio playing
> traditional tunes and rather like the name "Caireal" meaning "1 Noise,
> clamour. 2 Outcry. 3 Sound of distant music. 4 Harmony, melody. 5
> Carol. 6 Chirping of birds" as it's sort of humorously relevant. Our
> only problem is we don't know how to pronounce it. (What the vowel
> sounds are and where the emphasis should be: that sort of thing. From
> the guides I've looked at I'm pretty sure the first sound is a hard
> "k", then I get less confident...)

For a totally accurate answer you should ask a native speaker, but as
a long-time learner I reckon "caireal" sounds like, well, "carol" ;-).
There are quite a few English words that Gaelic's imported and spelt
in a Gaelic phonetic way, such as manager-manaidsear, paper-pàipear,
teacher-tidsear, and many more. My immediate instinct would be to
pronounce "caireal" as 'carol'. Would that all Gaelic words were so
easy to pronounce from their written forms ;)

It might interest you that the Gaelic college on Skye does various
courses in traditional music during the summer - see
http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/gd/cursaichean/cg/cursaichean.php

Tìoraidh

Fred

[Domhnall Seaghdha]

I agree with Fred...

 

"carol"

[Hamish]

Thanks Fred and Donhnall:

I guess that's no good then: because the cello player is called Carol.
I reckon that's scuppered that plan.

Thanks ever so much for your help, though!!

Cheers

Hamish



On 2 Oct, 23:38, Domhnall Seaghdha <domhnall.seagh...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> > Hamish- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[Fred Riley]

Hi a Sheumais

If you look up 'carol' in the Dwelly dictionary
(http://www.cairnwater.co.uk/gaelicdictionary/) or the SMO dictionary
(http://www2.smo.uhi.ac.uk/gaidhlig/faclair/sbg/lorg.php) you'll get a
number of alternative translations, such as:

beinneagaich - I suspect this is dated as it doesn't appear in my
paper dictionaries
ceileir - this verb appears in my dictionary as "to sing like a bird, warble"
seinn - this is the standard verb "to sing" so doesn't specifically
refer to carols.

There's also "fuaim", which is a noun for "noise, sound", which I've
seen on a poster in Skye for a series of mini-gigs on the
Armadale-Mallaig ferry.

Your best bet is to consult experts and native speakers, and you can
find both on Foram na Gàidhlig, which is now at
http://www.foramnagaidhlig.net/foram/. This Google group only has a
small, mostly lurking membership of learners of the lingo.

Tìoraidh

Fred

2009/10/3 Hamish <donotu...@hotmail.co.uk>: