Replies to Celtic harp question--long

[bi...@persci.uucp]

In article <2...@steinmetz.UUCP> conn...@steinmetz.UUCP (C.Ian Connolly) writes:
>Argh. Pronunciation in Irish at least (and possibly Scottish -
>any Scots out there want to verify this?) is somewhat variable, depending
>on where you came from (or where your teacher came from). Now, I would
> ,
>pronounce the Irish "Ossian" as "uh-SHEE-an". One thing I am assuming is
>that there is a stroke over the i. If not, then I'd probably try "UH-shun".

The only thing I had to go on (regarding the different pronunciations) was from
a Celtic Music radio program hosted by a native Irishwoman (yuk! Irishperson?),
I do not know where in Ireland she was from, but she did mention the two groups
as oh-SHEEN and AW-See-un, and that they had the same spelling. The stroke over
the "i" probably disappeared when the name was "transcribed" into English.

I have heard from some of the native Scots in the area that pronunciation
varies greatly from area to area. (Just listen to their Scots accents, and
it's no surprise..)

Thank you, Ian, and others, for your help!
--
William Swan {ihnp4,decvax,allegra,...}!uw-beaver!tikal!persci!bill

[Rod Williams]

It should be pointed out that not only are there major differences
between Scots Gaelic and Irish Gaelic, but there are also several
distinct dialects of Irish Gaelic (I know nothing about Scots, but
suspect they have differences too). For this reason, you'll never
find consensus about the pronunciation of ANY word. As a Dubliner,
I'm probably least qualified to expound on this subject (:-)), but
here's my contribution to the clairseach/Oisin debate:

,
Clairseach (that's a 'fada' over the 'a') = CLAW-ir-shock
,
Oisin (fada over the 'i'), anglicized as Ossian = UH-sheen

Incidentally, the 'fada' (acute accent) over a vowel changes its
pronunciation from 'short' to 'long', i.e. -

a goes from short 'ah' to long 'aw'
e 'eh' 'ay'
i 'ih' 'ee'
o 'uh' 'oh'
u goes from short 'oo' (as in 'book') to long 'oo' (as in 'fool')
--

rod williams | {ihnp4,dual}!ptsfa!ptsfc!rjw
-------------------------------------------
pacific bell | san ramon | california