Re: Gaelic placenames

On Feb 28, 11:11 am, Josiah Jenkins <josiah-jenk...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
On Thu, 28 Feb 2008 18:29:23 +0000, Charles Ellson



<char...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Thu, 28 Feb 2008 08:11:26 -0500, S Viemeister
<firstn...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Nebulous wrote:

Did you listen to any of them? What did you think?

Not yet, but I'm far from an expert!

I think a problem might be that the website producers don't know your Auntie
Rhoda, or the many other people like her who could keep them right.

A number of my native-Gaelic-speaker Sutherland relatives are well-known
to the BBC, having featured in many Gaelic-language programmes - you'd
think they would have asked them.

The Radio Scotland presenters were arguing over how to pronounce Inverness,
nevermind some more obscure names.

Oh, dear.....

They were actually discussing Inbhirnis rather than the *nglish
version; the first element gets variable treatment in different parts
of Scotland resulting in anglicised names beginning with Inver- or
Inner- .

Inner-neesh is how I'd say it. the "BH =V" sound is silent in this
case.

. . . . and ending in "Snecky" ?

The BBC, which prides itself on always giving correct pronunciations
for foreign names, such as COBBLE for KABUL once had us rolling in the
aisles over a small village in Ross-shire called Ardgay which is
pronounced ARD-GUY - to rhyme with BY. The announcer called it ArdGAY
and to our happy joy, repeated it a few moments later!

(There isn't a helluva lot to do on a rainy day in the Highlands,
unless you're a scuba diver. "Of course he's English, poor bugger" is
a standard explanation".Local horizons are quite limited, to say the
least - I wish I had a pound for every time I was asked if I had an
Irish mother; as my name, Michael, was considered a purely Irish name.
Here in Richmond, I keep meeting people called names like Hamish Singh
and Lachlan Kobayashi - local integration continues full steam ahead.)
.