this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2025
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Celtic languages have an entirely different tradition with regards to consonants too. Without looking it up or having prior knowledge of gaelic there is literally no way to arrive at the correct pronunciation of Caoimhe. This doesn't make their orthography less valid or less rational, it just means that there is a lack of overlap between the english use of certain letters and theirs.
And my own native language of Danish has 3 ways to use the letter D, and I fucking dare any of you to guess what the letter D does in "Mand" or "Mads".
Even within English, "a" can denote about ten different sounds
shi-oh-ban
Key-va (although the exact pronunciation depends on where you are). As beautiful of a language Irish is, it is impossible to pronounce. Even something simple like Dún Laoghaire (done-leary) is inevitably going to be butchered on the first attempt by people who don't speak the language.
Standard voicing/nasalizing harmonization?
/mand/ -> [mann], /mads/ -> [mats] ?
That is a very good guess, but not accurate. It indicates the presence of stød and is itself not pronounced. (So no t sounds in Mads, Mads is just "Mass")
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St%C3%B8d
It is a form of putting emphasis on a syllable by way of a "glottal stop" (It's not always quite a glottal stop).