Hi,
Can somebody set me straight on this please?
Aisling appears to be the accepted English-language spelling of Aislinn. To me, this seems wrong. If the aim was to spell how the name sounds, surely it would be Ashling? Or is Aisling a completely Irish spelling as well? It seems to me that the first syllable is 'Irish' and the second 'English'. Can anyone explain it to me?

A worse example it seems to me - and I could be wrong again - is Eamon O'Cuiv. Surely he should either use O'Keefe or O'Caoimh. What do ye think?

Aisling is a completely Irish spelling.

Eamon Ó Cuiv spells his name that way because his father intended a spelling reform. His surname is the only survial. Lesser mortals call themselve Ó Caoimh. Please note the lack of apostrophe - there is no letter missing!

> Lesser mortals call themselve Ó Caoimh.<

And, if I'm not mistaken, those in Mayo (and probably some in Galway, and maybe elsewhere) who are native Irish-speakers still pronounce it with nasalization of both the vowel and the fricative (a palatalized BILABIAL fricative, by the way) in -aoimh, distinguishing it from -aoibh. "Ó Cuív" is an example of disregarding a phonetic distinction because SOME speakers don't make that distinction any more. That's the sort of thing that eats away at the language in the name of "modernisation."

Very interesting, a Pheadair. Could you give a little more on the distinction between "aoibh" vs. 'aoimh' as per your example.
Would it be that '..bh' is pronounced directly from the mouth whereas "...mh" would be pronounced through the nose (or at least more so) ?
Could you also share some other examples of this type of distinction, más é do thoil é?
-Maidhc.