Dúirt Seosamh Mac Muirí:

quote:

A Dhuine de mhuintir Éilidhe,

The surname is still pronounced by many decent country people of south east Sligo as Hayley, while to my knowledge, all would spell it, if asked, as Healy.

The nickname 'Sabhdán' is also used along with surname, again by those of the older generation, in the Riverstown area. 'There he is, the Sowdawn Healy' you might hear someone say, just in passing, or 'he's one o' the Sowdawn Healys'.

Sadly, the townland name, Baile Uí Éilidhe, has been assimilated and submerged into 'Hollybrook', just bordering the main Sligo Dublin road at Loch Arrow. If you've a few million handy, is féidir a cheannach faoi láthair nó chonaic mé fógra i mball éigin i mbliana.

Yes, The Sligo Champion this week:
One of the few remaining estates in County Sligo, the 275-acre Hollybrook Estate between Castlebaldwin and Ballinafad, bordered by the N4 and the shores of Lough Arrow, has gone on sale. Just €4 million!

Dream eile ar fad iad muintir na Mumhan a n-áirítí ina seacht ndream éagsúla:

Seamhrach,
Gruama,
Ceirisc < Mac Fhiarais,
Sagart,
Ceart,
Cabáiste,
Seana-Hata.

Seán Ó Conaill nó duine éigin mar é a dúirt.

When speaking English, do they still pronounce the surname as "Hayley", as in "My name's James Hayley" (even though they may spell it as "Healy")? I live in Dublin, and the surname is invariably pronouned as "Heeleey" here. Maybe it's the same situation as with the surname "Naughton", which is pronunced in some places as "Nockton", and in other places as "Nawton".

Do they pronounce the Irish language form in the same as the English language form, just with a preeceeding "Ó h", as in:

Ó Hayley ?

Recently on the forum, people have been talking about changing their names to the Irish language form, and using that form on their passports and so on. A common argument that's brought up when people use their "vernacular name" is that English speaking people won't know how to pronounce it. Will most Irish speaking people know that they should pronounce "Ó hÉilidhe" as if it were spelt "Ó hÉilí"? I consider myself to be proficient in Irish, but I still think that the "idhe" combination is a bit strange, and I wouldn't be sure how to pronounce it... which is why I started the entire thread about its pronunciation about a month ago.

So while an English speaking person may not know how to pronounce "Ó hÉilidhe", would a native speaker of Irish know?

Go raibh maith agat a Sheosaimh as an eolas.

Le meas,

Ó hÉilidhe

As a slender dh is pronounced like a y, I see no reason why an Irish speaker should have difficult with the ending -idhe

Because in fact final pre-standard idhe = standard í:
buidhe = buí
comhnaidhe = cónaí
comrádaidhe = comrádaí
etc.

As maybe not every Irish speaker knows this, Ó hÉilidhe's interrogation is rather legitimate; and if we consider that slender dh is often pronounced like [j] in standard spelling, we can understand very easily why an Irish speaker could have difficulties with the ending -idhe...

Go raibh maith agat a Mhaix as an eolas.

When they changed the spelling of:

buidhe
comhnaidhe
comrádaidhe

Did they also change the spelling of surnames? Would "Ó hÉilidhe" have become "Ó hÉilí", or would it have stayed the way it was?

Yes, proper names have been simplified in their spelling (Domhnall > Dónall; Ó Seaghdha > Ó Sé)

But contrary to common nouns, proper names have a tendency to retain their older spelling.
For instance, in French, certain persons bear the surnames "Lefèvre" or "Leneuveu" and others bear the older form of these names : "Lefebvre", "Leneupveu".

I understand. Tuigim. Je comprends. Ich verstehe. Entiendo. Capisco. Eu compreendo.

Well, judging by the name of that place in Sligo (Baile Uí Éilidhe), it seems that "Ó hÉilidhe" retained the old spelling, although if you go through an Irish phonebook ( http:///search.asp?source=GP ), you get all sorts of spelling variations.

On another note, I'd know straight away how to pronounce "Domhnall", and I actually quite prefer its old spelling for some reason.