I was wondering how the family name Ó Súileabháin
is pronounced in Irish Gaelic. Anglicized its O Sullivan, but I thought it may be pronounced differently in it's origainal form.

Thanks for any help you can give,
Robert

quote:

Ó Súileabháin

Two 'l's:

Ó Súilleabháin ~= oh SOOL-yuh-wah-in

The final syllable sounds a bit like "wine".

I've never heard a y-glide, I myself say it as:

oh soo la-woin

oh rhymes with go
soo rhymes with poo
la is like in latitude
woin is like coin with a w.

I'm sure you'd find someone who says the "bh" as a v instead of a w though.

Depends on dialect. In the South they don't palatalize much the l's, n's etc, so the -llea- sounds more like lah than like lyah.

In Donegal we say [ə ˈsuːλawan], sin /ə ˈsuːL´awaːn´/

"In the South they don't palatalize much "

I would go as far to say that it has disaapperared to all intents and purposes for a lot of young natives there