I need some help with the pronunciation of names from Irish legends for a book I'm translating (into Hebrew, so I can't just keep the spelling). Would someone be so kind as to write down the phoenetics for the following? Someone on the Lonely Planet forums specifically suggested I ask DK, but I'd be grateful for answers from anyone who's sure of them:

Eochaid, Ailill, Fiachra and Niall;
Levarchan, Follamain.

And a comprehension problem - the King says, speaking of Cuchulainn: "I know that chariot-fighter; even the little boy, my sister's son, who this very day went to the marches." What is meant by "going to the marches"?

I would so much appreciate your help
Shlomit

Marches:
a tract of land along a border of a country; frontier.

(Knowing Cú Chulainn he was probably going to slaughter some Connaught men!)

quote:

Would someone be so kind as to write down the phoenetics for the following? Someone on the Lonely Planet forums specifically suggested I ask DK, but I'd be grateful for answers from anyone who's sure of them:

Eochaid, [ˈewxəðʲ]
Ailill, [ˈalʲiʎ]
Fiachra [ˈɸʲiaxɾa]
Niall; [ˈɲiaɫ̪ ]

Levarchan, -> that's not an Irish spelling, do you have another "more Irish" spelling (in Irish there's no v so I guess it's an Anglicised one)

Follamain. [ˈɸoɫ̪əβ ̃ənʲ]

But wait fore Dennis' opinion if he's still here, because I'm not a specialist of Old Irish.

Leabharcham

Ní lia duine ná barúil! There are lots of opinions! The problem is in part is that the pronunciation of "Old Irish" depends on (1) the century, since the spoken language was in constant evolution, and (2) the degree of conservatism of the speaker. For example, the professional poets in Early Modern were still reciting their verse using sound values that no one used in ordinary conversation. The same was very likely true of Old Irish to the extent that it continued to be used as a formal literary language. A third point to take into consideration, since this a modern book on Irish legends, not a phrase book for communicating with the long-dead, is how these names are commonly pronounced by Irish scholars and other educated people today.

If you can follow the phonetic transcription that Lughaidh has given, Shlomit, then go with that - to the degree that you can transfer the distinctions into today's Hebrew. Otherwise I can attempt to give you workable Hebrew spellings of these names. But there are points you'd have to explain. For example, the final 'd' in Eochaid was pronounced as 'th' as in "then" in Old Irish. My understanding is that in classical Hebrew the letter dalelth (unpointed) had that pronunciation, while the pointed letter was pronounced as a "hard d". LIkewise the unpointed beth had the same bilabial v-like sound of 'b' in Leborcham, while the pointed beth was a "hard b". (Leborcham, by the way, is the usual OI spelling. The spelling Aonghus gave is Modern Irish.) But I'm not sure how readers/speakers of Modern Hebrew interpret these letters.

Go raibh maith agat, a Aonghuis, as m'aird a dhíriú ar an gceist seo. Ní léim an suíomh seo go rialta.

quote:

For example, the final 'd' in Eochaid was pronounced as 'th' as in "then" in Old Irish.

As a matter of interest, how exactly did Old Irish scholars figure out the actual pronunciation of Old Irish? Are there manuscripts giving detailed descriptions of this?

I'm not sure but maybe with rhymes and alliterations, as well as with spelling variants (the same sound may be th as well in some words) you may know it was a dental spirant.

If I remember well, dh and th ceased to be dental in the 12th century (Dennis will correct if I'm wrong).

Dennis, how would you pronounce "Leborcham" in Old Irish (according to the same rules I used above)? :

[ˈʎeβoɾxəβ ̃ ]
(Is the -m a lenited one or is it [m] here ? Since I know that sometimes the scribes use a single m instead of mm when it is pronounced [m] ?). And is the -a- pronounced like an [a] (since it's a compound name) or like a schwa?...

Go rabh maith agad

Thanks so very much for answering everything so generously. Be well!

Leborcham

Níl mé cinnte den 'm' sin go huile is go hiomlán. Scríobhtar le -m seachas le -mh é i nGaeilge an lae inniu, agus ní fhaca mé dada riamh sa tseanteanga le malairt tuairime a thabhairt dom den fhuaimniú. Ar an drochuair, níl sanasaíocht an ainm ar eolas agam!

An mbeadh aon bhaint aige le "leabhair" - mín, caol nó "leabhar" - book, an bhfeadaraís?

Tá an focal "lebar = fada" sa tSean-Ghaeilge, ceart go leor. Maidir leis an dara leath den ainm, tá "camm = cam" ann freisin. "Fada agus cam", mar sin? Tig le duine bheith fada agus cam, agus is féidir gurb é sin an míniú. Ach níl mé cinnte.

Caol atá luaite leis in Ó Corráin agus Maguire.

Shamhlóinn an t-ainm a bheith níos sine ná an focal leabhar <- liber sa teanga.

A Aonghuis, this is the entry:

LEBARCHAM: LEABHARCHAM (lowr-cham) f, 'slender, stooped".

In Irish story Lebarcham is the nurse of the tragic heroine Deirdre. Lebarcham was also the name of one of Cúchulainn's lovers.