How to say the names

Kinsella kept the Irish spellings. He says reasonable English phonetic equivalents might have been used for the proper names, but the original orthography is preferred, even though many of the words sound very odd pronounced as in English. Then he offers a guide, which he calls very rough and subject to exceptions. This page gives it whole.

The book marks the stressed syllable of each name in bold type, and this page cannot.

The rules

Consonants

Consonants at the beginning of a word have the same value as in English. The letter c is always k. Elsewhere in a word:

• b = v
• c = g or k
• ch is guttural, as in German
• d = dh (as in "then")
• g = gh, a soft guttural
• m = v (Fedelm and Leborcham are exceptions)
• t = d
• s followed or preceded by e or i = sh
• th = th, as in "thin"

Vowels

Short vowels have the same value as in Latin. Long vowels, which are marked with an accent, are pronounced awe, ay, ee, owe, oo. Accents are not shown on capitals.

• ai = a in the first syllable (Ailill, Maine) and i elsewhere (Cúchulainn, Emain)
• a final e is sounded (Laegaire, Maine)
• iu = u but with the i slightly sounded (Derdriu)
• ui = i but with the u slightly sounded (Cuillenn)
• ei = e (Deichtine, Murtheimne)

Reading the table

Kinsella says a pronunciation is suggested for some of the more important proper names in the stories. The table has 34 persons and 33 places and other words, set out below in the order the book gives them, with the hyphens and spacing as printed. Where he offers two pronunciations he joins them with a slash, as in Medb, "medhv/mayv". Badb gives "badhv/bive" and Conchobor gives "kon - chov - or/kon - chor". A few entries have a letter in brackets, "(y)och - i" and "k(w)iv", which the guide does not comment on.

The long vowels can be checked against the table. Scáthach is "skaw - thach", Sétanta is "shay - dan - da", Morrígan is "mo - ree - jhan", Galeóin is "gal - (y)owe - in", and Cúchulainn is "koo - chull - in". The rule for m shows in Emer, "ay - ver", and in Nemain, "nev - in". The guide's own entry for the ford of Ferdia is spelled Ath Ferdia, where the route list in the book prints Ath Firdia. This page keeps both as printed.

Persons

Places, and other