Dear dreh, Dear dreh, Dear dreh

[Toomanythalias]

Following on from the Call the Midwife thread. Jeeze it's not difficult to pronounce Deirdre correctly, but so many English people continue to insult our beautiful old Irish name with that ghastly Coronation Street pronunciation. It's Dear dreh, folks, not DEEER DREEE.

I think it's rather more nuanced than either my post or yours would imply..

"The Elizabethan conquest of Ireland (1565-1603) marks the first time a central government was established in Ireland. The native Brehon laws were outlawed and English law imposed. People were cleared off their land, all things Irish were despised, it became unfashionable to have an Irish name.

While the surname change process was initiated by oppression it was not the sole cause. In the new political and social climate one could only hope to ascend through the social ranks by appearing to conform to the new social order. Surname change was an imperative of survival as the alternative was to face annihilation be it social, financial or physical.

In reality many families had two names, one for official documents and another which they were commonly known by to their friends, neighbours and relations."

As recently as the 1980's it was not uncommon for Irish people to be stopped by the police and asked for the English version of their names when they gave their Irish names.

This is a crazy thread. Languages and accents evolve all the time and not in sync. Who actually cares?

It happens the other way around too. Some Dublin people pronounce Ethan as ETIN and Lauren as LAREN.

OP - wait till you hear how Conor is pronounced in England.. CON-AH.

So is it sort of "Dear Dr-eugh," sticking my tongue out at the end?

No

I'd better keep pronouncing it Deardray then, same as my very charming friend and colleague Deirdre does.

My pet hate for overly mis-pronounced names are A-liss-ia (gaah!) instead of A-leash-a for Alicia, Rocks-Anne instead of Rose-Anne for Roxanne, but in truth, I realise that people can use whatever pronunciation they want to!
However, not sure why everyone thinks “Dierdreh” is a beautiful name though: it literally means Sorrow or Broken-hearted!
I certainly wouldn’t want to saddle anyone with that - especially if their sibling is endowed with a name that means something joyful, such as Dominic (gift from God) or Aoife (beautiful, radiant or joyful). This is apparent in many Irish families I know!
I always wondered why the Irish, in particular, do that? (I’m of Irish extraction myself)…

Try getting a Scottish person to say Karl. It actually makes me nervous if I know I’ve to say that name. I avoid it wherever possible.

This.

Language evolves. There is no right or wrong. That's why there is accepted American English now as opposed to British English. The Corrie version is pretty standard here, it's not incorrect it's just evolved into that pronunciation taking our different accents and dialects into account.

On a scale of one to ten, how many English people do you think give a shit how Deirdre should be announced?
My guess is somewhere between zero and zilch.
They are probably more concerned about their next gas bill tbh

Is just an anglicised way of saying it isn't it, not exactly wrong, just different. Dylan is more commonly said the anglicised way, and Rhys. They're understandable variations.

If you think Dear-dree is bad...

That's very reasonable.

I'm English, but I'm pretty well familiar with the Welsh language and speak it a tiny bit. Pronouncing Ll is no problem.

However, I have to admit I'd probably not use a proper Ll sound if I met someone called Llewelyn in England (even if said Llewelyn was Welsh). I'd worry it would come across that I'm sort of putting on a Welsh accent/taking the mick a bit - especially as someone I just met would only know me as an English person and not know my personal connections to Wales.

I suppose might do a very half hearted Ll that sounds more like a muffled Cl and hope for the best that may well offend a Welsh person more though for all I know!

I noticed that as well - but only because I had a work colleague who pronounced it the Irish way. It sounds so much better!

How is Llewelyn pronounced? I realise now I’m probably saying that one wrong!

It doesn't sound like Lou-Ellen, which I hear quite often.

'Ll' is a letter in the Welsh alphabet and doesn't sound like an L as you might say for Louise. I don't think I can describe it in words, but it's made by passing air over the sides of the tongue and onto your teeth. Have you heard places like Llandudno or Llanfair being said on TV?

I can see Deidre now Lorraine has gone

Being of ‘Irish extraction’ doesn’t make you accurate, though. Deirdre doesn’t mean ‘sorrow’ unless you take those dimwit baby name sites seriously. It’s from Old Irish, and is probably from the root for ‘daughter”. It’s associated with sorrow because of Deirdre in the Ulster Cycle, but given that people of many nationalities call their children Cassandra, Jonah, Dolores and Ophelia etc all the time, I hardly think giving children names associated with misfortune is ‘an Irish thing’.

However, not sure why everyone thinks “Dierdreh” is a beautiful name though: it literally means Sorrow or Broken-hearted!

Ditto Dolores - means pain or sorrow!

The Irish Deirdre I knew pron it Dear-druh.

Yeah but can you say it?

Try going to the states if your name is Zara or Holly. Nobody will ever pronounce them right!

I have a Slav name that no-one can spell or pronounce correctly. My cousin has a Hungarian name which is full of Zs. Her parents gave up at an early stage and anglicised her name for school. So she is known as her Hungarian name in the family and by the English version by everyone else!

Gráinne is always fun when abroad.

I didn't know that either!

There is more than one correct pronunciation. This is true for many names