How do you pronounce Ceinwen??

[PotPourri]

Is it Kane - wen? Thanks

hey califrau
DH lived up a hill in Mountain Ash for some of his childhood

i LOVE the name Rowan
noted for the next one (Hahahahahahahah)

oh and pot pourri nice to see you around on here. remember we had first DDs at West Mid in 2004? can't believe you're on to no.3 Well done!

Kewcumber - Granada, as in northern part of South America, revolting against Spanish colonisation? Turks had nothing to do with that.

I hear your reluctance to Google. It is a beautiful theory

'Ottoman' doesn't equal 'Turkish', just like 'British' doesn't equal 'English', as you said. Not that it stops people asking for apology from Turkey for things that happened in Ottoman Empire times

Sorry for thread hijack, btw

Why on EARTH would you want to call your child a name you can't pronounce?

My point exactly. If you don't know how to pronounce it, neither will anyone you know or the child will encounter.

I have a difficult exotic name with a beautiful meaning which nobody knows about and it is a daily struggle.

sorry to continue the Hijack but it interests me ... no I was thinking of Granada, Spain in 1500's when the mulsims revolted against Spain (over forced conversions). Yes I know ottoman doesn't equal turk I was just wondering if that was the explanation for the fictitious "turkish" revolt. Still determined not to ruin my pride in Llanelli's part in the glorious Turkish revolt against the Spanish

I read up a bit about that and it seems those were Moroccans whose use of Arabic was also banned by the Spanish. Turks speak Turkish, a language that shares only a few (religious) words with Arabic, and is closer to Japanese than anything else.

I would have thought it was more similar to Kazkah than japanese as kazakh is also a turkic language.

They are all in the family of Altaic languages. I gave Japanese as example because more people are familiar with how it sounds

I've been to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan for business in early 1990s, when they were opening up their markets through privatizations. Didn't understand a word they were saying - both because mostly they were speaking Russian, and also because I didn't understand their own language.

Also went to Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan, and there, they were speaking Turkish with funny (to me) accents and some very strange words.

Absurd but true anecdote:
We are in a big dinner party that the mayor or something of Baku (capital of Azerbaijan) has thrown in our honor. He comes up to me and says "You look like my daughter who works in a brothel". I freeze, turn crimson, and run. Later learn that our word for 'brothel' is their word for 'factory'. Quite a few such embarrassing word mix-ups in countries where pretty much all other words are the same

actually can I point out that Niamh is pronounced Nee Av. It jsut said so quickly that most English people hear it as Neev (unless the person speaking is from Munster in which case its Neeeeeeeeeeee aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaavvvvvvvvv).

Am actually rofl at people thinkign that Irish names are pronounced correctly in England. that is really funny esp if you have heard dp mangling soem of my cousins names.

What part of Ireland are you from?

'Granada, as in northern part of South America' - eh?! when did they move it from Southern Spain?

Yes Cote, I have an Uzbeki friend who managed quite well with Turkish.#
I havel ivedi n Turkey and am a linguist.
It is a fiendis language to learn.
Quite a lot of research to show that as a result, Turksih speaking children have suoer duper grammatical ability aT V. EARLY AGE.

Yes, it's the same language with (mostly) the same words. Probably, theirs is closer to the original Turkish whereas ours has evolved differently in the thousand years or so that Turks settled in Asia Minor (Anatolia), and it's much more of a difference than American English vs British English. (ex: 'Welcome' is 'Hos geldiniz' in Turkey and 'Hos gelmissiniz' in Azerbaijan) I remember you speak some Turkish. Could you tell the difference when your Uzbek friend was speaking Turkish?

Again in Azerbaijan:
A guy working for us was going there for the first time. Got his first surprise on the plane, where pilot announced that the plane was about to fall ('dusmek', which apparently means 'to land' for them). Then he gets to the hotel, calls reception and asks for some water and two glasses. Manager appears at his door and says something like they would like their guests to be happy but they just don't have that service. After a bit of a shouting match between them, our guy realizes that our word for water glass ('bardak') means 'prostitute' in Azerbaijan

At that stage my ear wasn't properly tuned in and by the time it was she had left her dh and cleared of back to Moscow.
I know the nos. were all practically the same.
Lol at vocab. anecdote. My sister (married to a Korean) stunned an entire cafe into shocked silence in Seould once by asing for a 'hot dick' instead of a 'hot chocolate'.

re difficulty of Turkish language - I am only now starting to appreciate just how tough it is to learn Turkish, as I speak Turkish to DD (2.7). She is learning it very slowly. Only now do I realize how much longer and more complicated words are in Turkish compared to English or French equivalents, and that is before even going into all that is geniunely difficult like conjugation/vowel harmony/extensive use of sayings/proverbs etc.

I read your comments on linguistic abilities of Turkish children before and would love to see the studies, if you ever have the time to link some here.

My personal experience is that learning languages was not a big deal. I am fluent in English and French, the latter of which I started learning when I moved here 8 years ago. Can't say if all Turks pick up languages so easily. I like to think that yours truly is singularly talented in this area

How weird, lots of Welsh connections on here today. DP is also from Mountain Ash. Didn't get as far away as you lot though, now living in the big smoke of Cardiff. Rowan also on our list! Just to add - Ceinwen is deifinitely pronounced (correctly or not!) KINEwen in the South Wales Valleys but does become KANEwen the further west you go. Lovely name, either way.

zazette - I Googled 'granada revolt spanish' and some of the links that came up were talking about Granada in the northern part of South America (now Colombia) revolting against Spanish authorities. Now know kewcumber were talking about Moors in Spain (rather than Ottomans/Turks).

MrsJ, have CATed you. Nice to see you around too (new name?). Seems like no time at all since West mid!

yes - new name! doesn't does it - have moved QUITE a long way away now though...

Me too. About 500 miles away - back to Scotland. Hope your little one is getting on well. I CATed you by the way, but people don't seem to be getting them...

It’s prounced Kine-wen, she says 11 years after the thread was made. It’s my sister’s name.

I know several Ceinwens, mostly 85+. It's quite dated.
The ei sound doesn't really have an equivalent English sound. I'd say is was like a sharp Eh sound, but not like ay in day, bay etc.
The Cane-wen pronunciation is not quite right and neither is Keenwen, and the Ce will cause pronunciation issues.
Kine-wen would be written Cainwen, which although isn't a name is quite pretty.

Zombie!

But have to say the Ceinwen I know is pronounced Cane-wen.

never heard before but when I first saw it I read it as 'sign-when' x