Any Irish Gaelic-speaking MNers who could help pronounce...

[acnebride]

... Bhaoilligh?

could anybody give me a phonetic rendering of that, I've got to ring a lady with this surname and I'd like to get it right?

Cheers!

it's an unusual one! though at a guess I'd go for 'Vay-lee' and you'll be close

Brilliant, thank you abusybee!

isn't it Boyle - as in the song O'Boyle's Daughter (Níon a' Bhaoilligh)?

yes that's what I thought after googling too...

Yeah. It is. But if the person wanted the anglocised version of their name said, they would have spelt it that way.

I go with abusybee, 'Vay-lee' is close enough.

It would be pronounced as a 'v' if the 'b' is aspirated with an 'h'. My surname starts with a b and the Irish spelling is pronounced 'v'. ie Bran in English, ni Bhran in Irish.

AFAIK it is the Irish for Boyle but I agree with abusybees pronounciation as the h after the b makes a v sound. if the word was being used on its own it would have not the added h nad would be pronounced b and not v if I remember myIrish correctly (its been a few years )

I'd say "vwaylig" but tbh I have a v. difficult Irish surname and I don't care any more if people get it wrong, its normal for me!!

sorry if I muddied the waters, but I've been caught out too many times with gaelic spellings but anglicized pronunciations in the England in the past (O'Sullivan springs to mind) - but surely she can't complain if you go for the gaelic pronunciation can she? so ignore my previous post

I'd just ask her! I have an Irish surname (doesn't strike me as a difficult one, but you'd be surprised how many people do mispronounce it, or spell it incorrectly!)

I like it when people ask if they aren't sure , otherwise I end up unsure as to whether to correct them or not, sometimes do (ie with BT shoddy customer services, etc) . Sometimes I don't bother.