Help: Gaelic words

Subject: RE: Help: Gaelic words
From: Philippa
Date: 07 Dec 99 - 08:17 AM

Céilidh is the older spelling. Scottish Gaelic has dropped the use of acute accents, although they are useful guides to pronunciation, retaining only the grave accents. So Ceilidh would be correct in modern Scottish Gaelic orthography. Modern Irish spelling has dropped the 'dh' and therefore an accent has to be added to the i to indicate the correct sound; Céilí. A similar example would be the word for night, oidhche in Scottish Gaelic and older Irish spelling, oíche in modern Irish spelling.

I am not familiar with Ceilidh as a name, either in Scotland or Ireland, and I don't know if there is a connection between this word and the name Kayleigh (apart from the similar sound). Ceiliidh can mean a dance, a social evening with songs and story-telling, or simply a social visit to someone's house.

Subject: RE: Help: Gaelic words
From: Áine
Date: 07 Dec 99 - 08:11 AM

Dear Metchosin,

You are right about the spellings, ceili is Irish Gaelic and ceilidh is Scots Gaelic.

My son has a similar problem with his name, Ian. Most people who read it pronounce it with one syllable, using a long 'i' or a long 'e'.

-- Áine

Subject: RE: Help: Gaelic words
From: InOBU
Date: 07 Dec 99 - 08:05 AM

The opposit problem again... At home my Da always called me Lor, short for Lorcan, but was in the habit of putting Lawrence or Larry on school records etc. as in the 50s conformity was the serival technique, even for non conformists like my dad. I never liked the name Larry or Lawrence, but that became my in public name, while the family used the Gaelic diminutive. All the best Larry (Lor)

Subject: RE: Help: Gaelic words
From: alison
Date: 07 Dec 99 - 02:11 AM

I like the name...

It is pronounced Kay-lee..... the 'd' is silent as is the 'h'.

( Marillion did a nice song called Kayleigh in the 80's... maybe she'd like to hear a song with her name in it .. even if it is spelt differently.)

I was talking to a teacher friend the other night. He told me the reverse of this story...... The child had grown up being called "Seen" by his mum... it was only when he went to school and the teacher called his name out as "Sean" (Shawn) that he found out how it was meant be pronounced..... his mum had read the name in a book and thought it looked nice......

slainte

alison

Subject: Gaelic words
From: Metchosin
Date: 07 Dec 99 - 01:39 AM

We named our youngest daughter Ceilidh. As a result, she was not terribly pleased with us, as she has spent all of her school years, informing new teachers and others that her name was niether Sea-Lid nor Seala-Duh, a hard thing to do when you are basically a very shy person. She was also distressed because Ceilidh was also the name of a neighbour's Collie. When she was first born, I had spelled it Ceili but my brother insisted that if we were going to give her a Gaelic word for a name, we should at least spell it correctly. I have noticed both spellings here at the Mudcat, and assumed that Ceili is the Irish spelling and Ceilidh is the Scottish. Could someone please clarify this for me? What is the correct Gaelic pronounciation? ie. caylee, cayliegh and does the "h" mean that the "d" is silent?