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[Opinions] Re: Sian
in reply to a message by Bear
I have seen Sian before but have no idea how to say it and have never met anyone of that name. I used to say it as Sigh-Ann until someone corrected me that that was totally wrong! I think it is pretty though.
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I have a cousin named Sian, and she pronounces it Sigh-ann. I thought her name was Cyan at first...but then, she isn't Welsh.
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Some Gaelic helpA lot of us here have gotten pretty good at Gaelic pronunciation, though we (for the most part) can't speak it. The combination "si" makes an "sh" sound. An "is" also often makes an "sh" sound. "Bh" makes a soft "v" sound. Therefore, the names Siobhan and Aisling would be pronounced shi-VAHN and ASH-ling. The letter "e" is often pronounced "uh" when at the end of names (Aoife = EE-fuh). Now, I'm no expert, so anybody here who can actually speak Gaelic is welcome to correct me, but I think those are pretty basic rules that I picked up from years of looking at the names.
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Thanks againThank you again Aileen. You are giving me a great education in pronouncing words today. I love to learn new things so I really appreciate it. I especially like the Aoife pronunciation. I had no idea how to say that and I think it would be very embarrassing if I told you how I said it :)
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Believe me, I was clueless when I came tooI used to really love Irish names (I still like them, but my style is more Eastern European now), and when I just started spending a lot of time on BtN I researched a lot of Irish names. When I discovered Caoilfhionn I was horrified. Seriously, the name looks nuts! But you'd never believe that it's simply pronounced "KEE-lin", which is really quite nice. You get used to it after a while. Mind, I've been here forever, but eventually wild-looking names won't be such a shock to you because you will recognize some etymological roots within the names.
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SianI think Sian is pronounced "Shaaahn" with a long ahhhh sound whether Shawn is "Shawn" with an awwww sound (if that makes any sense). so they sound pretty much alike but not exactly the same.
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