Pronunciations?

[Trevi]

Anyone know how to pronounce some of these words?

SAMHAIN
ANSUZ
CERRIDWEN

Samhain is actually the first part of my email address but I dont know how to pronounce it. I have several books that have pronunciations in them, but no two are the same!

And, is athame pronounced exactly as its written? rhyming with "fame" but with a -th sound (as in "the")?

"Grimoire": is this "grim-waah"?

[eaglewolf]

We pronounce Samhain as it is spelled ( SAM-hayn).

We prounounce athame - (ritual knife) :p

Sorry, can't help you with the others...

~ew

[Kaylara]

I pronounce Samhain Sow-in, and athame I pronounce ah-tham-ay. (but Eaglewolfs pronounciation works just as well)
I thought that Cerridwen was pronounced Ker-d-win, but I could be wrong.

Hope this helps.

Blessed Be!
Kaylara

[Mairwen]

SAMHAIN "saw-in" like, I'm sawin' logs.
ANSUZ "awnzooz"
CERRIDWEN "kerr-id-wen"

athame "ah-thuh-may" or "ah-tha-may"

Grimoire "grim-waaar"

[Mariposa De La Luna]

I've heard Samhain only pronounced sow-in but just forget all the confusion and call it Halloween. :)

[eaglewolf]

"Sow-in" is Irish, last I heard...

Say it how you mean it. My mom called it Birthday (cause it was hers ;)), but she also called it Halloween.

Live True not confused :p

~ew

[Mairwen]

I've heard Samhain pronounced "sa'wheen", or "sa'whoo-en", but that's not as common, but from what I understand that's the closest to being "correct" ~ and yes, it is an Irish term. It means "Summer's End".

[Amethyst Rose]

But the looks of all these other posts, the answer is.... say it how you want to say it! :)

I personally say Samhain the way is looks like it should be pronounced....the same with athame. I think it comes from working by myself, and never having anyone tell me any differently.

[eaglewolf]

Originally posted by Kaylara
(but Eaglewolfs pronounciation works just as well)


:p

~ew

[Moondragon]

Most of these are correct pronunciations it just depends on where you are from I guess

Samhain
(saaav-en )

Scottish

(Sow-ieeen)

Irish

SAM-hain
(american new pronuncation)

[Trevi]

That definatly helps!

I have never really had to pronounce any of these words because I am solitary and dont discuss it too much. I always call Samhain Halloween, but Samhain is the 1st half of my email address and people have been asking me how to pronounce it.

Thanks again!

[mol]

Originally posted by Trevi
Anyone know how to pronounce some of these words?

SAMHAIN
ANSUZ
CERRIDWEN



Well...I pronounce Samhain as...

Sou - ween = Sou (Sounds like Ouch) and ween sounds like, well, ween!

The others I will be of no help on I am afraid. I pronounce Cerridwen as SIR-reed-Win.

Hope that helps...as you can tell...a lot of people pronounce things a little differently. Heh.

[Mairwen]

But you have to remember that in Celtic languages (and in some cases, the language/s present on the British Isles pre-Celts), the "C" is pronounced hard, like a K. So, Celtic, is "Keltic", and Cerridwen, is "Kerridwen". :D

[mol]

Originally posted by Mairwen
But you have to remember that in Celtic languages (and in some cases, the language/s present on the British Isles pre-Celts), the "C" is pronounced hard, like a K. So, Celtic, is "Keltic", and Cerridwen, is "Kerridwen". :D

As I said...the others...I am not going to be much help on.

Heh.

:D

[Semele]

He also pronounce lawyer as looyar.

Goof ball!! :rolleyes:
Semele

[Mairwen]

:rolleyes: Men!
:D

[Lilu]

Samhain has many different pronunciations that I've seen, it all depends on which celtic language you are talking. I pronounce it the Irish Gaelic way which I've been taught is "sow-en" sow rhymes with "cow" but I sometimes pronounce it SAM HAYNE too. *shrug* Depends on my mood.

Ansaz - I would pronounce AN-SAAZ but I have no idea about that one.

Cerridwen - I have always pronounced KERR-id-wen which is how my childhood friend Ceridwen always pronounced her name. I never even knew it was a goddess's name until a few years ago! I just thought my friend had a unique name made up by her parents. LOL

Lilu

[mol]

Originally posted by Semele
He also pronounce lawyer as looyar.

Goof ball!! :rolleyes:
Semele

Hmm...the correct way of writing that would have been:

He also pronounces lawyer and looyar.


(I think.) :D

[Mairwen]

Here we go loopty loo!

[Shatav]

I think I'll stick with Latin...far easier to pronounce. ;)

[Dragonmother]

I can't remember who said this... The Irish deliberately misspelled all their words to the English- so that they would never be able to learn Gealic... And now they're are paying for it with a dying language.
Samhain is pronounced "sowAIN" ... I think...
I pronounce athame as "A THAHM ay" untill I get sick of the confusion and then I say "knife" (NIFE) Just kidding...
Cerwidden is KerWIDd'n
My favorit celtic name is pronounced "ShevAHN" and spelled "Siobhan"

[Mairwen]

That's funny. One of my students' goes by Siobhan. It's a beautiful name. :D

[andrew]

Cerridwen is ker-ID-wen
Athame is A-tha-may
Samhain is so-WAIN
Grimoire is GRIM-waah
But I don't know about Ansuz. Hope this helps, anyway

[Niamh]

YEah, we all pronounce things differently! As for the Irish, with only 17 letters in thier alphabet, they had to get a little funky with spellings and pronunciations! "bh" becaomes "v" as does "mh" when preceeded by certain vowels. "s" becomes "sh" when followed by certain vowels with an accent over them, etc. It's quite a language!

[andrew]

I'm really interested in learning Gaelic. Ireland's just across the water (a short ferry ride) away from me, and Gaelic is a little impenetrable. Which is a bit odd, because I understand welsh pretty well, and that is another example of gaelic (albeit the 'p' or brithionic branch). I suppose in some people's eyes this might make me a bit of an ignoramous, but the truth is I just haven't had time. Help!!!

[Niamh]

Irish is a tough language. I don't really know tons about it! BUt my brother is a linguist and can read and write it. And NO! I don't think you're an ignoramous! From the little I know of Irish and the little I"ve seen of Welsh, I don't think they look anything alike! I've taken books uot of the library, but they don't seem to help me. What I need is a course with other people, but they are hard to come by.

[Amy]

I was browsing for some new pagan books in a bookstore the other day and something caught my eye. They actually had one of those "Idiot's Guide to" books for Wicca. Needless to say, I was quite surprised...so I figured..what the heck, might as well check it out just to see what they have to say. Well, it just so happened that the book was actually pretty descent. It had an exellent section on all the pronunciations of many of the holidays. It also had a pretty good compulation of little "unknown facts" and what not. Despite the books annoying title and garishly bright cover...I think it's worth a browse....

-Amy

[sherry]

Semele are you tryin to say he has that OKLAHOMA accent?! I lived in Texas for 7 years and still am looked at when a word from my Texas vocabulary comes sneaking back out like oil is actualy aul !!

[Dragonmother]

Those "idiots guide" books are mostly pretty good! I just realized how many "for dummies" books I have in my house, too.

[DragonSong]

I don't know how to spell this either:

Esbat

[rantnraven]

Has anyone learned anything here?

The Gaelic language was not intentionally altered to confuse the English (pronounced (Anglesh). Actually, it varied from one Clan to the next. That is why they had such a hard time communicating (pronounce (Comuni - katen)).

Hope this cleared the air (pronounced Eyre) on a few issues (pronounced...well, they reall can't say that word.)

-T

By the way, "Esbat" is correct.

[Dragonmother]

Darn. my cute theory all shot to hell! hee hee...
Btw, I've always pronounced it EEN-glish.. Except for the time i spent there, when I picked up the local accent and pronounced it EHN-glish... but after nearly twenty years I'm back to that first pronounciation again...
I guess it's all pretty relative.

[rantnraven]

Just thought to mention that I like your "kittie" avatar.

-T