Yet Another Pronounciation Topic

[AlidaART]

For a bit of time now I've been having a discussion with a certain MeditatingTree over at the YW-fanworks LJ community about that dreaded thing--pronounciation. Specifically, of the following:

1) Tualha
2) Wellakh
3) Nelaid
4) Roshaun (Ro-shawn? Ro-shan? Ros-hawn? Ro-shen?)

Any answers, my friends? I am currently looking around on Behind The Name and other etymology websites for Roshaun and Tualha, but help would be greatly appreciated regardless.

[Agent M]

errr.... Taulha I'm not sure... Toola? Towela? (That sounds really dumb...) Yeah, not sure.
But I think Wellakh is Well-aahk and Nelaid... Nee-laid? Roshaun is probably Ro-shawn, that's how I've been pronouncing it anyway...

[AlidaART]

I had thought that Wellakh was "Wella-kah", but...hmm, Well-aakh? Never though of that. And yeah, I agree Roshaun is probably Ro-shawn. Nelaid has always been Nell-laid to me, but I'm pretty sure that's gotta be wrong. Too-aul-ha for Tualha, maybe--no, that's probably also wrong. I'm really not sure.

[The Red Death]

I always thought that Roshaun was simply Ro-SHAWN until I saw this. Now I'm gonna be up all night trying to find the "right" way to pronounce his name. As for Tualha, I'd go with too-ALL-uh

Nelaid and Wellakh give me the most trouble though. Maybe Nelaid would be pronounced like Taidgh or aisle--- the "ai" is more of an "i". So I guess Neh-LIED? And Wellakh... That's hard. I'm not too sure about that one.

[Peter Murray]

I assume Roshaun is pronounced like the Irish name Roisin - Roshaun would be an Americanised spelling of it. (Rather like Siobhan becoming Shvaughn in the Legion of Super-Heroes comics years ago.)

I suppose we could ask DD in the next chat.

My guesses for the others are too-arl-ah, well-a-ch and nell-aid.

[wildflower]

I've been saying them as Rosh-hawn, Nell-aid, and Well-ahk, mostly. As for Tualha... I'd been saying it sort of literally, as Too-AL-ha, until I saw someone on the forums who had only heard the Abroad audio book type it as Tula. As M said, it could be Toola. It looks the most likely.

[Gryphon]

I'm just gonna selectively comment... how 'bout I tell you how I pronounce only the names of the characters that I remember exist? Umm... well!

I've been saying raw-shaun for Roshaun -- more like how wf's been saying it, but with the syllable break somewhere else.

[magicalmike]

I always thought it was prononced tula but now i think that i may need to reconsider.

As for Roshaun i think it is pronounced ro-shawn. I THINK.

[seabiscuit1009]

Hmmm...I pronounce everything literally, which, while good for Spanish class, is bad for English/other languages. I'd have to say:

Tualha: Too-al-ha (or I drop the h and make it Too-al-a...)
Wellakh: Well-ak-h (I know, but there is a way that the letter h sounds in my head.)
Nelaid: Ne-laid
Roshaun: Ro-sean

Haha, that looks really weird now that I've written it all out.

-seabiscuit, a.k.a. hungry

[the_peridexis]

i always assumed it was pernounced "twalha". this will take some figuring...one more thing Dairine.....pernounced "dare-een"?

[AlidaART]

Peridexis: There's actually already a topic about the way to say Dairine's name right here. That ought to answer your question--DD herself replied with an extensive explaination of Dairine's name and how to pronounce it.

As for Roshaun--forgive me, but that wasn't really a straight answer, Peter. How does one pronounce Roisin, then? I'm afraid my Gaelic isn't really up to par.

(So, nobody else thinks that the "kh" at Wellakh should be pronounced like "kah" or "keh"? Hm, personal weirdness on my part, I suppose.)

[Peter Murray]

DD also mentions Dairine on one of the podcasts, so if you listen to those, you get her pronunciation of the name.

Roisin is pronounced Ro-shawn or similar, much the way that Roshaun's name is spelt. (But I've only seen it used as a girl's name.) I don't know Gaelic either, but there are people with Irish names on TV and radio here - like Diarmuid Gavin (pronounced Dermot).

[AlidaART]

Yes, well, we don't get as much of that here in the U.S.A, so...just wondering.

(For the record, I wasn't really infering that you speak Gaelic, I was just saying that I have considerably less of a clue about Irish names than you do )

[princess4094]

Uuummm... I've always thought that Tualha would be pronounced Toola, and that Wellakh would be Wella-kah, like AlidaART says. Nelaid is Nee-lad to me, and Roshaun is Row-shan or Row-shen (I can't make up my mind, but the first one seems more probable. It's all very confusing, but at least I think I'm correct in pronouncing Dairine Dare-een.

[Cassi]

I never really thought much about it but it would probably be
Tualha: Toola
Wellakh: Well- ack
Nelaid: Ne-laid- like it is written
Roshaun: Ro-shaun
and Dairine- Dai-reen

I don't know?!?!