There are 18 letters in the Irish alphabet: a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, u. We also 'borrow' the letters j, q, v, w, x, and z in what are known as loan words. We have the basic vowels: a, e, i, o, and u. These may either be short or long, and the difference in the length of a vowel, when one type is exchanged for the other in a word can change the meaning of that word...........our accent, the fada*, tells us how the letter should be pronounced The following gives some indication of how the vowels are pronounced. Remember that your accent differs again to any of ours and what you have when you say these words are an approximation, the sound will be somewhat different when spoken by an Irish person. Vowel: English word which contains this vowel as sounded a cat a with fada* law e che (rry) e with fada* may i shin i with fada* mean o done/lot o with fada* more u bus u with fada* cool *a fada is an accent above the letter - other people's mail programmes don't read accents The vowels combine with each other in a number of ways, for example i and u combining with ia and ua, which sound like eea and ooa. In the middle of words the combinations a(id)h, o(id)h, eidh and eigh also consist of two vowel sounds pronounced like the English eye or my. Also, (e)amh is pronounced like 'ow' in the english cow and how; for some dialects (e)abh, obh, omh, odh, ogh are also pronounced in this way as 'ow'; while in others they are pronounced like a long o sound as in the English more. The combinations umh and ubh are pronounced like a long oo sound as in the English word cool. The combination ao does not represent two sounds. In Ulster and Connaught Irish it is usually pronounced ee; in Munster Irish it sounds like the vowel in the English may; aoi is usually pronounced ee In some counties they have 'e' and sound it like 'a'. In some counties they drop their 'h' in words and names, some counties will pronounce the word Bally as Balla or even it can be spelled Baile or Ballagh.. We have lots of dis, dat, dese and dose instead of that 'th' sound J Some people will sound an 'rd' combination as 't'. The 'H' can be dropped from a name, making for example the surname 'Harmon' become 'Armon' 'O' can be pronounced 'Au' making Odlum become Audlum The vowel sounds are substituted for one another left, right and centre in any surname or placename it seems. We add 's' we take it away, as and when we feel like it or so it may look - but this is really related to the accent in the area. Banaghan can become Bannan losing the 'gh' sound A 'v' sound can become a 'w' sound Bee can be pronounced Bay. W as Q I could go on for ever and ever with sounds. When you are searching through the various records and you see a name - which has some if any similarity to the one you seek, *sound* both names to yourself..say them as many different ways as you can and then take the reference for each. You never know when someone will tell you that the second is a variation on the first. .and then again because it is an Irish name or word...it may not be.