Hello, What is the correct Irish pronunciation of this name, and is there a common non-standard pronunciation in Ireland? That is, if an Irish person who did not speak Irish well had to read this name as written in Irish (while speaking English), would they likely pronounce it as a native Irish speaker would? Thank you!
I have only ever heard one pronunciation of this in Irish, which is "Finn-var" (although in my dialect of Irish - Ulster - a "bh" would usually pronounced more like a soft "w" sound). As for how an non-Irish speaking person would say it, it would depend on whether that person was familiar with the name or not, and whether they are familiar with Irish pronunciation rules. If not, God knows how they would pronounce it (e.g. few non-Irish speaking people know how to pronounce Deirdre correctly and just say Deer-dree instead). If they are familiar with it, they would be saying Finnvar.
Thanks! Two other questions. Is the i in the first syllable normally pronounced short or long (i.e. like "it" or like "eat")? And is the r at the end of the word usually rolled?
No worries There are no rolled "r"s in Irish, so it's a regular American "r" The "i" is pronounced short - as in, fin, like a shark's fin.
Hello, I suspose it might be worth pointing out that Fionbharr is not all that common in Ireland. The English Finbar, or it's dimunitive Barry being more usual. Fionnbarra is the modern Irish version, meaning Fairhead (or Blond-haired)
Er... the Irish broad r is a flap, like in the Spanish word "pero". It is not the American r at all. Fionnbhárr is Fyoonvahrr, with a Spanish flapped r.
In the Ulster dialect, the R is like an American R, not at all the Spanish R in pero. My statement about there being no rolled Rs in Irish was perhaps inaccurate - there may be a rolled R in other dialects. I base my comments on my own dialect, in which there definitely isn't a rolled R.
