# Gaelic: Rioghnach



## NilsH

This I think is a Scottish name, but how do English speakers pronounce it? 

/Nils


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## JulianStuart

Rarely 

Apparently it's Irish - from mythology at least.  Best guess, from looking on the internet would be REE-nuh, where the u is either a schwa or has a bit of "a" sound left in it. (REE-nah).  Perhaps an Irish person who also speaks English just might chime in ?


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## NilsH

It occurred to me that most Gaelic speakers are also English speakers, but I don't know if they pronounce their Gaelic names in an 'anglified' manner when speaking English. Anyway, the original question is slightly altered to:

What is the correct way of pronouncing this name in Gaelic? Is JulianStuart's best guess above correct?

/NilsH


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## Au101

Well I am have no knowledge of Gaelic pronunciation, I do however have a good friend called Rioghnach and she says it Ree-oh-nu, with the oh as in no and the nu as in nut. I can't promise this is how it would be said with accurate Gaelic pronunciation, but that is how she says it. I'm sorry I can't give an accurate Gaelic pronunciation.


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## Brioche

My book on Irish names gives
_Rioghnach_ [old spelling] = REE-nah 
_Ríonach_ [new spelling] = REE-nah  - note accent on the í.

Other spellings are _Renagh_ and _Ríona_.

However, the book also has:
_Riona_ = REE-oh-na.

It means queenly.


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## L'irlandais

NilsH said:


> It occurred to me that most Gaelic speakers are also English speakers, but I don't know if they pronounce their Gaelic names in an 'anglified' manner when speaking English. Anyway, the original question is slightly altered to:
> 
> What is the correct way of pronouncing this name in Gaelic? Is JulianStuart's best guess above correct?
> 
> /NilsH


Hello Nils,
Welcome to the forums.

It's spelt R*í*oghnach (nominative) in Irish (Gaeilge), the spelling changes in the possessive form, taking -aighe :   
Appearantly, the name of the sister of St. Finnian of Clonard.  So not a mythlogical name, as far as I know.





> Pronunciation, is a delicate subject ; as there are 3 main-stream dialects of Irish Connacht Irish,(West) Munster Irish (South) and Ulster Irish (North).
> The differences between these are considerable so as yet no accepted standard pronunciation of Irish.      _Source : Oxford Irish Dico_..


Unfortunately I don't know the IPA well enough.
_Rí_ is as everyone above pointed out *Ree*  (the _í_ giving *ee* as in the word h*ee*l)

_ogh_  the _gh_ becomes slender following the slender vowel  (_í _giving a *y* like in *y*ellow  =  _*oy*_)
_nach_ the _ch_ is broad similar to that in the Scottish word lo*ch*

My try for what it's worth (not being a fluent Irish speaker)

*Ree-oy-nah*

In answer to your other question, I'd say most Irish speakers would not (knowingly) anglicise an Irish name when speaking it in English.
I suspect both JulianStuart & Brioche are giving an anglicised (2 syllable) version.  The name translates into *Riona* in English, though sometimes translated to *Regina*.


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## NilsH

Thank you so much for your help, all of you. My problem was that I had to call someone in Ireland with that name on the phone, at work, and I felt silly because I didn't know how to pronounce it when asking for her.

When I did call her the day after posting, I followed Julian's suggestion. She didn't correct me, but that might just mean that she was too polite or couldn't be bothered.

/Nils


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## jamesosullivan

Just to answer your question NiLsH though most speakers of Irish are nowadays english speakers, Gaelic names are not pronounced in an anglified manner.


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## Kmonahan6

As the grandmother to a Rioghnach, the name is pronounced ree OH nah and means "little queen" in gaelic.


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## elirlandes

NilsH said:


> Thank you so much for your help, all of you. My problem was that I had to call someone in Ireland with that name on the phone, at work, and I felt silly because I didn't know how to pronounce it when asking for her.
> 
> When I did call her the day after posting, I followed Julian's suggestion. She didn't correct me, but that might just mean that she was too polite or couldn't be bothered.
> 
> /Nils



Don't worry about it - you have already showed enough interest in finding out how to pronounce it to show that you are concienscous...

Irish people are pretty much all English speakers. Most/many of us have anglicised versions of old Irish names, although a growing number actually are given the original Gaelic version of their name by their parents at birth. We tend to try to pronounce these as in Irish even when speaking English. 

An example is Rory. 
The anglecised version ("Rory") is pronounced "roar-ee".
The original Irish version ("Ruaraí"/"Ruadhraí" etc) is pronounced "r*oo*-a-ree"). Also, between friends, some people with an anglecised version of a name may be called by the Irish language version for fun... (just to confuse you all more).


That said, many people in Ireland have very little or no Irish so people with harder to pronounce Irish language names are used to having Irish people say their name slight incorrectly. If you are calling from abroad, and your name is Nils, have no fear... any attempt to get it right will be appreciated, and you can happily ask "did I get that right?".

As per below, "ree-oh-nah" is a fairly standard way to pronounce this name.


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## Rio23

hey, my name is rioghnach.
It is irish gaelic as there is more than one type. 
To pronounce this it is like fiona but with an R. 
so Riona is an easier way to look at it.


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## L'irlandais

Hi Ríoghnach,
Welcome to the forums.

Nice one, for confirming this thread.  I feel it's important, since many discussions on here end up with a divided view, letting browsers no wiser.


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## Ríoghnach

Hello, I stumbled onto this thread. 

I'm Irish - born and raised.  I'm not fluent in Irish but I know 'mo cúpla focail'. Ríoghnach is  Irish or 'Gaeilge' (aside: most people here only use the term Gaelic in  reference to Scotish Gaelic, it's Irish or 'Gaeilge' [guh~whale~gah]  otherwise). Ríoghnach is a rare enough name here but myself and another  Ríoghnach pronounce it 'Ree~nuck' ('nuck' as in 'yuck'). The 'fáda'  (faah~thah) accent over the i elongates the vowel giving it the 'ee'  sound. As for the 'ogh'; unless your familiar with the phelmy sounds in  Irish you can say 'Ree~uh~nuck' on the 'uh' and the 'uck' (emphasis on  the 'uck' ~ attractive sounding, I know) but keep the 'uh' very short  like a millisecond of self-doubt (e.g. ~uh?). That would be the general  pronunciation in the Munster-Irish dialect but I've yet to hear an Irish  person pronounce it differently. 

Origin - it's old Irish for  Queen, which has been replaced with Banríon (which probably is closer to  meaning the wife of the King than actually Queen) in the Irish  language. The Irish name Ríoghnach is the Irish-form of Regina, latin  for Queen. Like many names over the years, it's been anglicised and/or  americanised e.g Ciara (Irish name, female version of Ciarán) is  pronouced like Keira Knightley but is pronounced ~Sierra (as in the  singer, Ciara) so there's no right way to pronouce it anymore; just  pronouce it the way the person wants it to be pronounced - but this  would be closest to the roots of the name as far as I'm aware.

Also,  Irish is officially the first language of Ireland and everyone must  learn it in school and pass exams in it in school unless specifically  exempt. In reality English is the first language by survey however,  there are Irish speaking pockets (Gaeltachts) where Irish is the main  language spoken but everyone in those pockets can speak fluent English,  whereas not everyone outside the pockets can speak fluent Irish. Hope this was informative.

Best regards,

Ríoghnach


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