Quote:
|
Irish is so ridiculously hard to spell. Once met a girl named <STRIKE>Seosemhaine</STRIKE>Seosaimhin. I mean, how the hell is anyone supposed to see that that = Josefine?
|
I'd guess it would come out something like "Shay-ser-veen", which isn't too far off Josefine. I know "S" is sometimes "sh" in Irish, and "mh" is something like "v", so it does sort of make sense.
But your're right, in general Irish spelling seems even worse than English. The basic rule seems to be to ignore half the consonants and then add extra vowels until they outnumber the consonants at least 3 to 2. I think it's a case of the pronunciation having changed drastically in the time since the spelling was standardised.