But Welsh spellings are as nothing compared with Irish Gaelic, a language in which spelling and pronunciation give the impression of having been devised by separate committees, meeting in separate rooms, while implacably divided over some deep semantic issue. Try pronouncing geimhreadh, Gaelic for "winter," and you will probably come up with something like "gem-reed-uh." It is in fact "gyeeryee." Beaudhchais {"thank you"} is "bekkas" and Ó Séaghda {"Oh-seeg-da?"} is simply "O'Shea." Against this, the Welsh pronunciation of cwrw-"koo-roo"-begins to look positively self-evident."
( Bill Bryson )
[ The Mother Tongue: English and ]
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