How does sean spell shawn

Surprisingly, there's a similarity here between Irish and some languages that are otherwise very different, such as Spanish and Italian. In Italian, a c before a , o , or u the "broad" vowels is pronounced like a k. However, before i or e , an Italian c changes to what an English-speaker would write as ch — which is why the last syllable of arrivederci sounds like the start of cheese , for example.

Moreover, an extra vowel is sometimes thrown in only to change the sound of a c to ch. This explains the curious spelling of the Italian word that sounds like chow but is written ciao. A similar game is played in Irish, but with the letter s : An s before a broad vowel a , o , or u has the usual sound but before a slender vowel i or e it's pronounced sh.

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Is Megan or Meghan more common? Is Ann or Anne more common? How does Sean Bean pronounce his name? How do you pronounce Sian? I've now learned my requisite daily "something new"! Basically, Irish uses Latin letters just to confuse the foreigners.

But none of this has anything to do with English language and usage. Show 10 more comments. Active Oldest Votes.

Improve this answer. Matt Gutting Matt Gutting 6, 26 26 silver badges 40 40 bronze badges. Note that the Germanic form of the name, as in German Johann , was borrowed earlier on, becoming Eoghain , Anglicised as Owen.

Although I thought that Eoghain was cognate with "Eugene"; see here. Paul the way they're spelt. Show 9 more comments. Matt's answer here is close but off in a few regards. Jon Hanna Jon Hanna If the latter, then I would strongly disagree!