tiomluasocein wrote:
Elizabeth, I've seen it written with no accent, with accent on the "e", and with accent on the "o". Someone may be able to explain why exactly but I suspect the differences are either dialectal or have changed through time. I don't have enough information right now to answer these questions. BUT . . . temporarily I can give you a rough idea of a pronunciation and someone else can comment and give more ideas:
Since the modern term for story is "scéal", "scéola" may be right, pronounced almost like SCALE-uh.
The other possibility puts emphasis on the "o" (sceóla), pronounced almost like SKYO-luh.
"Sceola" doesn't indicate which vowel, "e" or "o" is the main one. In my limited experience with the historical language, the emphasis could have shifted. If I find out more I will let you know. Suffice it to say that, for now, SCALE-uh or SKYO-luh would not be far from a proper pronuncation, and if anyone asks, you can explain all this stuff. Or just say "Here, read this" and show them this post.
There's a very informative set of "Reading Rules" for Old Irish in E.G. Quin's Old-Irish Workbook. He covers this in point 7:
Quote:
Other diphthongs (ia, ua, eo, eu, iu, also with length-mark on one or the other vowel) may be pronounced in accordance with their constituent graphs.
Scribes are inconsistent with their usage of accents in Early Irish manuscripts. It may not appear at all, or may appear over either vowel. Either way, whether there's an accent written or not, it is to be understood that one or other of the vowels which make up this diphthong should be long in pronunciation. What's nice, however, is that there's a precedent for not lengthening either vowel in writing, so the ogam transliteration is perfectly reasonable.
For my part, I'd also expect that initial
s to be palatal, so if I were to give a potential pronunciation it would be:
Shkay-oh-lah
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