Dumb Pronounciation Question

by **patrick dicaprio** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 4:15 pm

i couldnt find/figure out how to pronounce allt-a-bhaine, and since i had a bottle i figured i should know. any help?

Pat

by **hpulley** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 4:23 pm

See http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/home/jhb/whisky/pronounc.html

Allt a Bhainne is the first entry.

Harry

by **patrick dicaprio** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 4:29 pm

definitely useful. try glen garioch though i cant imagine that it is correct.

Pat

by **hpulley** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 4:38 pm

Yes, 'Glen geery' it is

Sounds wrong but that's part of the fun of scotch whisky.

Harry

by **Lawrence** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 6:13 pm

That's an excellent aid, it works very well. Thanks Harry.

by **Aidan** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 6:18 pm

I think it is more glen gearich, with a very soft "ich." That is how it would be pronounced in Gaelic. It is just hard to hear properly on the website recording.

by **Deactivated Member** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 7:28 pm

The same for Bruichladdich, I suppose? Usually pronounced "Laddie".

by **hpulley** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 7:35 pm

Yeah, Bruichladdich isn't Brook-lad-ich, its Brook-laddie. Glen Garioch is Glen geerie in the same fashion.

Harry

by **richard** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 7:36 pm

i have allways called allt-a-bhainne allt-a-vane and glen garioch glen geary it varies from book to book i was told by a whisky shop owner the above and havent had any problems but if i went into a local off license in england and pronouced glen geary i would be told they dont have it until i explain how glen garioch is pronouced sometimes good feedback but some shrug there shoulders so best off luck

richard

by **hpulley** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 7:52 pm

Like the 'v' sound of 'bh' in Bunnahabhain. It sounds like "Alt-a-Vain" on the URL I listed.

Try "I'll have a Dalwhinnie and a Daluaine" at a pub and see what you get

And no, they aren't different spellings of the same distillery as I once thought, ignorantly.

Harry

by **Ash** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 11:24 pm

Aidan wrote:I think it is more glen gearich, with a very soft "ich." That is how it would be pronounced in Gaelic. It is just hard to hear properly on the website recording.

No, its not a soft ich. Its simply geeree. Its a local name for an area 25 NW west of Aberdeen. There's not a glen, nor is the distillery exactly in the Garioch area, but, hey ho, why let fact get in the way of a good name.

I wouldn't trust all the pronunciations on that site either. Example: he pronounces Ledaig exactly like its written, but the blurb on the back of the box and bottle, written by Burn Stewart, says "the name is pronounced "Led-chig""

Is Daluaine not pronounced Dall-you-an, rather than like Dalwhinnie as Pip Hills suggests? Guy, where are you?

by **hpulley** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 12:21 am

Dalwhinnie and Daluaine are pronounced differently on the URL I posted but the difference is likely subtle enough to trip up a bartender who isn't that knowledgable about scotch.

Harry

by **Admiral** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 4:05 am

At an SMWS meeting a year or so ago, two Scotsmen got into an argument as to whether it was Glen Geeree, or Glen Geerich.

The one that was born in Glen Garioch won the argument!

(Still, if two locals can't agree on the pronunciation, what hope to the rest of us have?)

Cheers,
Admiral

by **JUERG GLUTZ-KURMANN** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 8:46 am

According to a CD from Pip Hills it is pronounced "Allt-a-vanya". But it is with a lot of other names, they can vary from glen to glen or island to island. A tricky one is Dailuaine which I don't dare to write as I think it's wrong anyway. Yes, Glen-Geerie is what everybody seems to pronounce.

Slainte!
Juerg

by **Aidan** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 9:14 am

If it's glen geeree, then it is a kind of colloquialism, as it is not a precise Gaelic prononciation - although maybe scotch gaelic is different to Irish gaelic.

Happioch New Year

by **hpulley** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 12:41 pm

Happyich New Year indeed

I'm told that the gaelic dialects are indeed quite mixed and that the scottish includes quite a doric influence but I'm not a linguist and the only gaelic I 'know' is on whisky boxes so all I can do is pass along what I've heard and read which could be wrong. As listed above, if locals can't agree that what can the rest of us hope for? If you say "Glen Gary Och" I'll still know what you mean

Harry

by **Ash** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 1:04 pm

Admiral wrote:At an SMWS meeting a year or so ago, two Scotsmen got into an argument as to whether it was Glen Geeree, or Glen Geerich.

The one that was born in Glen Garioch won the argument!

(Still, if two locals can't agree on the pronunciation, what hope to the rest of us have?)

Cheers,
Admiral

As I said,

There's not a glen

if locals can't agree

The locals do agree. I am a local and I have never heard anyone local calling it ich or och. Its doric not gaelic.

Did anyone see Roman Road on TV over xmas? The Scottish actor, John Gordon Sinclair, walked into the pub and asked for 2 large Glen Garr-ee-ochs please. :oops:

So, even the Scots get it wrong.

by **williammackinnon** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 2:53 pm

JUERG GLUTZ-KURMANN wrote:According to a CD from Pip Hills it is pronounced "Allt-a-vanya". But it is with a lot of other names, they can vary from glen to glen or island to island. A tricky one is Dailuaine which I don't dare to write as I think it's wrong anyway. Yes, Glen-Geerie is what everybody seems to pronounce.

Slainte!
Juerg

To get back to the original question about Allt a Bhainne, the above pronunciation is indeed the closest you will get phonetically in English to the Gaelic.

As for Glen Garioch, it's debatable as to whether Gaelic was ever widely used in the North East region of Scotland. It seems the distilleries in this area are using the romantic image of Gaelic to sell their product, even though it's not representative of the region, much like kilts & bagpipes representing Scotland when it was only the Highlanders & Islanders of the North West half (very roughly) of Scotland who used them.

by **Aidan** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 4:12 pm

Well, I clearly don't know what I'm talking about anyway. Why spell it at all. I think the EU should be brought in to standardise spelling :wink:

.

I would say you'd pronnounce it differently before and after drinking it.

by **Iain** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 5:25 pm

The Gaelic speakers I spoke to agree that "Allt-a-vanya" is indeed the correct pronounciation.

Unfortunately, few (if any) of the Chivas folks are Gaelic speakers. Everyone from the company I have met in Paisley, Keith and Glenlivet referred to the distillery as "Allt a Bane"!

But I don't think it's a problem - so long as everyone knows what everyone else is talking about :wink:

by **Aidan** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 6:16 pm

Well this is something I do kind of know about - on this side of the Irish Sea, at least, we pronounce "bh" as v. There is no v in the Irish alphabet, so bh is used instead.

Nuar a bhi me ag léann gaelge, sin e an sceál, ar aon chaoi.

My written Irish isn't so good, though.

Dumb Pronounciation Question

Dumb Pronounciation Question

Thanks!!!

saying