Stephen Fry poses the great Geogheghan question

Nothing like some pronounciation debate to liven up you Friday afternoon.

15/02/13 41,482 Views 37 Comments

THIS AFTERNOON STEPHEN Fry found himself asking the eternal question: How the hell do you pronounce Geogheghan?

stephen fry

After a few misguided responses…

misguided

misguided 2

misguided 3

And a few Irish “names” wading in…

dara obrian

rick o'shea

elaine

chris d

He came to the correct conclusion.

stephen fry 2

In case you’re wondering, a schwa is a reduced vowel sound. Like the ‘a’ in about, ‘e’ in taken or ‘i’ in pencil. We weren’t sure either.

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Eoghan Geoghegan 15/02/13 #

3 117

It’s quite the flexible surname.

My father from Leitrim has always used ‘Gay-Gin’ as the pronunciation, however my uncle and all his side of the family use ‘Geh-heg-an’ so, I guess even those blessed with the name haven’t a clue either!

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- ADEBAYO FLYNN 15/02/13 #
  
  21 58
  
  Ah what would you know!
  
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Evan Geoghegan 15/02/13 #

6 54

It’s generally pronounced ‘gay-gan’. Although some people do say ‘ge-heg-an’ (like everyone in my home town).
Speaking of which if in glin co limerick call into ”geoghegans (ge heg ans) Magpie Bar” for a great pint and even better craic!!!!! Or follow us on Facebook at ‘geoghegans magpie bar’.

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- Jamie McCormack 15/02/13 #
  
  1 60
  
  Shameless plug! haha fair play to ya.. let’s all head to Glin to get gee-eyed in gay-gans!!
  
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Jamie McCormack 15/02/13 #

25 105

Absolutely wrecks my head when the English make a balls of our surnames.. Doherty, Moran, Kinsella, Cahill etc.. mind you Stephen Fry is a legend

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- Brian Rochford 15/02/13 #
  
  2 156
  
  ….and he had the courtesy to ask. He is legend.
  
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- sluazcanal 15/02/13 #
  
  15 37
  
  The Hungarians do be annoyed when Irish people can’t pronounce there names. It happens, don’t let it wreck your head.
  
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- Declan Noonan 15/02/13 #
  
  2 42
  
  Jamie, I’m a Dublin man in America and I work at the post office. I have a hard time pronouncing the names of other nationalities in the town i deliver mail in- Bosnian, Vietnamese, Somalian, Tibetan etc. French people settled in this state from way back and I mispronounce their last names as well. Today I delivered mail to a guy with the last name Dziniki. Try that one.
  My point being, we irish are not so great regarding getting it right with other nationalities.
  
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- Emer Branigan 16/02/13 #
  
  3 20
  
  Zinicki. The d is silent.
  
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- Declan Noonan 16/02/13 #
  
  0 7
  
  Emer, thanks.
  
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- Emer Branigan 16/02/13 #
  
  0 2
  
  Not a bit of bother :-)
  
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Paul McCann 15/02/13 #

60 79

So he just seen it on a nameplate? Surely he just saw it on a nameplate?

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- Laura Keyes 15/02/13 #
  
  11 99
  
  He didn’t just seen anything!! He said “just seen” and if you filled in the purposefully omitted portion of the sentence correctly it would become “I have just seen”.
  
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- Ellie McLean 15/02/13 #
  
  5 49
  
  No, he is abbreviating “I have just seen” to “just seen” – which is fine. Just as you have indicated “I just saw” can be abbreviated to “just saw”.
  
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- Daniel Wilson 15/02/13 #
  
  58 32
  
  You cannot abbreviate ‘he has just seen’ to ‘he just seen’, only in Ireland do people do that and it’s never correct, sorry dude
  
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- Dave Gorman 15/02/13 #
  
  3 83
  
  It’s Twitter. Hardly the most verbose method of communicating.
  
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- RossMcEntegart 15/02/13 #
  
  1 23
  
  Yeah but nobody abbreviated anything to “he just seen”, as you said.
  The abbreviation used was “just seen”, which is valid.
  
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- Mike Synnott 16/02/13 #
  
  0 9
  
  Laura and Ellie are indeed both correct. And I strongly doubt either of them are dudes.
  
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Dónal O'Flynn 15/02/13 #

1 3

I note that Dungarvan Fine Gael councillor Damien Geoghegan (@damiengeoghegan) “favourited” Elaine Crowley’s post and he should know what he’s talking about. Ye missed that he himself tweeted Stephen about it :)

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Patw 15/02/13 #

12 8

It would sound like gay-gin………

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- Dónal O'Flynn 15/02/13 #
  
  8 3
  
  Why are people voting this comment down, it’s not homophobic like Rory Conway’s comment, just a very good attempt at the name
  
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Robert Hudson 17/02/13 #

0 0

my poor American brain sees Joe Hey Gan, i must admit. Geo as in George. Ghe as in Hey with a fuffty H and gan as in gan.

It may be my Schenectady accent…

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Thomas Geoghegan 17/02/13 #

0 1

In Leitrim, it can be pronounced ‘Gah-ha-gan’. But not me. The Fryster took good advice.

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Patw 15/02/13 #

9 6

It would sound like………gay-gin .

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- Damocles 15/02/13 #
  
  22 23
  
  I’ve never liked gin. I’m not surprised to learn that it’s gay.
  
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Rory Conway 15/02/13 #

246 49

“Gay – gan” is right and he should know

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- Robin Pickering 15/02/13 #
  
  24 111
  
  Why should he know?
  
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- Damocles 15/02/13 #
  
  7 116
  
  I believe Rory is making a rather obvious reference to Mr Fry being a homosexual gentleman.
  
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- Robin Pickering 15/02/13 #
  
  8 45
  
  Who’s homosexual? Stephen Fry?
  
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- Damocles 15/02/13 #
  
  3 57
  
  Yes. Mr Fry is a homosexual gentleman. This is common knowledge, even Rory knows.
  
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- Chuck Farrelly 15/02/13 #
  
  9 24
  
  Seriously??? This should have one of those EXCLUSIVE banners over it
  
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Patricia Ann McCarthy Moore 15/02/13 #

49 4

Gay-He-Gone

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Máire 15/02/13 #

167 8

Slow news day eh Louise?!

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- Eoin Byrne 15/02/13 #
  
  3 108
  
  Errr… Daily edge article?
  
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- censored 15/02/13 #
  
  0 18
  
  Does twiiter have a special button for making that comment on edge articles?
  
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Máire 15/02/13 #

17 1

Oooops my bad!! How does one delete comments?!?

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- ADEBAYO FLYNN 15/02/13 #
  
  3 25
  
  it’s too late, the matrix has you now
  
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Stephen Fry poses the great Geogheghan question

Nothing like some pronounciation debate to liven up you Friday afternoon.

After a few misguided responses…

And a few Irish “names” wading in…

He came to the correct conclusion.

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