Why sean pronounced shawn

Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Why is Sean pronounced Shawn? Ask Question. Asked 6 years, 10 months ago. Active 6 years, 10 months ago. Viewed k times. I've always had this question about the pronunciation of Sean. Bottom line is, why is Sean pronounced Shawn instead of Seen? Improve this question. Because it's Irish. Great question! I've now learned my requisite daily "something new"! Basically, Irish uses Latin letters just to confuse the foreigners.

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.

For example:. Popular Irish names are frequently changed to make them more "phonetic". Confusingly, a name's pronunciation may be changed instead of its spelling. Thus, someone living in North America might spell her name Caitlin but expect to hear it pronounced like the name Kate-Lynn. Even within Ireland, certain Irish names are now often pronounced according to the phonetic conventions of English. Brian , for example, is almost invariably pronounced with a y rather than an ee sound.

The alternate spelling is Aislinn. Derived from aoibh, meaning beauty, Aoife eefa is another feminine name. Begin typing your search term above and press enter to search. Press ESC to cancel. Ben Davis April 19, Why is Shawn spelled Sean? Is Sean short for anything?

What is a nickname for Sean? What does Sean mean in Irish? What does Sean mean in Greek? Is Sean a biblical name? Can Sean be pronounced seen? Is Sean a unisex name? How common is the name Sean? What does Charlie mean? What is the female version of Shawn? Who is ghost Charlie? Is Charlie a full name?

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