Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2020 February 10

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February 10

Storm Ciara

The Torbay newspaper Herald Express reports:

Everyone is pronouncing Storm Ciara wrong and Ireland is in a frenzy.

There are various versions of this name (for example, Jimbo's daughter is Kira). Can someone with knowledge of the Irish language explain who is right? 2A00:23C5:CDA5:6700:78FA:52B5:487E:EE85 (talk) 11:23, 10 February 2020 (UTC)

Have you tried Googling it? "pronounce ciara" returns bucket-loads of links, including (at random but looking helpful) [1]. Most seem to suggest it sounds the same as Kiera (Knightley), so /kɪərə/ in English. Bazza (talk) 12:32, 10 February 2020 (UTC)

See Ciara (given name) - pronunciation in infobox. Mikenorton (talk) 13:36, 10 February 2020 (UTC)

I guess I've kind of confused it with Chiara (the Italian version of "Clara"), also pronounced with a [k] sound. But then I've also confused the Indian name Shobhana with Irish Siobhan... -- AnonMoos (talk) 13:48, 10 February 2020 (UTC)

Siobhan is pronounced similarly to the Hindu god Shiva. 47.137.181.252 (talk) 18:15, 11 February 2020 (UTC)

See also the entry Ciara at Wiktionary.  --Lambiam 13:56, 10 February 2020 (UTC)

mella 47.137.181.252 (talk) 05:20, 11 February 2020 (UTC)

On the radio this morning the co-presenter said "Storm Ciara", pronouncing it cheer-a. Her colleague is Irish, but she doesn't appear to be. 2A00:23C5:CDA5:6700:9879:AFB5:454C:E64E (talk) 14:23, 11 February 2020 (UTC)

Our article says that it's the feminine form of Ciarán, which I've never heard anyone mispronounce. Alansplodge (talk) 21:07, 13 February 2020 (UTC)