How does an English-speaking person properly pronounce "Samhain"?

Question

Please cite your sources. I've seen and heard a lot of conflicting suggestions.

Answer 1

Samhain is pronounced sow-un from the Old Irish-Gaelic samain. Think: female pig (sow) and the prefix (un). I have take introductory Gaelic through Milwaukee Irish Fest's "Summer School" at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. I specifically asked Professor Gleason (a native speaker) and that is what he told me.

Answer 2

Sow-en. It's an Irish Gaelic word and many of the letters are pronounced differently and then again after different letters. Similar with other words and names such as Siobhan, which is pronounced nothing like it looks like it should be.

After vowels m is usually a fricative, but sometimes a (nasal) stop, in which case it is also often written double:

dám /daːṽ/ "company"
lom or lomm /lom/ "bare"


I found some interesting links about the Gaelic language on Wikepidea.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samhain

Answer 3

I'm sure there is probably a linguistically "proper" way to say it, unfortunately, there is no definitive way that people in the Pagan community say it. Some say "sow (as in cow) win" others say "sow ween" and still others say "sar wen", "sow wane" and "sah ven".

I say just pick the one that floats your boat and expect some know-it-all to tell you you're wrong no matter which one you pick!