OK, I’ve found two tunes that I really like, and I’m trying to learn. But…how do you pronounce them? How about Sliabh?
And how about Panxty?
Also, what do they mean? As in Sliabh Russell and Planxty Wilder?
Anyway, thanks for reading, and answering.
With best regards,
Steve Mack
Sliabh is the Irish word for mountain and is pronounced as Shleeve.
Planxty is a tune in honour of, or in praise of, and is pronunced Planxtee.
Regional variations are possible but would not stray far from these.
Slan,
D. 
Thank you, D!
I’m always confused by Irish or Gaelic pronunciations. And I thought English has some strange pronunciations!!
With best regards,
Steve Mack
Although those two are not too far-fetched, come to think of it.
Ah, the land of the rushy mountain, where they wear their hearts on their sliabhs… 
A chroi in hand is worth two on the sliabh
“Wilder” refers to Wilder Ranch, near Santa Cruz, CA.
In the sleeve notes to “The Pure drop”, Ennis says he has no idea where Sliabh Russell is. Now it’s the name of a hotel in County Cavan (sliabh is commonly rendered as Slieve in the anglicisation of Irish placenames):http://www.quinnhotels.com/slieve_russell.html
I don’t know if the hotel is called after a local hill or the tune, but given the Celtic-tiger nature of the hotel, it’s unlikely to have been called after the tune.
Irish pronunciation is actually extremely regular…nothing at all like English, which is all over the map.
Learn a few simple rules (with a few minor dialectical variations) and reading Irish is no problem at all. They’re different rules than for English, sure, and that confuses people at first, but once you’re used to the fact that they pretty much always apply, you come to appreciate them.
Redwolf
I don’t think Planxty is a particularly Gaelic word… it’s not really
spelled or pronounced like one. Ah, dictionary.com says it’s from
the Latin plangere - “to lament for” (or “to strike or beat”).
Its definately not a gaelic word as there is neither an “x” nor a “y” in the gaelic alphabet.
Yeah, that was my first clue. 
Carolan is noted as one who used the word “planxty” regularly, though it is not a regular Irish word. I have read various suppositions that it was a local term or slang. I have seen attempts to spell it using Irish rules, so it looked like this: plancstaí.
djm
There seem to be no clues as to its etymology. The only word that I know that sounds vaguely similar to it is "boxty"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxty, which has become very fashionable lately but was unknown to me until the 1980s.
Neither sounds Gaelic, they may be nonce words that became accepted.
But it is intriguing that they both seem to come from the border counties. The presence of lowland Scottish settlers did introduce a range of words of Scandinavian origin into Ulster, and the “x” could correspond to a combination of consonants which is common in Scandinavian languages.
I wonder is it a word dating back to the Norse invaders, them with their pesky “X’s” and all (Leixlip, Wexford etc).
The Romans and Normans had their share of X’s, too. Hard to say…
Does kinda sound Germanic, though, doesn’t it?
An interesting note on boxty is found on this site:
Yes, boxty is an English word but most dictionaries, if they mention it at all, simply say that its origin is Irish without divulging the precise details. Our Irish-English dictionary tells us that bacstaid is “bread made of the raw pulp of potatoes; a boxty”. No etymology is given but we assume that it is related to the words bacail, “the act of baking”, bacalaide “a baker”, and bacus, “a bakery”. As the latter is clearly a Hibernian version of bake-house, it is quite likely that all these words have their origin in the English word bake.
…& of course Boxty is:
“Definition: a thick pancake of grated potato, flour, and baking soda or powder
Etymology: originated during Irish famine”
Thanks - ‘dictionary.com’
By the way, speaking of Planxty, I saw one of the original members of ‘Planxty’, Johnny Moynihan, playing last Sunday at an Appalachian & Bluegrass festival in Co. Tyrone, with his new Old Time Music group - ‘Frankie, Johnny & Sweetheart’ - they were terrific!
Watch out for their CD which will be released soon!
I like the the Latin thrust for its etymological exploration. I like it because I know that a lot of Irish culture was informed by Latin Christianity, including the plainsong modes, and that, at various points in European Medieval history, Ireland was revered as a seat of high scholastics.
Perhaps the Latin genesis took a Nordic turn at some point?
But a planxty is a lively tune, so it’s questionable whether there’s any connection.