"steamer" wrote in message
...
--IIRC it's spelled "shilelagh"; vague memory from Scrabble, heh.


Challenge! You can give 'em "L," Arch.

Amazing what happens when we try to impose writing on a language which
developed without it, isn't it? There's no way I would ever, with my
American, have come up with proper pronunciation for the Gaelic names of
places over there. Modern Irish are as baffled when the name is not a
familiar one. "Sound it out" is not an option.

I had the same problem in Poland, where the Latin alphabet is in use.
Pronounce it, and I could get the meaning. Trouble was, Cyril and Methodius
were orthodox or Polish would be written in the easily pronounceable
Cyrillic.