With This Tip, You'll Never Mispronounce Bunnahabhain Again

It's a game that's fun to play when a group of friends are over. Pull out a few bottles of whisky and ask them to pronounce the names. There's a good chance the pronunciation will be completely butchered, guaranteeing you a comical evening.

It's no wonder many people struggle with pronouncing many whisky names. There are countless distilleries in Ireland and Scotland that are centuries old and derive their names from the surroundings, the name of a nearby river, or the family name. And those names are often written in Gaelic - the ancient language of the Celts.

A prime example of a whisky often mispronounced is Bunnahabhain. It's a collection of many syllables, combined with a lot of similar letters, which is a known recipe for tripping over pronunciation.

The biggest pitfall in the name is the 'bh' at the end. In English you would expect a b-sound that is then propelled by the h. But in Gaelic, that’s not the case, the outcome is a soft v. Hence, you pronounce 'habhain' more like the English ‘haven’, instead of hab-hain.

You also see this common pitfall in Gaelic names. For instance, Siobhan is a popular name in Ireland and parts of Scotland. It should, however, be pronounced as ‘Shiv-an’, instead of the roller-coaster ride of sounds you might have been imagining.

If you don't want to make that same mistake again, there is an easy way to remember this bh-rule in Gaelic. Just thing of a bra.

When you visualise a bra, you're likely to imagine a filled bra (particularly if you're of the male persuasion). This forms an appealing cleavage, which is best described as a V-shape. A bra thus forms a V, just as Gaelic does. By remembering this mnemonic, you will never again make the common mistake and pronounce Bunnahabhain like an accomplished Scot.