h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I would quibble with your pronunciation of 'uisge beatha'. It is (in Scottish Gaelic at least), actually pronounced "oosh-ka bay-ah". I am currently a one-woman campaign attempting to educate the West End of Glasgow in this, and would certainly welcome all the help I can get!

It is a grand wee pub though...

I looked around a few Gaelic sites to get the pronunciation, and chose this one mainly 'cos it was easy to type... There was a fair bit of variation though. Might be worth dropping a note to one of the editors...

I'd have pronounced it oosh-ka vay. But then I learned it from an Irishman who doesn't speak the language, so who is to know

Well, I studied Gaelic for a year at Uni, so I'm pretty sure I'm right!

...although I should probably add it was *Scottish" Gaelic I studied, and 'ishker vahr' may well be the Irish Gaelic pronunciation. It's a decidedly Scottish pub though, so I go for 'ooshka bay-ah'.

i always thought the pub was spelt wrong - shouldn't it be 'bheatha'? which would definitely be pronounced vahr. not sure about the uisge bit though

the man from marseille

I've heard it pronounced two different ways.

One was "iskah bah" whom weren't Gaels.

And the other was "ooshkay bay" by nice Gaelic lassies from Lewis and Harris.

As I understand it pronunciation can change from location to location.

So beatha can be "bah-ha", "bay-ah" or "bah-hah".

I do not know of the pub to which you refer but Uisge beatha means the water of life. I would put your pronunciation very close with a very slight alteration oowish-kay (the w is very soft and barely perceptible)and bay-ah (the th being silent).

Uisge (when you look at the pronunciation) is the origin of the words whisky and whiskey.