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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Paul Farquhar" data-source="post: 9798482" data-attributes="member: 6906155">Because Eileen is a common Irish name. E before I at the start of a word lengthens the I sound. I.e. as standard English (and very common in German). If it follows a consonant its pronounced differently. Whilst there are many exceptions, there is a reason for the "i before e" rule. Following a consonant, the e joins the consonant, it is no longer a diphthong. If you want a long I following a consonant you generally use "ie", although that doesn't always work. For some reason English doesn't like ii very much!  I assume the reason you are saying LAY-rah is a pronunciation guide specifically over-ruled standard English. Removing the thing that tells you that it’s actually pronounced throatwobbler-mangrove makes life simpler. Leira is one of those made up words that looks fine written down, but if you try to say it using standard rules becomes an almost unpronounceable le-ira. I would probably McCaffery it to L'ira.As it is in standard English. It's only US English that tried to abolish the letter.NB Azuth and Kossuth should really have a circumflex, like Faerun, but they are a pain to type. "uu" is something else that tends to be disallowed in English spellings. Yeah, vacuum, go figure!The grey box pronunciation is standard English (see Auric Goldfinger). RotFM goes full throatwobbler.</blockquote>