> Your girlfriend is correct...mostly. Actually the 'ai' sound

varies

> between /a:/ and /æ:/ in stressed syllables. Think I say

['ka:t´l´i:n´]

> myself though. Your pronunciation would require an accent on

the 'a',

> i.e. Cáitlín /'kA:t´l´i:n´/ [ASCII-IPA], but in northern dialects

the only

> difference between 'a' and 'á' is length, so your pronunciation

wouldn't

> occur at all, i.e. they'd pronounce it /'ka:t´l´i:n´/.

do the apostrophes indicate velarized phonemes?
nicky