I would like to know how many people here pronounce the Gaelic word Samhain as Sam-Hayne.

You see, I had two events occur over the last month that really turned my head. First, I was teaching at a high school and one of the students, a self proclaimed wiccan, pronounced it in this way. I quickly corrected him, but he was insistent that, however it was pronounced during the medieval period, it was Sam-Hayne now. I replied that George Washington would never be called Gay-org Wass-Hinkton no matter how many centuries passed and we lapsed into a mutually respectful silence.

I would not have thought twice about this, but I observed in passing to a fellow member of tribe that the show Supernatural yet again promulgated the pronunciation 'Sam-Hayne'. The response I got was surprising. Apparently, most members of the neo-pagan movement - and I use the term in its broadest cultural sense - really do pronounce it this way, despite the fact that 'mh' only ever sounds liek a 'v' or 'w' and I have NEVER heard Samhain pronounced as 'Sowvin' - so I pronounce it in the same way as I have always heard it from native born speakers: Sow'in (as in the female pig + a little, terminal 'n').

Now I am neither making any claims to authenticity nor trying to say how anyone should speak or act. I really only want to hear some different perspectives on this. I mean, its original meaning was 'Summer's End' or something like it - a meaning utterly erased by misapprehending the 'mh' complex and splitting it into two distinct sounds (like pronouncing Ashley as Ass-h'ley).

Any words?