PRONUNCIATION GUIDE There are three main dialects of Irish: Ulster Irish, Connacht Lrish and Munster Irish. There is, at present, no standard spoken pronunciation, although important steps have been taken recently to establish such a standard. The aim of this short guide is to give you an outline of the way in which the sounds of Irish are made, and to help you pronounce them. Two kinds of information are needed if a word is to be correctly pronounced. We need to know about each of the sounds that make up the word, and we need to know about stress. There are essentially 18 letters in the Irish alphabet: a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, I, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, u; the letters j, q, v, w, x and z also occur in some loan words. Vowels The basic vowels of Irish are represented in the alphabet as a, e, i, o and u. These vowels may be either short or long. The difference in the length of vowels must be distinguished, as replacing one variety by the other can change the meaning of a word and lead to misunderstanding. The short and long vowels of Irish are listed below, together with their nearest English equivalents. It should, however, be noted that the following is simply a rough guide and that the vowels in question may vary considerably depending upon the surrounding consonants. VOWEL IRISH EXAMPLE ENGLISH TRANSLATION . CLOSEST ENGLISH APPROXIMATION a cat cat cat a la day /aw1 e te hot che(rry) e me 1, me may2 i sin that shin i min smooth mean o donn brown done* 6 mdr big more4 u bus bus buss u cul back cool6 With lips less rounded but more advanced than the vowel in standard English arm. In Ulster, pronounced as in the English cat, but with a long vowel. As pronounced in Irish English, i.e. not diphthongized. Also often pronounced as in the English hot. In Ulster, often pronounced as in the English law when not flanked by a nasal consonant. As pronounced in Irish English; in some dialects, pronounced as in the English book. With more rounded lips. owel combinations ie vowels combine with each other in a variety of ways. The vowels i and u, for ample, combine with a to give ia and ua. These combinations consist of'the two sounds \ an4 u, vrtv\c\v are ^otmaYVj m V\\\% crat, srA a soutvA s\rm\a* to the a a*. Vh&\Kgxaftogl oi V\\e vgotA across m^ngYish. Hence, ia = eea and ua = ooa in the words bia (food), fuar (cold). Compare the vowels in English theatre and cruel. In the middle of words, the combinations a(i)dh, a(i)gh, o(i)dh, o(i)gh, eidh, eigh also consist of two vowel sounds, pronounced like English eye or my in words such as radharc (view), maidhm (explosion, eruption), laghdu (reduction), caighdean (standard), oidhreacht (inheritance), oighear (ice), feidhm (function, use), leigheas (cure). In a similar position, (e)amh is pronounced like ow in English how and cow in words such as samhradh (summer), deamhan (demon, devil); (e)abh, obh, omh, odh, ogh are also pronounced in this way in some dialects, for example cabhair (help), leabhar (book), lobhadh (rot), domhan (world), bodhran (deaf person; type of drum), bogha (bow); in others, they are pronounced like a long o sound as in English more. The combinations umh and ubh are pronounced like a long oo sound as in English cool, for example, cumhacht (power), subhach (joyful). The combination ao does not represent two sounds. In Ulster and Connacht Irish, it is generally pronounced ee, in Munster Irish like the vowel in the English may (as it is pronounced in Irish English); aoi is generally pronounced ee. Hence saol (life) = seel or sgyle; 6 Laoire (O'Leery) = o leere. Because slender consonants are preceded or followed by e and i and broad consonants by a, o and u (see Consonants), it is sometimes difficult to determine which vowel or combination of vowels in a word should be pronounced. In the table below, one of the vowels simply indicates that the preceding or following consonant is either slender or broad. VOWEL ENGLISH CLOSEST ENGLISH COMBINATIONS IRISH EXAMPLE TRANSLATION APPROXIMATION ai cailc chalk cat ea fear man cat ea mean middle law/arm eai coinneail keeping law/arm ai pairc field law/arm ei peil football che(rry) ae tae tea may1 ea beal mouth may1 1 As pronounced in Irish English. VOWEL COMBINATIONS IRISH EXAMPLE ENGLISH TRANSLATION CLOSEST ENGLISH APPROXIMATION ei fein self may aei traein train may ui duine person shin io fionn fair shin ai scealai storyteller mean oi oiche night mean UI sui sitting mean uio buiochas thanks mean io siol seed mean oi coill wood done eo ceol music more eoi beoir beer more eo seo show more oi 6ir because more ui cuis cause cool iiii ciuin quiet cool iai fiaile weeds theatre uai duals prize cruel Before rd, rl, rn and rr short stressed vowels are normally lengthened: ard high law/arm orlach inch more/law earn cairn, heap law/arm corn cup more/law barr top law/arm However, if rr is followed by a vowel, the preceding vowel normally remains short: carraig rock cat In parts of Munster and Connacht, short vowels are made long or become diphthongs before II, nn, ng and m: poll hole how binn sweet eye or mean im butter eye or mean cam bent how or law/arm However, if II, nn, ng and m are followed by a vowel, the preceding vowel normally remains short: follain healthy done The "central" vowel There is also a short "central" vowel in Irish which is often represented in writing by a, e, ea and o. It is pronounced like the a in the English word across and occurs in unstressed short syllables, for example: anois (now), briseann (breaks), paca (pack), cluiche (game), mo (my) and do (yours). In certain instances, this vowel is not written. It is pronounced after the first consonant in the following consonant groups: lb, Ibh, Ich, lg, Im, Imh, Ip (from Ibth), nb, nbh, nch, nm, nmh, rb, rbh, rc, rch, rg, rm, rmh, rn, rp (from rbth). Here are a few examples: colm (dove), gorm (blue), colg (bristle), dearg (red), Albain (Scotland), tarbh (bull). The central vowel also occurs in Munster Irish when the order of consonants in these groups is in reverse order, eg: eagja (fear), Aibrean (April). Consonants The greatest difference between Irish and languages such as English, French and German is in the consonantal system. Irish has nearly twice as many consonant sounds as English. The reason for this is that there are two sets of consonant sounds in the language, each consonant having both a broad and a slender variety. As is the case with short and long vowels, broad and slender consonants must be clearly distinguished in pronunciation. Failure to make this distinction can change the meaning of a word. Roughly speaking, when pronouncing a broad consonant, the lips are relaxed and the tongue tends towards the back of the mouth. When pronouncing a slender consonant, the lips are tense and the tongue tends towards the front of the mouth. In written Irish, slender consonants are preceded or followed by the vowels e and i; broad consonants are preceded or followed by the vowels a, o or u. Hence, b and p are slender in the words beo (alive) and peaca (sin) but broad in the words bo (cow) and paca (pack). Similarly, both t and r are slender in the word trean (strong) but broad in the word traein (train). To make things easier, we shall divide the consonants into so-called homorganic groups. Homorganic consonants are consonants which are alike in that they are pronounced by using the same position of the articulatory organs. For example, p, b and m are all made by bringing your lips together. The only difference is that p is unvoiced, b voiced, m both voiced and nasalized. CONSONANT GROUP IRISH EXAMPLE ENGLISH TRANSLATION CLOSEST ENGLISH APPROXIMATION p (broad) por seed pour (lips closed and relaxed) b (broad) bonn coin bun (lips closed and relaxed) m (broad) mamaf mama mammy (lips closed and relaxed) p (slender) pe who pay (lips closed, tense and spread) CONSONANT CROUP IRISH EXAMPLE ENGLISH TRANSLATION CLOSEST ENGLISH APPROXIMATION b (slender) m (slender) bi me be 1, me be (lips closed, tense and spread) may (lips closed, tense and spread) ph/f(broad) fon phone phone (lips relaxed and close but not touching bh/mh (broad)1 ph/f (slender) an-bhan an pheil very white the football Vaughan or wan fell (lips tense and close but not touching) bh/mh (slender) an mhi the month the letter V t (broad) tae tea tay (tongue pressed against teeth) d (broad) donn brown done (tongue pressed against teeth) n(broad) naoi nine knee (tongue pressed against teeth) t (slender) d (slender) n (slender) tir dion ni country roof thing cheer jean knee (with n as in onion) c(broad) g(broad) ng (broad) c (slender) g (slender) ng (slender) cam gall long cill geim cing bent foreigner ship churchyard roar king calm Gaul lung kill game king ch (broad) gh/dh (broad) ch (slender) gh/dh (slender) loch a dhroim oiche gheill se lake his back night he gave up Scottish loch French r as in Rhone German ch as in ich yell s(broad) s (slender) suigh sin sit that see shin bh/mh (at the end and the middle of words): at the end of words and after tonTvowelsaxid diphthongs, broad bh and mh are pronounced v in southern dialecToo/w"n northern dialects, eg: scrfobh (writing), leamh (reading), abhar (matter), lamha (hands). Final -(a)idh, -(a)igh In most Irish dialects, these are pronounced like ea as in mean. In parts of Munster, /gas in fig. In verbs before a subject pronoun, aigh is pronounced like the a in across. Final -adh, -amh Nouns: In northern dialects, oo as in cool. In many southern dialects, as the a in English across; amh, however, is normally pronounced as av in Munster. Verbs: In northern dialects, oo as in cool. In southern dialects, ch as in Scottish loch. In parts of Munster, however, as either g or v in the past passive. ts After the article an, t is pronounced as f (tongue pressed against teeth) before broad consonants; and as ch as in cheer before slender consonants, eg: an tsuil (the eye) = tool, an tseis (the sense) = chesh. Word stress Words are normally stressed on the first syllable in Irish. Under certain conditions in Munster Irish, however, the stress may fall on the second or subsequent syllables. This occurs: 1 In words in which the second syllable has a long vowel or a diphthong, for example, beagan (little) and moran (much). 2 In words of three syllables when the first two syllables are short and the third is long, the stress is attracted to the long syllable, for example, leanbaf (childish) which is pronounced like lanibee and aibrean (April), pronounced like ibirawn. Note that both these words contain the central vowel referred to above which does not appear in writing. 3 In words in which (e)ach occurs in the second syllable, for example, bacach (lame) and coileach (cock). However, if h (written th) intervenes between the vowel of the first syllable and that of the second, the stress falls on the first syllable, for example, fathach (giant). 4 In prepositional pronouns such as agam (on me), agat (on you), orm (on me), which is pronounced like irum in some areas. There are approximately 20 words in Connacht Irish, particularly in Connemara and Aran, in which a short vowel in the first syllable is not pronounced when it is followed by a long vowel in the second syllable. This happens most frequently before r, I and n for example, (a)ran (bread), p(a)roiste (parish), c(o)laiste (college). The same applies to Munster Irish both in this case and frequently also when the second syllable is short, for example, t(u)ras (journey), pronounced trus, ch(o)nac (I saw), pronounced chnuk. In Ulster Irish, long vowels in unstressed syllables are normally shortened, particularly the vowels a and o, for example, aran is pronounced aran, sciobol (barn) is pronounced shgyobal. 1 , Some words are stressed on the second syllable in all dialects. These are mostly adverbs of time and place which originally had an unstressed initial element, for example, inniu (today), inne (yesterday), amarach (tomorrow), anseo (here), ansin (there). This stress pattern is sometimes found in loan words such as tobac (tobacco). In compound words, the primary stress may fall either on the first or the second syllable, or the first two syllables may carry equal stress: Stress on the first syllable Stress on the second syllable Equal stress Sentence stress ollscoil (university), seanduine (old person), indeanta (practicable), ro-bheag (too small), an-mhaith (very good), fior-alainn (very beautiful). Nouns are more strongly stressed than verbs: duirt Sean (John said); d'inis se sceal (he told a story). Pronouns have much weaker stress than the verb: thainig me (I came). A dependent adjective or genitive has stronger stress than the noun: cailin deas (a nice girl), fear an ti (the man of the house). Adjectives and nouns used predicatively are more strongly stressed than the subject: is deas an cailin i (she's a nice girl); ta se fuar (it's cold). Adverbs have stronger stress than the words they qualify: dean go maith e (do it well). Prepositions, pronouns, conjunctions, the article, interrogatives and negative particles have weak stress or are unstressed. Initial mutations Under certain conditions, the beginning of words in Irish undergo a change in form. There are two kinds of change, both of which are caused by a preceding word. Some words cause lenition (called seimhiu in Irish), others eclipsis (called urii in Irish). Before feminine nouns, for example, the article an causes lenition of a noun which is the subject or object of a sentence. For example, the word for "a woman" is bean, but "the woman" is written an bhean, the bh being pronounced as a v sound. Similarly, the possessive pronouns mo (my), do (your) and a (his) cause lenition, as do many prepositions. For example, the word for "a car" is carr, but "my car" is mo charr, the ch being pronounced like the ch in Scottish loch. Words causing eclipsis include the possessives ar (our), bhur (your plural), a (their) and the preposition i (in, into), for example, ar gcarr (our car), where gc is pronounced g, i mbad (in a boat), with mb pronounced m. The following tables give the basic consonants and their mutated forms in writing and in speech. PRONUNCIATION CONSONANT LENITED BROAD SLENDER P ph f f b bh v or w V m mh v or w V n no change n n t th h h d dh French Rhone y as in yell c ch Scottish loch German ich 9 gh French Rhone y as in yell 1 f no change 1 1 fh not pronounced not pronounced s sh h h or as in ich before letters eo, iu and, in some cases, before ea PRONUNCIATION CONSONANT ECLIPSED BROAD SLENDER P bp b b b mb m m m not eclipsed — _ n not eclipsed — _ t dt d as in done as in Jean d nd n n as in onion c gc g as in Gaul g as in game 9 ng as in lung as in king 1 not eclipsed — _ f bhf v or w V s not eclipsed — - xiii/FUAIMNIU