Subject: Irish Spelling & Pronunciation
Folks, this is a post from a sometime member of Nemeton, who originally
wrote it for our FAQ (which never actually got included because I lost it on
my hard drive). Anyway, enjoy. And Deru -- you might want to put this onto
the FTP site.
Erynn
>From: Dennis King
>Subject: Irish Spelling & Pronunciation
> This is more than most of you will
>ever want to know, but it's fairly comprehensive for the inquisitive few.
>Pronunciations are mostly for An La/rchanu/int, the Central Dialect.
>-Dennis
>
> **The Pronunciation and Spelling of Modern Irish**
>
>Some initial observations:
>
>*Spoken Irish has only a few sounds not found in some dialect of English.
>
>*Irish has a unique spelling system, quite different from the English one.
>
>*Irish spelling, although complicated, is actually much more regular than
> English spelling (!).
>
>The following summary is intended to cover only the broad principles of
>spelling and pronunciation. The English sounds used to show the value of
>the Irish letters are sometimes only approximate, although they are always
>reasonably close. You should consult a textbook for the fine points, which
>vary somewhat from dialect to dialect.
>
>I. Word Stress:
>Except for a few common words with an unstressed prefix, all words are
>strongly accented on the first syllable.
>
>II. The Vowels:
>Irish has both short vowels and long vowels. The long vowels are
>generally indicated in writing by an acute accent. The Internet convention
>is to show this accent mark by writing a slash / after the vowel: mo/r.
>
>The long vowels are:
>
>i/ as in si/ pronounced "shee"
>e/ as in se/ " "shay"
>u/ as in tu/ " "too"
>o/ as in bo/ " "boe"
>a/ as in ta/ " "taw"
>(This is the same "a" as in the BBC pronunciation of "law" or "walk". )
>
>There are three combinations of letters that are always pronounced as
>long vowels, even though they do not have the acute accent:
>
>ae as in lae pronounced "lay"
>eo as in eol " "ohl" (to rhyme with "hole")
>ao as in lao " either "lay" or "lee", depending
> on dialect
>
>The short vowels are:
>
>i as in in pronounced "in" (as in English)
>e as in te " "teh" (more about the "t" sound below!)
>u as in rud " "rud" (like the u in Enlgish "put")
>o as in cos " "cos" (o as in German "Gott", or in
> English "goat" said without
> rounding the lips)
>a as in mac " "mahk" (like the a in "father")
>ea as in bean " "ban" (like the a in "cat")
>
>Short vowels differ from long vowels in one important respect. They are
>given their full pronunciation ONLY in the first syllable of a word. In all
>other syllables, they are all reduced to the neutral "uh" sound of English
>"but". The same thing happens in English, where "Benjamin" is pronounced
>"BEN-juh-muhn". Thus the Irish word for Irish, "E/ireannach", is
>pronounced "AY-ruh-nuhkh".
>
>There are two important diphthongs that you should recognize, both
>written using a combination of vowels and consonants:
>
>The "ow" diphthong, as in "ow, I stubbed my toe":
>
>abha as in abhann pronounced "own" (to rhyme with "clown")
>amha as in samhradh " "sow-ruh" (like a female pig)
>
>...and the "eye" diphthong:
>
>agha as in aghaidh " "eye"
>adh as in Tadhg " "tiger without the -er"
>
>III. The Consonants:
>Except for "h", all Irish consonants come in two flavors, called "broad"
>and "slender". Basically, broad consonants are pronounced with a "-w"
>off-glide, and slender consonants are pronounced with a "-y" off-glide.
>Broad consonants are always written with the letters a, o, or u next to them.
>Slender consonants are always written with the letters i or e next to
>them. Examples:
>
> Slender "b" Broad "b"
>
> beo (byoh) bo/ (boh)
> bi/ (bee) bui/ (bwee)
>
>In speech, the difference between "beo" and "bo/" is only the y-glide
>heard in "beo". Likewise, the difference between "bi/" and "bui/" is
>only the w-glide heard in "bui/". As a result of the need to show the
>broad or slender qualilty of all consonants unambiguously, a consonant in
>the middle of a word cannot be flanked on one side by an "i" and on the
>other by an "a". For exmaple, if you wrote "misa" the pronunciation
>would be uncertain. Do you mean a word that sounds like "MISS-uh" or
>one that sounds like "MISH-uh"? If you mean MISS-uh, you need to write
>"miosa", so the "s" is clearly broad. If you mean MISH-uh, you need to
>write "mise", so that the "s" is clearly slender. (Slender "s" is
>pronounced "sh", as in Sea/n, Sine/ad, etc.)
>
>English uses combinations of letters to indicate a single consonant
>sound, such as "ch" in "church" and "sh" in "shape". Irish does the same
>sort of thing, only there are more of them. Here is a basic list of the
>values of these combinations, which can be either broad of slender,
>depending on the adjacent vowels:
>
>bh (broad) = w
>bh (slender) = v
>ch (broad) = ch as in German "Bach", Scottish "loch"
>ch (slender) = ch as in German "ich", or h
>dh (broad) = gh as the g in Spanish "abogado" or Greek
> "avgolemono" (this is the voiced equivalent
> of the "ch" in "Bach"); usually silent except
> at beginning of words; see a textbook on this!
>dh (slender) = y
>fh (broad) = silent
>fh (slender) = silent
>gh (broad) = same as broad dh
>gh (slender) = y
>mh (broad) = w
>mh (slender) = v
>ph (broad) = fw
>ph (slender) = fy
>sh (broad) = h
>sh (slender) = h
>th (broad) = h
>th (slender) = h
>
>Irish also has another set of consonant combinations at the beginning of
>words that result from an initial mutation called eclipsis. These are
>pronounced as follows (with broad and slender versions in each case):
>
>mb = m as in "na mban" (nuh mahn)
>gc = g as in "i gcarr" (uh gawr)
>nd = n as in "i nda/n" (uh nawn)
>bhf = w as in "an bhfuil" or v as in "a bhfile" (uh will)
>ng = ng as in "i ngairdi/n" (ng as in English "king") (uhNGAHR-jeen)
>bp = b as in "na bpla/tai/" (nuh BLAW-tee)
>dt = d as in "i dteach" (uh dyakh)
>
>In every case of eclipsis, all you do is pronounce the first consonant
>and ignore the second, except for "ng", which is pronounced together as
>the "ng" in "thing".
>
>IV. Examples
>Here are some samples of Irish words, some of which you may encounter in
>books or e-mail, to further illustrate the principles discussed above:
>
>file FILL-uh poet
>draoi DREE druid
>fili/ocht FILL-ee-uhkht poetry
>drai/ocht DREE-uhkht druidry, magic
>bile BILL-uh sacred tree
>tobar TOE-buhr well, spring
>si/ SHEE fairy mound
>bean si/ BAN SHEE fairy woman
>an slua si/ uhn SLOO-uh SHEE the fairy host
>Samhain SOWN (rhymes w/ clown) November 1
>Oi/che Shamhna EE-huh HOW-nuh Halloween
>La/ Fhe/ile Bri/de LAW AY-luh BREE-dyuh February 1
>Bealtaine BYAHL-tuh-nuh May 1
>Lu/nasa LOO-nuh-suh August 1
>cara KAH-ruh friend
>X, a chara, X, uh KHAH-ruh Dear X (X, O friend)
>A chairde, uh KHAHR-dyuh Dear Friends
>beannachtai/ BYAN-uhkh-tee blessings
>dia DYEE-UH, JEE-uh god
>bandia BAHN-JEE-uh goddess
>Dia duit! JEE-uh ditch God to you! = Greetings!
>Sla/n go fo/ill SLAWN guh FOE-ill Bye for now
>