The real key to picking up the pronunciation lies in the listening to the audio in the vocabulary and example sentence sections. Still, these introductory notes on the sound system should help in making sense of what you hear.
Notes on Myles Dillon: Pronunciation
page 1 of 12
alphabet • vowels • consonants • vowels & consonants together • vowel length •
dipthongs • r sounds • lenition • eclipsis • unwritten vowel • stress
dipthongs • r sounds • lenition • eclipsis • unwritten vowel • stress
These summaries are from notebooks I created in 1999 for my website on xoom.com.
They are revised and reposted here, in hope that they will continue be useful.
It is meant to used along with the original text. Consult that for more information.
T
In the slender m in mín, the lips are tight against the teeth.
In the broad m in maoin, the lips are loose and may say the
"wuh" glide.
he Irish alphabet includes the following letters:
a b c d e f g h i l m n o p r s t u
There is also a special script form of these letters like the German Fraktur.
It is mostly used in old books, in logos and on signs. This is like the "Celtic" style lettering in calligraphy.
Any alphabet is divided into vowel sounds and consonant sounds.
A vowel sound is one that is said with the breath moving freely from the throat and out of the mouth without the lips, tongue or teeth getting in the way. These sounds move freely through the mouth without any of the parts of the mouth touching each other or the top of the mouth. What this means is the sounds a e i o and u.
Different vowel sounds are made depending where in the mouth they take place. There are two very important categories of vowels and the distinction between these two groups should be noticed. One group is the front vowels that are said in the front of the mouth. These are e and i. The other are the back vowels that are made in the back of the mouth. These are known in Irish by the names broad (back vowels) and slender (front vowels). They are important because, in Irish, a special relationship exists between a vowel and the consonant sound which is next to it. This has alot to do with why Irish is spelled the way it is.
The more subtle distinction within each group are between high sounds and low sounds. This has nothing to do with the musical pitch. What it means is how open the mouth is at the time. So if the mouth is fairly closed then the sound will come from high towards the roof of the mouth. This is what makes an i or u.
If the mouth is very open then the vowel will be be made very low and close to the tongue. This is what happens with a. In between these is a middle area which is half-open or half-closed. This is where the e and o are made.
Also in the exact middle is the neutral vowel. This vowel is not high or low, not back or front. This is the "uh" sound like a in about. It doesnt have its own letter as various other vowels are pronounced this way, but sometimes it is shown (not in print, but in the pronunciation key in a dictionary, for example) with the "schwa" symbol-- an upside down e.
These descriptions of where the vowels take place are very rough. They have to be because no two languages pronounce their vowels exactly alike. But if you know how it should feel in the mouth, you can compare the placement and the sound with the vowels you know in other languages and hopefully this will help to make a more accurate sound. In the end it is up to your ear though.
Again though, like the vowels, descriptions of consonants are approximate and the exact sound varies alot from one language to the next. You just have to feel it, listen and compare to get it right.
The most important categories are broad and slender. This has to do with the relationship that consonants have with vowels. When a consonant appears next to a vowel that determines which sound it has. Every consonant has two seperate sounds it makes. The difference between the two may seem unimportant in English, but the two cannot be confused in Irish. A broad b is not the same is a slender b and you can change the meaning of a word if you switch them.
A broad consonant is used when it stands next to a broad vowel, that is, the back vowels a o and u. A slender consonant is used next to the slender vowel, that is, the front vowels e and i. The technical word for a broad consonant is "velar" because it is made while touching the tongue against the velum, which is the name for the soft part at the back of the roof of the mouth. The technical name for a slender sound is "palatal" because the tongue touches the hard palate which is the hard part of the roof of the mouth in the middle and at the high point of the roofs arch from front to back. These names are important only because they help explain the way these sounds are said.
Russian also has a similar thing which happens. Two sets of sounds for each consonant letter fall into velar and palatal groups.
The difference between these two sounds can be understood by comparing the following words you might be familiar with.
| b | → | boot | beauty | book | bugle |
| c | → | cool | cure | cock | king |
| f | → | foot | few | food | fewd |
| g | → | good | give | ghouls | gules |
| ch | → (German) | ach | gleich | brach | ich |
| l | → | loose | lure | mill | million |
| m | → | moon | music | moot | mute |
| n | → | noon | new | cannon | canyon |
| s | → | soon | sure | hiss | fish |
You will notice that most of the palatal sounds have a slight y sound which happens with them. Also the velar sounds are somewhat more open. The consonant in each has a noticeably different sound. This is what is happening in Irish.
It is also worth pointing out that a few of these happen in exact sets. The difference should not be ignored. You would never confuse ghouls with gules which mean two very different things. One is a group of monsters in search of corpses and the other is an old word for the colour red. The same is true of food and fewd, moot and mute, cannon and canyon and so on. You might be able to think of others. Again this difference in sound and meaning happens in nearly all languages and in this particular way in Irish.
Here you can see how the difference works out in Irish:
| bó | "cow" | beo | "alive" |
| bog | "soft" | beag | "small" |
| maoin | "wealth" | mín | "smooth" |
| mbuíon | "band" | mbíonn | "usually is" |
| labhair | "speak" | leabhair | "books" |
| bád | "boat" | báid | "boats, boat`s" |
| bhíos | "i was" | bhís | "you were" |
Often in the spelling of Irish words a series of two or three vowels will appear together. Usually you do not say each vowel with same weight. There is the main vowel sound and the others are there mostly to mark whether the surrounding consonants are broad or slender.
ceoil has mostly an o sound but appears between two
slender consonants. [k′o:l′]
The same with ciúin [k′u:n′]
fios has mostly an i sound but appears next to a broad s.
[f′is]
These markers also have the related function of moving things from a broad to a slender sound (or the other way around). In this way it can be called a glide because you glide from one sound to the next. The broad glide will suggest a "wuh" sound. The slender glide will suggest a "yih" sound. If the two sounds are of the same type (broad-broad or slender-slender) you may never hear it. But when the sounds are opposite then it becomes more obvious.
| beo | [byIo:] | bó | [b(U)o:] | bí | [b(I)i:] | buí | [bwUi:] |
The slender nn in similar to pinion, canyon or onion.
The reason this is so important and so common is that it is the only way for a broad and slender sound to happen next to each other.
A very important spelling rule is that broad consonants have to agree with broad vowels, and slender consonants have to agree with slender vowels. The expression goes: "caol le caol agus leathan le leathan". Broad to broad and slender to slender. To put two different sounds together an extra vowel is slipped in to make it work.
The length of time one uses to say a vowel may be clipped or doubled in duration. In Dutch, this would be shown by writing two vowels for the longer sound. In Irish, long vowels are marked with a stroke called a fada ("long") over the vowel. the fada points from the lower left to the upper right like this: / .
So a long vowel looks like this: á é í ó ú.
Fadas and long vowels are important because they change both the way a word is said and its meaning.
| ait | [at′] | "queer" | áit | [a:t] | "place" | |||
| cas | [kas] | "curly" | cás | [ka:s] | "case" | |||
| cead | [kas] | "permission" | céad | [k′iad] | "hundred" | |||
| fear | [f′ar] | "man" | féar | [f′iar] | "grass" | |||
| mear | [m′ar] | "lively" | méar | [m′iar] | "finger" | |||
| sean | [šan] | "old" | séan | [šian] | "good luck" | Seán | [ša:n] | "John" |
| min | [m′in′] | "meal" | mín | [m′i:n′] | "smooth" | |||
| solas | [soləs] | "light" | sólás | [so:′la:s] | "comfort" |
A fada is not the only to show a long vowel. Sometimes certain combinations of letters have the same effect.
1. ae, ao, omh, umh, eo:
| Gael | [ge:l] | caora | [ke:rə] | comhairle | [ko:rl′ə] | umhal | [u:əl] | ceol | [k′o:l] |
BUT eo in these words is a short /o/:
| seo | [š′o] | anseo | [ən′╹šo] | deoch | [d′ox] | eochair | [oxər′] |
ao = open e like in hair, mare taobh [te:v]
ao+ slender consonant = i: in see taoibh [ti:v]
2. i or u before á or ó:
| fiáin | [f′i:a:n′] | sióg | [š′i:o:g] | fuáil | [fu:a:l′] | ruóg | [ru:o:g] |
3. a before rd, rl rn or rr at the end of a word:
| ard | | tharla | | cearnóg | | cairde | | fearr | | barr | |
Usually, as was said before, when several vowels appear together in a word, vowels are not of equal value. One vowel just marks a consonant broad or slender, and may be heard slighly as a glide. Another vowel gives the actual vowel sound.
| fios | [f′is] | fuil | [fil′] | → | /i/ |
| fear | [f′ar] | cailc | [kal′k′] | → | /a/ |
In -io- i is usually the glide.
| pioc | [p′uk] | sioc | [šuk] | siopa | [šupə] | iomad | [uməd] |
These are not true dipthongs where each vowel would receive equal emphasis. Real dipthongs occur in ia and ua.
| ia | /iə/ | siar | [šiər] |
| ua | /uə/ | slua | [sluə] |
The values for ui, ea and ai in fear fuil and cailc above are usual when a word is stressed (as it is when the word has only one syllable) but they can vary.
for example beag /b′og/
These can be lengthened even to the point of becoming real dipthongs.
in words ending in -ll -nn -rr:
| geall | [g′aul] | ceann | [k′aun] | fearr | [f′a:r] |
One syllable words with a vowel + ll, nn, m(descended from mm), then the vowel → dipthong
| dall | [daul] | mall | [maul] |
| gann | [gaun] | cam | [kaum] |
| donn | [doun] | poll | [poul] |
greim [gr′eim]
There are a few examples like this where two letters act like a single vowel, and are effected by this rule. In greim the e is the vowel and the i a glide.
another example is ceann [k′aun]
when a+-rr then a → a: or a with /ə/ added at the end.
This is part of the same process of lengthening.
| gearr | [g′a:r] | [g′arə] |
| fearr | [f′a:r] | [f′arə] |
Often when vowels appear in threes what is happening is a dipthiong is being combined with a glide.
1. ia, ua + slender consonant → iai, uai
| riail | [riel′] | iai | → | /ie/ |
| fuair | [fuer′] | uai | → | /ue/ |
2. ia,ua + broad consonant → /ie/, /ue/
| rian | [riən] | fuar | [fuər] |
However, the difference between /ie/ and /iə/ is very close and both might be described as /iə/
With fuar and fuair what would tell them apart is the two types of r.
Dipthongs also happen when consonants are lost over time.
In English examples of this are plough taught dough through bright.
In Scots, many of these are still pronounced as they were in older forms of English.
| plough | [plu:x] | bright | [brext] | night | [next] |
In Irish, the consonants bh, dh, gh, mh (the lenited forms of b, d, g, m)
are lost in the middle of words. The way these words are said (but not spelled)
become the dipthongs
/au/ /ou/ of the German Haus or
ay /əi/ of the English light
| gabhar | [gour] | domhain | [doun] | amhras | [aurəs] | ||
| gadhar | [gəir] | raghad | [rəid] | adhmad | [əiməd] | feidhm | [f′əim′] |
Generally, broad bh, mh → au, ou
broad dh, gh, slender consonants → ai/əi
Often the consonant is mh then the vowel is spoken through the nose like in French.
| aimhleas | [ail′əs] | → | [ãil′əs] |
| amhras | [aurəs] | → | [ãurəs] |
However this speaking through the nose does not take place in West Cork.
There are a number of types of r sounds used in different languages.
The r used in American English is quite uncommon. The American r is similar to the group of sounds which pass through the mouth without coming to a full stop: f, v, s, z, sh, th and so on. But it does not have the friction that those sounds have.
R is also very close to l which is why Chinese speakers of English will often insert an l sound for r.
The kind of r heard in the English of Britain is different. The tongue bounces off the flesh behind the teeth very quickly. This is known as a flap. Americans do the same thing with double tt or dd in matter ladder betting kitty pity. So to an American ear, the way the English say very sounds like veddy.
In Spanish two different types of r can be heard. The first kind is the single r in pero caro farol mero. This is the same as the British r in very. They also have another r sound shown in words spelled with double r: perro carro correr guerrero. This r is called a trill. The trill is basically a flap held for a longer time. It is the "motorboat" sound made by vibrating the tongue 20 to 30 times rapidly. This is also the r used by Scots and German speakers, though few languages hold it for as long as the Spanish do. In most languages it is done with the tongue but in French they vibrate a piece of flesh in the back of the throat called the uvula.
In Irish, consonants usually come in pairs, broad and slender. The same is true of r. The broad r is the trilled r, which maybe explains the Scots way of saying it. Even slender r when it is the first letter of a word is said broadly.
| rud | rí | rialtas | coróin | bóthar |
The slender r in other parts of the word is more difficult to explain. In the middle of a word it seems to be a lighter, less emphasised version of the broad r, maybe more a flap than a trill. The i-glide definitely leads into it and softens it a bit.
| díreach | Máire | caoirigh | Péire |
In the ends of words we remember that the American r is very close to the friction sounds f v s z sh zh, etc. In words like tír the r sound seems to whistle slightly in the general area of s or z or zh. (zh being the s in pleasure). It is not exactly the same as "tease" or even "teazhe", but it is very close. You can imagine that it is like the r pronounced elsewhere but as it nears the end of the word and has to come to a stop, it pulls on the brakes and makes the whistling (squealing?) noise we hear.
| tír | fuair | ceathair |
In the Celtic family of languages, including Irish, a very noticeable thing which happens is that very often words change the sound of the consonant which begins the word. This is very common in Irish. The two kinds of change in Irish (Welsh has three) are known as lenition and eclipsis.
Lenition also happens in some Spanish dialects, particularly in the Canary Islands. What is different about Irish though is that they change is marked in spelling. There are a few instances of this in English like when the f in knife turns to the v in knives. But there are many more triggers for this in Irish.
In the old script, lenition was marked by a dot over the consonant. Nowadays, it is marked with an h. So ceathair becomes cheathair and póca becomes phóca. There are only a few letters which lenite. They are p t f c b m d g s.
Because of the use of the h as a marker, this sometimes has lead to this change as being wrongly named "aspiration". Aspiration is the slight suggestion of an h or puff of breath after certain consonants. This happens alot in English, like with the p in pill as opposed to the p in spill. (If you can`t hear the difference say it with your hand in front of your face and you should feel it.) But in Irish there is no h sound. The h is just a symbol. The consonant is becoming a whole new consonant sound. p becomes f. (or in the English example of knife f becomes v). Lenition is the more exact word for this, though some prefer to use the Irish word Séimhiú ("mellowing").
The sounds made by this change are as follows:
| p | → | ph | /f/ |
| t | → | th | /h/ |
| f | → | fh | -- (becomes silent) |
| c | → | ch | /x/ German Bach, Scottish Loch (broad) |
|
|
| /ç/ German ich (slender) | |
| b | → | bh | /v/ |
| m | → | mh | /v/ |
| d,g | → | dh, gh | y in yet (slender) |
| /γ/ found in some dialects of German for g Tage Sagen Mogen Bogen but not a crisp g or a /x/ as c becomes /x/ so does g become /γ/ | |||
| s | → | sh | /h/ |
When s is lenited at the beginning of a word by the article "an" instead of becoming sh it gets a t- added to the front of it. It is then pronounced /t/.
| an tsráid | [tra:d] | an tsagart | [tagərt] | an tsrotha | [trohə] |
sh at the start of a word + a slender vowel + a broad vowel becomes /ç/.
| a Sheáin | [ə ╹ça:n′] | hata Shiobhán | [hatə çə′va:n] |
ph, th, ch, fh, sh do not change their sounds when their place in the word changes.
bh, dh, gh, mh as was said earlier becomes a dipthong in the middle of the
word when broad.
-omha- → long /õ/ though the nose. comhartha [kõ:rhə]
- -ighe at the end is said /i:/ and is often now spelled í
- -igh, -idh (slender dh, gh at the end) is said /g/
- broad dh at the end of a noun is silent
- broad dh at the end of a singular verb is /x/
- broad -dh at the end of a verb in past passive can be /g/ or /x/.
- -lt- in the middle of words is said /lh/as if it were spelled -lth-. díolta, Rialtas, Bealtaine, failte...
Lenition is only one of two kinds of changes that happen to consonants at the start of words. The other change is called eclpsis. That is one sound becomes eclipsed by another sound just like moon elipses the sun. In Irish both consonants are written, but only the first is said.
| p | is spelled | bp | and said | b |
| t | is spelled | dt | and said | d |
| c | is spelled | gc | and said | g |
| f | is spelled | bhf | and said | v (bh in irish=v) |
| b | is spelled | mb | and said | m |
| d | is spelled | nd | and said | n |
| g | is spelled | ng | and said | ng /ŋ / |
| p | → | b | → | m |
| t | → | d | → | n |
| c | → | g | → | ng |
| f | → | v |
| bpáirc | mbád | gclann | ndoras | bhfuil | dtír | ngloine |
Often words are written with groups of consonants that are hard to say and need a vowel stuck in to make them more able to be said. In Dutch they do this sometimes so that film sounds like "filum". In Irish-English, this is done also so arm sounds like "arum", party sounds like "parody". The spelling is not changed, only the way it is said is given an extra vowel (and so, an extra syllable).
In Irish it happens whenever l,n,r are followed by b, bh, ch, m, mh or g and come after a short but stressed vowel. (With g it only happens after l and r since n makes the sound ng in ring which is different). the unstressed middle vowel "uh" /ə/ goes between the l/n/r and the next consonant.
Here are some examples:
| balbh | [baləv] | bolg | [boləg] |
| borb | [borəb] | garbh | [garəv] |
| dorcha | [dorəxə] | fearg | [f′arəg] |
| gorm | [gorəm] | seanchaí | [šanə╹xi:] |
| ainm | [an′əm′] | ainmhí | [an′əv′i:] |
Stress is usually on the first syllable in Irish and is not as varied as in English.
Short vowels in the syllables that follow become the middle vowel "uh" /ə/.
English does the same in:
| common | barracks | custom | solace |
When the sound is slender, the "uh" /ə/ is more like an "ih" /I/.
Here are three cases when the stress is later in the word.
1. If the second syllable is long it is stressed. (except for verb endings)
2. If the third syllable is long and the first two are short then it is
the third which is stressed.
amadán [əmə╹da:n]
3. When the second syllable contains ach and there is no long syllable,
then the second syllable is stressed.
Stress on the first syllable may also knock out a syllable when an ending is
added to a two-syllable word.
obair +e → oibre ai is lost and b becomes slender
cailín [ka ╹l′i:n′] garsún [gar╹su:n] tógálach [to: ╹ga: ləx] coileach tuirseach [tIr╹šax] beannacht casachtach [kə╹saxdəx]
íseal +e → ísle ea lost
imir +im → imrim i is lost
oscail +aim → osclaim ai is lost
