Dhia Duit everyone
I'm not super far in Learning Irish but the good news is that I have a close friend who is very enthusiastic about learning Irish as well though she's learning from Irish On Your Own and we want to try to speak Irish to each other(well when we know more, it's so neat to know I'll have someone to practice it with )but she has only just started and considering her name is Rachel I wondered how I would do the Lenition as far as how it would sound for "Rh" as in Cóta Rhachel. Considering we want to speak and not just write to each other in Irish it'd be nice to know what I could do about it.

Hi Nina,

As far as I know the letter R isn't affected by lenition, so using your example "Rachel's coat" would be "cóta Rachel". Therefore no worries about the pronunciation changing!

Regards,

Searlas

The only letters lenited are:

B,C,D,F,M,P,S,T.

OCG, -- You forgot 'G'. It, too, is subject to aspiration.

Séimhiú:

B C D F G M P S T

Urú:

A E I O U

B C D F G P T

I find it easier to remember which letters DON'T lenite. I use this memory aid:

MS HaLoRaN had a beauty that could not be eclipsed.

her brother

MR HaLoRaN was a stern man who could never be softened.

MS HLRN do not take an Uru

MR HLN do not take a seimhu

(I know I'm missing some fadas there...sorry)

I've a tricky one for you, ponounce this:

Ag smaoineamh ar an ngnó

:-D

I've a tricky one for you, ponounce this:

Ag smaoineamh ar an ngnó


A-smeena airin grow....

Well, that's how we pronounce it in Texas, anyway.

:-):-)

--Al Evans

Ag smaoineamh ar an ngnó

In cases like that I pronounce the G, you need to in order to be understood, I think.

Wouldn't the N on the article "an" suffice as an urú anyway?

I don't quite understand the question? Why would it be a problem to pronounce it?

[@ smi:n´@v er´@n {ng)no:]

And no, there is no "g" sound in it.

Caint na nGnáthdaoine

Na Nunawdeeny

Ag smaoineamh ar an ngnó

ar an nó


OCG, you say that you'd need to pronounce the G in order to be understood. All I can say is that neither of us are fluent so we can't comment on that! Anyway, you just pronounce an N sound.

In Conamara (and elsewhere)'gn-', 'cn-', and 'mn-' are often pronounced as if they were 'gr-', 'cr-' and 'mr-'. For many people, substituting the 'r' sound for the 'n' sound in these consonant combinations makes the pronunciation easier.