Hello all,

Could someone please help me with the phonetic pronunciation and translation for "Tá mo chroí istigh ionat?" I did some web searching and found it to literally mean "My heart is w/i (or inside) you." Is this correct?

Thanking you in advance --

Eric Dolan

You're translating literally. The idea intended is something like "you're very dear to my heart." The construction is idiomatic.

Taw muh kree ish teen yut -- with apologies to all you cringing native speakers out there.

Keep reading, a hEric. Someone may be along in a moment with more information.

Well,

I would render it @bvnds$%^ X*(3@EEE55+=!.

Sorry...just poking fun at the IPA fans.

Taw muh kree ish-tee inyut. The only change I make is to help separate the "tee" in ish-tee from the "in" in inyut. When said quickly they tend to run together and can give the untrained ear (like mine) a bit of a fit.

I begin to see Jonas' point.

Unless an american K is much softer than on this side of the pond, ... where is the seimhiú gone, fellas?

Of course, I pronounce it "Tá mo chroí istigh ionat" .

Pádraig's translation is accurate - and if you know the IPA system it is worth waiting for someone who uses it to turn up. The approximations above are ok, but they are just that - approximations. [I have had a policy of not answering pronunciation questions for the last six/seven years on this site, and until I can get my head around rendering the sounds in IPA I think I'll stick to it]

Ooops, you're right. I missed the seimhiú!

OK...using a mild southern US version of english it would be something like:

Taw muh khree ish-tee in-yut

Taw as in a "T" sound followed by "aw" as in "Aw shucks!"

Muh as in the first syllable of "Mother" or the sound you hear in the beginning of "Mud".

Khree is a bit more difficult. Sounds like "Tree" with but with a gutteral "ch" in the beginning. Similar to the German 'ch' in "Achtung".

ish like the last sound in "fish" and tee like good old sweet iced tea.

in as in "in or out" and yuh like the middle sound in "canyon".

There...my first post using the LPA system. A bit wordy but pretty easy to grasp!

Donegal pronounciation (which will show you that "aw" isn’t the only pronounciation of á):

taa moh KHree stee on-ud.

The aa is between an ’a’ and an ’eh’ sound (a bit like the ’a’ in the US english "bad").

James > your pronounciation of "ionat" like "in-yut" sounds strange to me: where do they pronounce like that?