I wanted to revisit this briefly because I don't believe we ever settled on a decisive answer.

Can one of you fluent kids please give the phonetic rendering for bhíodh and bheadh?

My guess is something like /w'iox/ and /w'ex/ but I wanted to confirm because the audio I have is somewhat less than clear.

Roughly :

bhíodh > [viː(ə)χ] in Munster and Connemara, [viːu] in Ulster. Note that in Ulster and Connemara, it is pronounced [viːtʲ] when followed by a subject pronoun that begins with s (sé, sí, sinn, sibh, siad).

bheadh > [vɛχ] in Munster and Connemara , [vɛu] in Ulster. Note that in Ulster and Connemara, it is pronounced [vɛtʲ] when followed by a subject pronoun that begins with s (sé, sí, sinn, sibh, siad).

(Message edited by Lughaidh on July 04, 2008)