Could someone direct me to a place (or list out) what the phonetic realizations of Irish vowel graphemes are?

I'm working on trying to figure out what drives (in terms of phonology/phonotactics) the broad/slender difference in the pronunciation of Gaelic consonants (I'm sure the answer is out there, but don't tell me - I'm not in school right now so I'm interested in running a phonology problem just to keep my mind sharp) and obviously I need to know what the different Irish vowel representations are.

Also, I've noticed that broad and slender consonants seem to be flipped in terms of how they're realized, between Irish and Scottish Gaelic. For example,

"Oiche mhaith" in Irish, the "mhaith" is realized /wa/ or /wai/ whereas in Gaidhlig 'Oidche mhath' second word realized as /va/

quote:

"Oiche mhaith" in Irish, the "mhaith" is realized /wa/ or /wai/ whereas in Gaidhlig 'Oidche mhath' second word realized as /va/

In Munster Irish mhaith can be /va/ too, thus oíche mhaith = /i:hə va/ or more precisely: [iːhə βʷɑ].

(Message edited by Crí on September 15, 2009)

I think I know what you're getting at. A list of vowel letters is the first link below. The second gives some phonological information on the realization of them. Books will give more definitive information on the dialectical variations of the vowels, and the consonants.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_orthography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_phonology

What dialect of Irish has /wai/ for mhaith? I've never heard an offglide there.

>>What dialect of Irish has /wai/ for mhaith? I've never heard an offglide there.

Ulster, I think.

Donegal : /waix'/ or sometimes /wai/ when speaking quickly.

/i:x'ə waix'/