This is just something that came up on a discussion on facebook. Is that future tense "f" always pronounced "h" and never as an "f" in all dialects. I had some idea that it might be pronounced "f" in some places. However I'm not sure.

Maybe someone here can throw some light on the matter.

I had a look at the Linguistic Atlas :
seven points, all along the southern coast of Munster, have an -f- pronounced like -f- in the future. These are:

8 Clonakilty (co Cork)
9 Glandore (co Cork)
10 Skibbereen (co Cork)
11 Cleare Island (co Cork)
12 Coomhola (co Cork)
13 Lauragh (co Kerry)
14 Dursey Sound (co Cork)

I'm afraid these are all dead dialects now, except that of Cleare Island...


Everywhere else, -f- is pronounced like h.

But in some endings, like -fad, -fai, -fa... the f may be pronounced in more places of Munster.

Some fs are fs in southwest Donegal. Not all of them, though. Ex. nífidh mé /N'if'ə m'ɛ/. I am sure most people have gone (or are going) over to H, though, because it is so common.

In Connemara, f is quite often retained in the automonous future & conditional and 2nd person singular conditional, e.g. caithfear /f'/, thuigfeá /f'/, etc. Note that whether this f is retained often depends on the verb. Another thing is that whether this f is realised as slender or broad does not follow from the spelling or even the final consonant of the verbal root. I need to check reliable sources first to tell you exactly what happens where, though. Also bear in mind that Cois Fhairrge Irish is in certain respects more innovative than the rest of Connemara, e.g. you may hear 'cuirfear' as 'cuireár', etc. Hope it helps.

I've heard the "f" before, but I thought it was a mistake, and I was always told so. Perhaps my teachers were over simplifying it...

One of the most common places to hear it is with the old GH verbs, so ghf is pronounced f by some. I have to say, though, that I find it somewhat unpredictable as to who would produce it. Even in areas that have it, not everyone does. To mix it up more, the teacher was probably teaching against just saying what is written.

quote:

ghf

this is often pronounced like a slender ch in Ulster : nífidh mé (older spelling nighfidh mé) is pronounced as if it were spelt "niche mea" for example.