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The Daltaí Boards » Archive: 2005- » 2011 (March-April) » Archive through April 19, 2011 » Pronunciation questions « Previous Next »

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Baodaiwei
Member
Username: Baodaiwei

Post Number: 2
Registered: 03-2011
Posted on Sunday, April 03, 2011 - 02:40 am:   Small TextLarge TextEdit PostPrint Post

I was just wondering if someone could provide some help with the pronunciation of the following words (particularly Ulster but other dialects too) ?

tosaigh
amharc
taispeán
imir
deisigh
cabraigh

Can I assume that verbs ending in aigh or igh are always pronounced i in Ulster/Connacht but ig in Munster ?


thanks

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Lughaidh
Member
Username: Lughaidh

Post Number: 3901
Registered: 01-2005


Posted on Sunday, April 03, 2011 - 06:26 am:   Small TextLarge TextEdit PostPrint Post

Tosaigh is toisigh in Ulster and it is pronounced "toshee".
Amharc is pronounced ohrk or unk.
Taispeáin has several variants, often teisteáin or teiseáin, pronounced respectively chesh-chahn and cheh-shahn.
Imir is pronounced immir' (slender r at the end, or a y-sound in Gaoth Dobhair)
Deisigh is pronounced jeh-shee
CabHraigh is not much used in Ulster (as far as I know) and is replaced by cuidigh, which is pronounced kodjee,roughly.

quote:

Can I assume that verbs ending in aigh or igh are always pronounced i in Ulster/Connacht but ig in Munster ?



In the order forms in -(a)igh, which are the "dictionary entries" as well, the -(a)igh ending is pronounced -ee in Ulster, -uh in Connemara and -igg in Munster... when the verb has more than 1 syllable.
A verb like "dóigh", for example, has one syllable, and then there are differences, since it is pronounced doy (with a long open o) in Ulster, doh in Connemara and I guess daw-ig (with slender g) in Munster.

Learn Irish pronunciation here: http://loig.cheveau.ifrance.com/irish/irishsounds/irishsounds.html & http://fsii.gaeilge.org/

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Baodaiwei
Member
Username: Baodaiwei

Post Number: 3
Registered: 03-2011
Posted on Sunday, April 03, 2011 - 07:06 am:   Small TextLarge TextEdit PostPrint Post

Lughaidh,
Thanks for the reply. I'm just starting to learn Irish and I'm finding the pronunciation of Irish a real challenge.

I have been listening to TG4 a lot recently and my ear is not yet trained to certain sounds. One thing I have not noticed yet is the slender R in spoken speech. It's almost as if it does not exist - would it be fair to say that most speakers cannot or do not use it because of English or are there dialectal reasons - or is it maybe because my ear is not used to hearing it yet? .. or all three :) ?

Amharc - is this a lengthened sound like the vowel in English hawk? What is the IPA sound?


You mentioned dóigh. Would the sound be similar to that of the French eui as in feuille? except with an O?

And thank you for correcting the spelling mistake! Mea culpa!

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Lughaidh
Member
Username: Lughaidh

Post Number: 3902
Registered: 01-2005


Posted on Sunday, April 03, 2011 - 07:56 am:   Small TextLarge TextEdit PostPrint Post

quote:

One thing I have not noticed yet is the slender R in spoken speech. It's almost as if it does not exist - would it be fair to say that most speakers cannot or do not use it because of English or are there dialectal reasons - or is it maybe because my ear is not used to hearing it yet? .. or all three :) ?



in the Irish language media, many people aren't Gaeltacht speakers and then they (or most of them, say) may tend to replace the Irish sounds by the closest English sounds. So these people use the English r instead of the slender r and of the broad r, etc
You may listen to the recordings of Learning Irish, or to mine, or to the programs with John Ghrainne on BBC Ulster (the program is called Ceann Dubhrann) etc, to hear the Irish sounds.

quote:

Amharc - is this a lengthened sound like the vowel in English hawk? What is the IPA sound?



[ork], or something like [ɔ̃ŋk] (this is a variant, that may be spelt "amhanc")


quote:

You mentioned dóigh. Would the sound be similar to that of the French eui as in feuille? except with an O?



yeah, with a long open o.
[d̪ˠɔːj]

Learn Irish pronunciation here: http://loig.cheveau.ifrance.com/irish/irishsounds/irishsounds.html & http://fsii.gaeilge.org/



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