Well, in this post we will have a
look to the bases of pronunciation, just a brief introduction to phonology. In
terms of phonology, the first thing you have to know is that in Gaelic, you
will find just 18 consonant sounds
(phonemes), these are: /b/ /d/ /f/ /g/ /h/
/k/ /l/ /m/ /n/ /p/ /r/ /s/ /t/ /tʃ/ /ʃ/ /ʒ/ /dʒ/ /v/. When learning Gaelic it is also helpful to distinguish 10 vowel
sounds, five long vowels and five short ones.
Long vowels Short vowels
í:
/i:/ For example: sí (She). i:
/ɪ/ For example: sin (This).
é:
/eɪ/ For example: mé (Me). e: /e/
For example: te (Hot).
á:
/oʊ/ For example: lá (Day). a: /ʌ/
For example: cat (Cat).
ó :
/ɔ:/ For example: bó (Cow). o: /ʊ/ For example: donn (Brown).
ú :
/u:/ For example: tú (You). u: /u/ For example: bus (autobús).
Dipthongs
Pronounced as short vowels
ai, ea:
/a/ ei:
/e/ ui, io:
/ɪ/
Pronounced as long vowels
aí, oí, uí, uío, ío, ao, aoi:
/i:/ oi: /ɜ:/ eo, eoi, eó:
/ɔ:/ úi, iúi:
/u:/
Pronounced as dipthongs
iai:
/ɪə/ uai:
/ʊə/ eá, eái, ái:
/oʊ/ ae, éa, éi, aei:
/eɪ/
Gaelic speakers also have the so called non-written vowels which are pronounced between some consonants although
they are not written. This
happens between r, l, n and m, b, bh, g,
where it is necessary to pronounce a /ə/.
Now, let see the consonants. Consonants are different
when they come to be analyzed as phonetic elements, so that we will find a
particular pronunciation for a single consonant depending on the vowel that
follows it. For instance, consonant "t", followed by "a",
will sound /t/
and when followed by "e" it will sound /tʃ/;
that is how they work. Here is the whole list of consonants and their
pronunciations.
T: ta,
to, tu sound /t/,
while te, ti sound /tʃ/.
D: da,
do, du
sound /d/, while de, di sound /ʒ/.
L: la,
lo, lu sound /l/,
while le, li sound /dʒ/.
N: na,
no, nu sound /n/, while ne,
ni (In this case the pronunciation is
not clear but seems to be like the Spanish /ñ/).
S: sa,
so, su sound /s/, while se,
si sound
/ʃ/.
R:
ra, ro, ru sound /r/ (strong "r" in this
case), while re,
ri sound /d/ (soft, like an Spanish simple "r").
C: always sounds /k/.
Ph: always sounds /f/.
Fh: is mute.
Th: always sounds /h/.
Ch:
cha, cho, chu sound /k/, while che, chi sound /h/.
Bh/mh: sound /v/, but in the middle of a word, bha, bho, bhu sound /oʊ/.
Gh: gha,
gho, ghu sound /g/, while ghe,
ghi sound /ʒ/.
Dh: dha,
dho, dhu sound /g/, while dhe, dhi sound /ʒ/. In the middle of a word they always sound /ʒ/.
As you will have observed, the
sound switches every time we find an "e" or "i" after the
consonant we refer to.
These are the basic issues every learner of Irish
Gaelic has to deal with for the first time. Nevertheless we must keep in mind
that this is an standard, and depending on the region words will be pronounced
in a different way.
I hope you all have learned a little bit and have enjoyed
this post.
Sources:
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