Wondering how to pronounce any of the recent vocabulary?  Here are some tips, especially for séimhiú and urú.  These processes are part of the building blocks of Irish, second only, I’d say, to an aibítir í féin. 

First, a brief recap of what séimhiú and urú are.

Séimhiú or lenition – a softening of the initial sound of a word, indicated by inserting the letter “h” after the first consonant or consonant cluster.  There are at least 15 reasons why this process occurs in Irish, obviously too many to deal with in aon bhlag amháin.  We’ll just look at examples that came up with the Christmas terms.  The consonants b, c, d, f, g, m, p, s, and t are the only ones that show lenition in writing.

Urú or eclipsis – similar to what happens to the sun and the moon, urú means covering over the initial sound of a word, indicated by adding a new letter at the beginning (bosca, i mbosca, for example).  Only b, c, d, f, g, p, and t are affected by this change.

And now, roinnt téarmaí le séimhiú

Nollaig Shona [NUL-ik HUN-uh].  Here we have a feminine singular noun, “Nollaig,” modified by the adjective “sona.”  Adjectives modifying feminine singular nouns are generally lenited.  There are plenty of other uses of “sona” [SUH-nuh] where it is not lenited, like “lá breithe sona duit” (happy birthday to you) and “Tá mé sona sásta” (I’m happy and content).

Séimhiú after certain réamhfhocail [RAYV-OK-il] (prepositions):

The preposition “faoi” (under, about) causes lenition of a noun that immediately follows.

faoi shéan [fwee hayn] lit. under happiness (séan becomes shéan; be careful of the long mark over the vowel, or you’ll end up “faoi Sheán,” another matter altogether). 

faoi mhaise [fwee WISH-uh] under adornment or beauty, adorned, flourishing, from the noun “maise” (adornment, beauty, etc.)

Several other prepositions follow this rule too, but we’ll deal with them i mblag éigin eile. 

This rule will change for phrases with definite nouns, like “faoin mbosca” (under the box), but sin ábhar blag eile freisin. 

Roinnt téarmaí le hurú:

Well, lo and behold, dhá bhlag iomlán with hardly any urú!  Looks like I’ll have to make up a couple of samplaí.  Aistriúcháin thíos:

seacht gcrann Nollag [shakht grahn NUL-uk], “crann” changes to “gcrann” after the numbers 7 to 10

ocht gcarúl Nollag [okht GAR-ool NUL-uk], but remember, “Carúl a hOcht” (Carol No. 8)

and, for a completely different reason, the plural possessive adjective:

ár mbronntanais [awr MRUN-tun-ish]

and still another reason (using the preposition “i” for “in”)

i bpaca Dhaidí na Nollag [ih BAH-kuh ɣADJ-ee nuh NUL-uk].  For more on the sound transcribed phonetically as /ɣ/ and spelled here as “dh” (Dhaidí) you might want to check out the notes i mblag na bliana seo caite (24 Mí na Nollag 2009) faoin ábhar seo (https://blogs.transparent.com/irish/tag/nollaig-shona-dhuit/).  I also did a fuller treatment of it in last July 27^th’s blog (https://blogs.transparent.com/irish/treoir-don-treoir-a-guide-to-the-guide-for-pronunciation-cuid-a-2/).

And finally, here’s a phrase that has both urú and a final “dh” sound that is permanently lenited .. and silent!

i ndiaidh na Nollag [in yay nuh NUL-uk OR in YEE-uh nuh NUL-uk, depending on dialect]

The eclipsis is in the word “diaidh” changing to “ndiaidh” because of the preposition “i” (in).  “Diaidh” literally means “wake” or “trail” but is rarely used on its own.  When used with phrases like “na Nollag,” it means “after.”  The original initial “d” is eclipsed (made silent or covered over) so the “i” glides together with the new initial letter, “n.”  At the end of the word, we have a lenited “dh,” which is silent.

I have a bunch more pronunciation notes ready but this is fada go leor for aon bhlag amháin.  More to come soon!

Gluais: aibítir, alphabet; ár, our (causes urú); breithe [Br^zhEH-huh], of birth; bronntanais, presents, gifts; paca [PAH-kuh], a pack; roinnt [rinch], some