Tag Archives: pronunciation
Pronunciation Guide for “25 Chulaith Oíche Shamhna” (25 Halloween Costumes, in Irish) Posted by róislín on Oct 27, 2015
(le Róislín) We recently looked at the Irish for 25 different types of cultacha Oíche Shamhna (nasc thíos), some fairly traidisiúnta (vaimpír, taibhse) and some fairly far-fetched (héilics dúbailte d’aigéad dí-ocsairibeanúicléasach). This post will give some pronunciation tips for them. But first, let’s look at the word “culaith” [KUL-uh OR KUL-ee] itself. “The suit” is…
Some Irish Words Starting with the Letter ‘X’ (Part 1 of 2) Posted by róislín on Sep 14, 2015
(le Róislín) As you might suspect, there are relatively few words in Irish that start with the letter ‘x,’ since it wasn’t part of the traditional original Irish alphabet (which was a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, and u). We’ve seen something similar for…
Irish Words Starting with ‘w’ (dornán beag ach dornán acu ann!) Posted by róislín on Sep 9, 2015
(le Róislín) Bhuel, let’s start by saying there aren’t many words in Irish that start with “w”, since like “v,” this letter was not traditional in the Irish alphabet. But times change, languages change, and there are now at least a few words to note. I’ll also mention in passing that a fair number of…
Irish Pronunciation Round-up for “Ó ‘Uncail Oscar’ go garmhac Fhionn Mhic Cumhaill: The Irish Roots of the Name ‘Oscar’ Posted by róislín on Feb 27, 2015
(le Róislín) How do you pronounce “garmhac,” “gheimhriúil,” “othar,” “Cumhall” and “Cumhaill“? Does “uncail” in Irish sound any different from “uncle” in English? And can we depend on “Oscar” in Irish sounding like “Oscar” in English? What about when it’s “Oscair“? This blog will look at a few pronunciation issues for some of the Irish…
How to say ‘How are you?” in Irish — not quite 100 ways but maybe 50-ish. And which are the top 5(-ish)? Posted by róislín on Jan 4, 2015
(le Róislín) Some of you may have seen the recent article “Did you know there are 100 ways to say ‘How are you?’ as Gaeilge?” in The Daily Edge, based on a dialect map posted on Twitter (naisc thíos). As comments to the Daily Edge article pointed out, about half of the examples are from Scotland…
How to Say ‘Happy New Year’ in Irish and How to Pronounce the Consonant Cluster “thbhl” Posted by róislín on Dec 31, 2014
(le Róislín) Athbhliain faoi shéan is faoi mhaise duit. Happy New Year to you. Athbhliain faoi shéan is faoi mhaise daoibh. Happy New Year to you (plural). So how do we pronounce that, what does it literally mean, why are the actual words “happy” and “new” not in the phrase, and where does a consonant…
Vocabulary and Pronunciation Guide for the Recent Blog: Cé mhéad “Shades of Gray” (Grey … Liath … Léith … de Grae, srl.)? Posted by róislín on Jul 25, 2014
(le Róislín) In the last blog, we zoomed (zúmáil muid!) through a fair amount of vocabulary to take some steps towards translating the general phrase “shades of gray” and the title of the recent book and upcoming movie, Fifty Shades of Grey. So this blog will take a closer look at some of those words…