{"id":119,"date":"2009-12-31T23:43:58","date_gmt":"2010-01-01T03:43:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=115"},"modified":"2012-01-01T20:43:52","modified_gmt":"2012-01-01T20:43:52","slug":"notai-fuaimnithe-don-bhlag-roimhe-pronunciation-notes-for-the-previous-blog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/notai-fuaimnithe-don-bhlag-roimhe-pronunciation-notes-for-the-previous-blog\/","title":{"rendered":"N\u00f3ta\u00ed Fuaimnithe don Bhlag Roimhe (Pronunciation Notes for the Previous Blog)"},"content":{"rendered":"

This blog is mostly pronunciation notes for the previous entry, since pronunciation is one of the aspects of Irish that many of my students keep asking about.\u00a0 <\/span>As usual, I\u2019ll be concentrating on the words that have silent letters or that tend to raise questions.\u00a0 <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I hope this will be useful for relative beginners.\u00a0 <\/span>For advanced readers, please hold tight, and we\u2019ll have the blogs on the Christmas \u201cwrap-up\u201d and the New Year\u2019s theme shortly.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Since many of the silent letters result from changes to the first letter of a word, let\u2019s look at some of those first, including one example from the title of today\u2019s entry:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

don bhlag<\/span><\/strong> [dun vlahg], for the blog; while \u201cbh<\/strong>\u201d followed by a broad vowel (a, o, u) can be pronounced as either \u201cw\u201d or \u201cv,\u201d depending on dialect, it\u2019s always pronounced \u201cv\u201d before the consonants \u201cl\u201d or \u201cr.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>An additional example, \u201can bhr\u00f3g<\/strong>\u201d [un vrohg]<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve been working on Irish for a while, you may have noticed a variant of this phrase, \u201cdon mblag<\/strong>\u201d [dun mlahg], which is also correct.\u00a0 <\/span>Some dialects, and Standard Irish, use lenition after \u201cdon<\/strong>\u201d (giving \u201cbhlag<\/strong>\u201d); other dialects use eclipsis (giving \u201cmblag<\/strong>\u201d). <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

bleathach <\/span><\/strong>[BL\u00c6-ukh] grist, or, the \u201cflip\/nog\u201d part of egg-flip, eggnog; the silent \u201cth\u201d gives a slight breathy pause in the middle of this word, but it\u2019s barely two syllables.\u00a0 <\/span>The vowel sound of the Irish \u201cea<\/strong>,\u201d transcribed here with \u201c\u00c6\u201d is like American English \u201ccat\u201d or \u201cbat.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>The vowel sound here is important, since it\u2019s the main thing that distinguishes this word from \u201cbl\u00e1thach<\/strong>\u201d [blawukh], buttermilk.\u00a0 <\/span>For \u201cbl\u00e1thach<\/strong>,\u201d I\u2019d treat it as one syllable; the long vowel (\u00e1<\/strong>) sort of swallows up that breathy pause.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

With the definite article, those become \u201can bhleathach<\/strong>\u201d [un VL\u00c6-ukh] and \u201can bhl\u00e1thach<\/strong>\u201d [un vlawch].\u00a0 <\/span>In both cases, \u201cbhlea<\/strong>\u201d and \u201cbhl\u00e1<\/strong>,\u201d the \u201cbh<\/strong>\u201d is pronounced like \u201cv\u201d although \u201cbhlea<\/strong>\u201d has a slender vowel and \u201cbhl\u00e1<\/strong>\u201d is broad.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

uibhe<\/span><\/strong> [IV-eh], of an egg; from \u201cubh<\/strong>\u201d [uv] (egg).\u00a0 <\/span>Remember that the \u201c-eh\u201d I\u2019m using at the end of a lot of these pronunciation guides is short and unstressed, like the \u201ce\u201d of \u201cpet\u201d or \u201cmet.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>If I just transcribe it with the single letter \u201ce,\u201d I find that many people read it as \u201cee.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>As is often the case, one could use a pronunciation guide to the pronunciation guide!\u00a0 <\/span>Anyway, it\u2019s not the Canadian or Down East, \u201cehhh-uh\u201d!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

f\u00edor<\/span><\/strong> [fee-ur], f\u00edoracha<\/strong> [FEER-ukh-uh], figure(s); the singular form is basically like the more well known homonym \u201cf\u00edor,<\/strong>\u201d which means \u201ctrue.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>With the definite article, the singular form becomes \u201can fh\u00edor<\/strong>\u201d [un ee-ur], the figure.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

sins\u00e9ir<\/span><\/strong> [SHIN-shayrzh], of ginger, from \u201csins\u00e9ar<\/strong>,\u201d ginger (the noun). <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

nach bhfuil<\/span><\/strong> [nahkh wil] that isn\u2019t, that aren\u2019t; probably familiar to seasoned learners, but since about a hundred people have joined this on Facebook since I last blinked (well, that\u2019s a bit exaggerated, but in a very short time), I\u2019m giving the pronunciation, ar eagla na heagla <\/strong>(just in case).\u00a0 <\/span>Another case of \u201cbhf<\/strong>\u201d being pronounced as \u201cw.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

f\u00e9in <\/span><\/strong>[hayn or fayn, depending on dialect, both are fine].\u00a0 <\/span>The vowel sound comes close to English \u201crain,\u201d or for an even more exact rhyme, English \u201cfain,\u201d a word that I can safely say I\u2019ve probably never used in actual English conversation.\u00a0 <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m nearly running out of space again, but I\u2019ll finish with the adjectives for \u201cmale\u201d and \u201cfemale\u201d and their lenited (+h) forms: \u201d fireann<\/strong> [FIRzh-un], baineann<\/strong> [BWIN-yun], fhireann<\/strong> [IRzh-un], bhaineann<\/strong> [WIN-yun or VIN-yun, depending on dialect]. For the latter, I use the \u201cwin\u201d version, partly because of the Gaeltachta\u00ed<\/strong> I\u2019ve stayed in and partly because I think it helps to cement the broad\/slender distinction in Irish pronunciation.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The \u201czh\u201d is used to indicate a slender \u201cr,\u201d which we can discuss more later (please let me know in \u201ccomments\u201d on the Transparent page, if you want more detail).\u00a0 <\/span>This sound is also in Czech.\u00a0 <\/span>That\u2019s the only European counterpart I know of; it\u2019s definitely a new sound for most English speakers.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, all of this is just a \u201ctreoir gharbh<\/strong>\u201d [TRORzh \u03b3AHR-uv] (rough guide), but I hope it helps.\u00a0 <\/span>The Irish \u201cgh<\/strong>\u201d is transcribed here with the gamma sign, standard linguistic practice, since there\u2019s no way to \u201croughguide\u201d it.\u00a0 <\/span>I know it looks like \u201cv\u201d but it does have that loop at the bottom, distinguishing it from a \u201cv.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>At any rate, for many more examples of Irish pronunciation, you can always check out Transparent Language\u2019s fine products for learning Irish, which are listed at https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/languagepages\/irish\/irish.htm \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Athbhliain<\/span><\/strong> [AH-VLEE-in] faoi mhaise!\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong>Happy New Year!\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This blog is mostly pronunciation notes for the previous entry, since pronunciation is one of the aspects of Irish that many of my students keep asking about.\u00a0 As usual, I\u2019ll be concentrating on the words that have silent letters or that tend to raise questions.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 I hope this will be useful for relative…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3898],"tags":[111708,111707,111706,58,111709,5322,5667,5878,11,111710,111711],"class_list":["post-119","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-irish-language","tag-blathach","tag-bleathach","tag-breathy","tag-dialect","tag-fein","tag-gamma","tag-irish","tag-lenition","tag-pronunciation","tag-sinsear","tag-sinseir"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1560,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119\/revisions\/1560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}