{"id":324,"date":"2010-07-27T21:29:43","date_gmt":"2010-07-27T21:29:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=324"},"modified":"2015-09-18T09:50:03","modified_gmt":"2015-09-18T09:50:03","slug":"treoir-don-treoir-a-guide-to-the-guide-for-pronunciation-cuid-a-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/treoir-don-treoir-a-guide-to-the-guide-for-pronunciation-cuid-a-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Treoir don Treoir: A Guide to the Guide (for Pronunciation), Cuid a 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

(le\u00a0R\u00f3isl\u00edn)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Treoir don treoir, an ea?<\/strong>\u00a0 Well, here\u2019s more!<\/p>\n

The most accurate way to transcribe the sound of the broad Irish \u201cgh,\u201d as in \u201cgharbh,<\/strong>\u201d is by using the Greek gamma symbol, \u03b3. It looks a little like a \u201cv\u201d with an extra loop at the bottom. It represents the voiced velar fricative<\/em>, a sound that is not in English nor in the standard versions of most of the other languages that I sometimes refer to for samples of this sound\u2019s compatriot, the voiceless velar fricative<\/em> (spelled \u201cch\u201d in Irish, as in \u201cach<\/strong>\u201d or \u201coch<\/strong>\u201d).\u00a0 Irish is lucky enough to have both the voiced and voiceless versions of this sound but I\u2019ll deal with the voiceless one in another blog.<\/p>\n

I did say \u201cstandard versions\u201d for a reason, by the way.\u00a0 The sound is in some pronunciations of Spanish and German.\u00a0 It\u2019s just not part of the way those languages are typically taught, at least in American classrooms.\u00a0 And I say that based on several years of classroom experience for both, as a student, plus intermittent perusal of pronunciation guides to those and other languages.\u00a0 I actually love to read pronunciation guides for all kinds of languages, and the more removed from my linguistic comfort zone (Irish), the better.\u00a0 But I\u2019ve never found a shortcut or easy path for the \u201cgh\u201d sound of \u201cgharbh<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, cutting back to the chase, which I sometimes remind myself to do, what are the non-standard German and Spanish examples of the voiced velar fricative?\u00a0 For German, \u201csagen<\/em>\u201d pronounced not with the usual \u201cg\u201d but with a rumbling guttural sound that seems to want to stay in the throat.\u00a0 Subjectively described, I hear it as a bit softer and less blunt than the more familiar voiceless velar fricative (as in German \u201cAchtung<\/em>\u201d or \u201cBuch<\/em>\u201d).\u00a0 For Spanish, the classic example is \u201cagua<\/em>,\u201d but again not the typical textbook variety, but with that same soft rumbling guttural sound.\u00a0 I also see online this sound indicated for the \u201cg\u201d in the Catalan pronunciation of \u201cboligraf<\/em> \u201c(pen) \u2013 if that helps.<\/p>\n

\u201cGuttural,\u201d by the way, in this context has nothing to do with g\u00e1it\u00e9ir<\/strong>, silte\u00e1in<\/strong>, or claiseanna<\/strong> (types of roof or road gutters), but rather comes from the Latin \u201cguttur<\/em>\u201d (throat).<\/p>\n

Many non-IPA pronunciation guides for Irish slough over the broad \u201cgh\u201d sound, partly because the actual phonetic symbol is a bit difficult to type and partly because it\u2019s a bit difficult to explain if it\u2019s not in the student\u2019s native language.\u00a0 I\u2019ve seen it described as simply an \u201ch\u201d sound, which might be true if you have a really sore throat and can\u2019t rumble your vocal cords.\u00a0 Or I\u2019ve seen it written as it\u2019s actually spelled in Irish (\u201cdh\u201d or \u201cgh\u201d), which makes some sense, but I\u2019m trying to make my guide consistent and not a hybrid of actual Irish spellings and phoneticized spellings.<\/p>\n

If you go back and look at the phrase that triggered all this rangalam<\/strong>, \u201ctreoir gharbh d\u2019fhuaimni\u00fa na Gaeilge\u201d <\/strong>(rough guide to the pronunciation of Irish), the word \u201cgharbh<\/strong>\u201d is the one we\u2019re concerned with here.\u00a0 It\u2019s transcribed as [\u03b3AHR-uv], which tells us that the \u201cg\u201d is silent.<\/p>\n

So how do you pronounce this sound, if you don\u2019t know the dialectal German or Spanish examples or Catalan, Hebrew or Arabic, where the sound also occurs?\u00a0 As I said above, it\u2019s sort of like the voiceless velar fricative (the German \u201cBuch<\/em>\u201d sound), but, in my view softer and not as abrupt.\u00a0 I recommend listening to native speakers whenever possible, for example on Raidi\u00f3 na Gaeltachta (www.rnag.ie<\/a>). \u00a0Even if you can\u2019t understand everything they\u2019re saying, listen for the sounds that aren\u2019t in English!<\/p>\n

The good news?\u00a0 Once you\u2019ve learned this sound, you can also apply it to the broad Irish \u201cdh,\u201d since they\u2019re identical. \u00a0So here are some examples, first with broad \u201cgh\u201d then with broad \u201cdh\u201d:<\/p>\n

gharbh<\/strong> [\u03b3AHR-uv], rough, the feminine form, from \u201cgarbh<\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0 Note that there\u2019s also an unstressed vowel sound inserted, giving us the second syllable, \u201c-uv.\u201d<\/p>\n

an Ghaeilge<\/strong> [un \u03b3AYL-ig-yeh], the Irish language<\/p>\n

a Ghr\u00e1inne<\/strong>! [uh \u03b3RAWN-yeh] Gr\u00e1inne! (in direct address)<\/p>\n

Mo ghairm th\u00fa<\/strong>! [muh \u03b3ARzh<\/sup>-im hoo] Bravo! (lit. my acclaim (on) you)<\/p>\n

Mo ghr\u00e1 th\u00fa<\/strong>! [muh \u03b3raw hoo], I love you!<\/p>\n

And now some words with the same sound, but spelled with broad \u201cdh\u201d:<\/p>\n

b\u00f3 dhonn<\/strong> [boh \u03b3un], a brown cow (“dhonn”<\/strong> is the feminine form of \u201cdonn<\/strong>\u201d)<\/p>\n

A dhuine uasail<\/strong>! [uh \u03b3IN-yeh OO-uss-il], Sir! (in direct address)<\/p>\n

A dhaoine uaisle<\/strong>! [uh \u03b3EEN-yeh OO-ish-leh], Noble people! (in direct address, used for \u201cLadies and Gentlemen\u201d).\u00a0 This phrase was used internationally to introduce Riverdance performances.<\/p>\n

Nuala N\u00ed Dhomhnaill<\/strong> [NOO-uh-luh nee \u03b3OH-nil]; this is the name of\u00a0a leading Irish\u00a0poet, who uses the feminine form of her surname, \u00d3 Domhnaill<\/strong>, as would be traditional in the Gaeltacht and among Irish speakers<\/p>\n

Watch out for times when the broad \u201cdh\u201d or \u201cgh\u201d is silent, like \u201cfoghlaim<\/strong>\u201d [FOH-lim} or \u201cfadhb<\/strong>\u201d [faib].\u00a0 Good news?\u00a0 This will be in the middle or end of a word, not at the beginning.\u00a0 And please remember, this treoir don treoir <\/strong>is meant to explain the symbols I use, not every possible sound in Irish.<\/p>\n

Why spell the same sound several different ways as Irish does with these \u201cgh\u2019s\u201d and \u201cdh\u2019s\u201d?\u00a0 It\u2019s not really a very answerable question, but English does it all the time too (read\/reed, laugh\/gaff, ptar<\/span>migan\/tar<\/span>mac, Google\/googol, and, if you want to get really obscure, chthon<\/span>ic\/thon<\/span>g).\u00a0 Word history comes into play, as well as linguistic borrowings and coinages, and the simple fact that language was created over thousands of years, not by a committee that could check itself for overlaps.<\/p>\n

And for good measure, and to wrap up, a phrase with both the voiceless [kh] and voiced [\u03b3] velar fricative:<\/p>\n

o\u00edche dhorcha<\/strong> [EE-hy<\/sup>eh \u03b3OR-uh-khuh], a dark night, using the form \u201cdhorcha<\/strong>\u201d (instead of \u201cdorcha<\/strong>\u201d), since o\u00edche<\/strong> is feminine\u00a0 Like \u201cgharbh<\/strong>,\u201d \u201cdhorcha<\/strong>\u201d is the feminine form of the adjective.\u00a0 Unlike your Romance languages, which typically adjust the vowel at the end of an adjective to show it\u2019s feminine, Irish usually makes the change at the beginning of the word.<\/p>\n

If this blog seems a bit fricative-heavy, well, so be it.\u00a0 The two velar fricatives are quite important in Irish.\u00a0 And for those of you whose native language is English, you\u2019ve been using fricatives all your life, just not the velar types in most cases (with Scots and some Northern English among the exceptions).\u00a0 The sounds \u201cf,\u201d \u201cv,\u201d \u201cs,\u201d \u201cz,\u201d and both of the \u201cth\u2019s\u201d in English are all fricatives.\u00a0 And there are some blessings in life \u2013 learners of Welsh are faced with the voiceless alveolar\/coronal lateral fricative<\/em>, aka the \u201cbelted l.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s spelled \u201cll,\u201d or in caps, \u201cLl.\u201d\u00a0 You\u2019ve likely seen it all over the Welsh map (Llandudno<\/em>, Llanelli,<\/em> Llanfair P-G<\/em>, etc.) and it almost made it to the U.S., as in Landover, MD (from \u201cLlanofer<\/em>\u201d) and Lampeter, PA (from \u201cLlanbedr<\/em>\u201d).\u00a0\u00a0 So, as the Irish saying may sum it up, \u201cIs bu\u00ed le bocht an beag\u00e1n<\/strong>\u201d (We must be grateful for tender mercies). \u00a0Sl\u00e1n go f\u00f3ill–R\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(le\u00a0R\u00f3isl\u00edn) Treoir don treoir, an ea?\u00a0 Well, here\u2019s more! The most accurate way to transcribe the sound of the broad Irish \u201cgh,\u201d as in \u201cgharbh,\u201d is by using the Greek gamma symbol, \u03b3. It looks a little like a \u201cv\u201d with an extra loop at the bottom. It represents the voiced velar fricative, a sound…<\/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":[3898,1],"tags":[390432,376760,111216,207457,111218,111219],"class_list":["post-324","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-irish-language","category-uncategorized","tag-dhorcha","tag-dorcha","tag-fricative","tag-velar","tag-voiced","tag-voiceless"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324","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=324"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7104,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324\/revisions\/7104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}