{"id":4769,"date":"2013-12-31T21:10:35","date_gmt":"2013-12-31T21:10:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=4769"},"modified":"2015-11-03T16:50:49","modified_gmt":"2015-11-03T16:50:49","slug":"how-to-say-2014-in-irish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/how-to-say-2014-in-irish\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Say ‘2014’ in Irish"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Dh\u00e1 mh\u00edle is a ceathair d\u00e9ag.<\/strong>\u00a0 Piece o’ cake, right?\u00a0 Well, maybe, but for anyone new to the language, here is a rough pronunciation guide: [\u03b3aw VEEL-yuh iss uh KYA-hirzh djayg]. \u00a0[Pointe l\u00e9irithe, 4 Ean\u00e1ir 2014: n\u00ed an litir “y” at\u00e1 i gceist i <\/b>“\u03b3aw” ach an tsiombail teangeola\u00edochta “\u03b3” .i. an tsiombail <\/b>“gamma” a \u00fas\u00e1idtear don bhfuaim seo san Aib\u00edtir\u00a0Idirn\u00e1isi\u00fanta Foghra\u00edochta; n\u00edl aon litir san Aib\u00edtir\u00a0R\u00f3mh\u00e1nach a thaispe\u00e1nann an fhuaim seo. \u00a0Amanna scr\u00edobhann daoine <\/b>“gh” mar threoir gharbh don fhuaim seo. \u00a0T\u00e1 n\u00edos m\u00f3 eolais faoin bhfuaim sna hailt a leanas.]<\/b>\u00a0<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>

An Bhliain \u00dar (Public domain image by Lilla Frerichs, publicdomainpictures.net, nasc ioml\u00e1n ag deireadh an bhlag)<\/p><\/div>\n

Taken word by word, we have:<\/span><\/p>\n

dh\u00e1<\/strong> [\u03b3aw], two.\u00a0 The “gamma” symbol in the pronunciation guide is borrowed from Greek and represents a sound not found in English.\u00a0 Nor is it in the European languages most typically taught in the US, at least not in the typical high school or freshman university classes.\u00a0 I’ve discussed this sound in various previous blogs (nasc th\u00edos<\/strong>) and you can hear it on the sound clip at http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Voiced_velar_fricative<\/a>.\u00a0 If you listen to that sound clip, be aware that the speaker says the sound twice, first on its own and then with an “uh” sound before it.\u00a0 So this is our old friend, the voiced velar fricative, the sound you need in Irish to say “two goats” (dh\u00e1 ghabhar<\/strong>), \u00a0“the Irish language” (An Ghaeilge<\/strong>), and “I love you” (Mo ghr\u00e1 th\u00fa<\/strong>), which is literally “you (are) my love.”\u00a0 You also need it to talk to anyone named Gr\u00e1inne<\/strong> or Gobnait<\/strong> or D\u00f3nal<\/strong> in direct address (a Ghr\u00e1inne!, a Ghobnait!, a Dh\u00f3nail!<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

The sound does exist in various European languages (Portuguese, Basque, Dutch, West Frisian, etc.) and in some cases, in regional variations of some of “major” ones (Austrian German, and, I’ve been told, Mexican Spanish, with the “guttural” pronunciation of “agua<\/em>“).\u00a0 It’s also in a variety of languages around the world, Arabic, Yemenite Hebrew, Swahili, Vietnamese, if that helps, and extra-terrestrially, also, in Klingon.<\/p>\n

The sound is similar to the guttural “ch” of “chutzpah,” “challah,” and German “Buch<\/em>.”\u00a0 But it’s lower down in the throat and sets up a lot of vibration of the vocal cords.<\/p>\n

It may take practice to get the sound, but it is a very fundamental one in Irish.\u00a0 Basically, every word that normally begins with “da-,” “do-,” or “du-” or “ga-,” “go-,” or “gu-” may have the “dh” or “gh” variant, which has the “voiced velar fricative” pronunciation.<\/p>\n

At any rate, onward to the next word in our phrase:<\/p>\n

mh\u00edle<\/strong> [VEEL-yuh], lenited form of “m\u00edle<\/strong> ” (thousand).\u00a0 Here the sounds are familiar from English, although the spelling of the “v” sound might be surprising to newcomers.\u00a0 The “mh” is pronounced “v,” since it is “softened” (lenited).\u00a0 The long “i” (i-fada) is an “ee” sound, like “beat” or “beet.”\u00a0 The “l” is slender, approximating the “l” of “million.”\u00a0 The final “e” is pronounced but unstressed, so it’s basically “uh.”<\/p>\n

is<\/strong> [iss, breaking the standing pronunciation rule for “is” as found in “feis<\/strong>” [fesh], for example; here it’s “broad,” so it sounds like the “s” of English “hiss” or “kiss.”]\u00a0 This “is<\/strong>” isn’t the verb “is<\/strong>.”\u00a0 It’s a shortened form of “agus<\/strong>” (and), which explains the s-sound.<\/p>\n

a<\/strong> [uh], no meaning as such, this is the “numerical particle,” which precedes numbers used “independently”<\/p>\n

ceathair<\/strong> [KYA-hirzh], four.\u00a0 The initial “c,” transcribed as “ky,” is like the “c” in “cute” or the “ky” “Tokyo, ” not like the “c” in “cool” or “coot” (or “bandicoot”). \u00a0The “r” sound, indicated by “rzh” has a buzzing, palatalized quality, as might be found in Czech in the name “Ji\u0159\u00ed<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

d\u00e9ag<\/strong> [djayg], teen, based on the number “deich<\/strong>” (ten).\u00a0 In Irish, the numbers for the teens consist of two separate words, with “d\u00e9ag<\/strong>” for the “teen” element (a haon d\u00e9ag, a naoi d\u00e9ag, srl.<\/strong>).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Bhuel, sin \u00e9.\u00a0 Dh\u00e1 mh\u00edle is a ceathair d\u00e9ag<\/strong>.\u00a0 And I guess we’ll have that pattern to work with for many years to come.<\/p>\n

Though come to think of it, if we try to sing Zager and Evans 1969 hit song, “In The Year 2525 (Exordium and Terminus), we could resort to the “twenty-twenty” type of pronunciation: sa bhliain a fiche c\u00faig a fiche c\u00faig<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

So, “dh\u00e1 mh\u00edle is a ceathair d\u00e9ag sona dhuit,”<\/strong> and I hope this blog helped with some of the pronunciation issues.\u00a0 SGF – R\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nasc<\/strong>: <\/span>https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/saying-i-love-you-in-irish\/<\/a> (Saying ‘I Love You’ in Irish and Minding Your Velar Fricatives, posted 9 Deireadh F\u00f3mhair 2011<\/strong>)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Nasc ioml\u00e1n don phictiur:<\/strong>\u00a0http:\/\/www.publicdomainpictures.net\/view-image.php?image=65942&picture=2014-stars-green<\/a>25<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn) Dh\u00e1 mh\u00edle is a ceathair d\u00e9ag.\u00a0 Piece o’ cake, right?\u00a0 Well, maybe, but for anyone new to the language, here is a rough pronunciation guide: [\u03b3aw VEEL-yuh iss uh KYA-hirzh djayg]. \u00a0[Pointe l\u00e9irithe, 4 Ean\u00e1ir 2014: n\u00ed an litir “y” at\u00e1 i gceist i “\u03b3aw” ach an tsiombail teangeola\u00edochta “\u03b3” .i. an tsiombail…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":4775,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3898],"tags":[1860,306507,7868,4488,4609,111225,4676,4921,96585,292916,306503,5322,10697,5663,5878,390581,6102,11,306504,7591,7211,30166],"class_list":["post-4769","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-irish-language","tag-1860","tag-306507","tag-and","tag-buch","tag-ceathair","tag-challah","tag-chutzpah","tag-deag","tag-dha","tag-four","tag-fourteen","tag-gamma","tag-international-phonetic-alphabet","tag-ipa","tag-lenition","tag-mhile","tag-mile","tag-pronunciation","tag-teen","tag-thousand","tag-two","tag-voiced-velar-fricative"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4769","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=4769"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7247,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4769\/revisions\/7247"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}