{"id":7158,"date":"2015-09-30T20:01:00","date_gmt":"2015-09-30T20:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=7158"},"modified":"2019-10-24T10:04:22","modified_gmt":"2019-10-24T10:04:22","slug":"when-is-gh-pronounced-like-y-in-irish-words-think-gheobhaidh-and-gheocaigh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/when-is-gh-pronounced-like-y-in-irish-words-think-gheobhaidh-and-gheocaigh\/","title":{"rendered":"When Is “gh” pronounced like “y” in Irish words?\u00a0 Think ‘gheobhaidh’ and ‘gheocaigh’"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"I<\/a><\/p>\n

So, we finally finished that mionsraith<\/strong> about Irish words starting with non-traditional letters in the Irish alphabet (v, w, x, y, z) and even threw in the “-cs-” spelling for “x” (as in “inn\u00e9acs<\/strong>” or “tacsa\u00ed<\/strong>“) for good measure.\u00a0 We’ve previously noted that in Irish, “gh-” and “dh-” at the beginning of a word, often sound like “y,” so in today’s post, we’ll look at a few more examples of “gh-“, starting with one of my all-time favorite Irish words, gheobhaidh<\/strong>.\u00a0 “Dh-” will have to wait for another post.<\/p>\n

gheobhaidh<\/strong> [YOH-wee], will get<\/p>\n

How does that end up getting pronounced “YOH-wee”?\u00a0 And are there variations?<\/p>\n

Well, the “gh” is a lenited “g” (that accounts for the “h”) and it’s followed by the letter “e.”\u00a0 “E” is a “slender” vowel in Irish and that affects how the “gh” is pronounced.\u00a0 “Slender gh,” at least at the beginning of the word sounds like “y” (the “y” sound in “yodel” or “yoyo”)<\/p>\n

The “eo” is really just an “oh” sound in Irish, not like English “Leo” (as in the zodiac sign, etc.) and not like Latin “Deo.”\u00a0 There’s one major exception to this pronunciation of “eo” and it’s in a very widely used word, so I’ll mention it here: “seo<\/strong>” and the companion word “anseo<\/strong>.”\u00a0 For “seo<\/strong>” and “anseo<\/strong>,” \u00a0the “eo” sounds pretty much like “uh,” the vowel sound in “fun” or at the end of “sofa” (not like the “uh” German “Huhn<\/em>,” which I would transcribe roughly as “oo”).\u00a0 But normally, when we see “eo” in Irish, it’s pronounced “oh” and some additional examples are: beo, Eoin<\/strong> [OH-in], and T\u00f3iceo<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The “bh” in the middle of “gheobhaidh<\/strong>” is essentially a “w” sound (like the “w” in “flower” or “power”), or in some dialects an “f” sound.\u00a0 We also see this “w” sound in words like “abhainn<\/strong>” and “leabhar<\/strong>.”\u00a0 In fact, in 2009, there was a website and campaign called “leabharpower<\/strong>” (a clever rhyming title), to promote reading in Irish.\u00a0 I just checked and apparently the domain name expired, so I guess the activity was just for that one year.\u00a0 Eolas<\/strong> [OH-luss] ag<\/strong> duine ar bith faoi sin<\/strong>?\u00a0 I checked “leabharpower<\/strong>” with “.com,” which I believe was the original website, and that now brings up an Asian exercise site.\u00a0 For good measure, I also checked under the suffixes “.org” and “.ie,” and those pages are unavailable.\u00a0 Cad a tharla do “LeabharPower” — ba mhaith an smaoineamh \u00e9<\/strong>!\u00a0 At any rate, the “bh” in “gheobhaidh<\/strong>” is like English “w,” or … what was that about dialects and an “f” sound?<\/p>\n

gheobhaidh<\/strong> can also be pronounced “YUH-fuh” \u00a0or “YOW-uh” (that’s “ow” as in “now” or “cow”) or “YOH-uh.”\u00a0 \u00a0So the “-bh-” can be pronounced “f” and the vowel sounds be quite varied. \u00a0But the “gh-” remains some kind of “y” sound.<\/p>\n

The ending, “-aidh” is often pronounced “ee,” the “dh” being completely silent.\u00a0\u00a0 But as in the examples above, the final vowel sound can also be reduced to simply “uh” (again, as in “fun” or the “a” of “sofa”).<\/p>\n

So, altogether, we have “gheobhaidh<\/strong>” as “YOH-wee,” “YUH-fuh,” “YOW-uh,” or “YOH-uh.”\u00a0 Any more pronunciations out there?<\/p>\n

How about other words starting with “gh-“? \u00a0\u00a0Again, this blog is just dealing with “slender gh,” adjacent to “e” or “i.”<\/p>\n

an ghealach<\/strong> [un YAL-ukh], the moon<\/p>\n

an-ghea<\/strong>l [ahn-yal], very bright<\/p>\n

a gh\u00e9inte<\/strong> [uh YAYN-tchuh], his genes<\/p>\n

caird\u00edn an gheocaigh<\/strong> [… un YOHK-ee, or -ig in Munster Irish], the mummer’s accordion<\/p>\n

a ghiall<\/strong> [uh YEE-ul] his jaw, or, a completely different word, spelled the same, his hostage<\/p>\n

an ghirseach<\/strong> [un YIRzh<\/sup>-shukh], the young girl<\/p>\n

cluasa an ghiorria<\/strong> [… un YIR-ee-uh], the ears of the hare<\/p>\n

ag seinm an ghiot\u00e1ir<\/strong> [… un YIT-awrzh<\/sup>]<\/p>\n

Some names in direct address that have this “y” sound:<\/p>\n

“A Ghear\u00f3id!”<\/strong>\u00a0 “Garrett!”<\/p>\n

“A Ghearaird!”<\/strong> “Gerard!”<\/p>\n

“A Ghearailt!”<\/strong> “Gerald!”<\/p>\n

“A Ghear\u00f3id\u00edn!”<\/strong> “Geraldine!”<\/p>\n

Well, that’s an assortment anyway, and hopefully clarifies the pronunciation of “gheobhaidh<\/strong>,” which is a very very basic word in Irish.\u00a0 It means “will get,” and is one of the forms of the verb “faigh<\/strong>” (get).\u00a0 Do you remember some other key forms for this verb, like “I get,” “I got,” and “gotten”?\u00a0 Freagra\u00ed th\u00edos<\/strong>.\u00a0 We also looked at some other words that normally start with “g” and change to “gh” under certain grammatical circumstances, like possession or direct address.\u00a0\u00a0 “Gheobhaidh<\/strong>,” by the way, never shows up with a plain “g” in modern standard Irish.\u00a0 It’s a word that’s considered permanently lenited, like “cheana<\/strong>” or “dh\u00e1<\/strong>” (except when “dh\u00e1<\/strong>” unlenites to “d\u00e1<\/strong>” after “an<\/strong>,” ach sin \u00e1bhar blag eile<\/strong>).\u00a0 Hope you found this helpful .\u00a0 Agus t\u00e1 s\u00fail agam go gcuirfidh t\u00fa suim sa ch\u00e9ad bhlagmh\u00edr eile faoin bhfuaim seo (“gh” mar “y”)\u00a0.i. “dh” mar “y.” \u00a0Go dt\u00ed sin, SGF — R\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/strong><\/p>\n

Freagra\u00ed: faighim<\/strong> (I get), fuair m\u00e9<\/strong> (I got), faighte<\/strong> (gotten)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

(le\u00a0R\u00f3isl\u00edn) So, we finally finished that mionsraith about Irish words starting with non-traditional letters in the Irish alphabet (v, w, x, y, z) and even threw in the “-cs-” spelling for “x” (as in “inn\u00e9acs” or “tacsa\u00ed“) for good measure.\u00a0 We’ve previously noted that in Irish, “gh-” and “dh-” at the beginning of a word…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":7170,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3898],"tags":[289733,390562,96585,384220,514214,384234,514215,331915,514217,390521,390519,390520,514219,514220,5878,514216,514218],"class_list":["post-7158","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-irish-language","tag-da","tag-dh","tag-dha","tag-faigh","tag-faighim","tag-faighte","tag-fuaim","tag-fuair","tag-get","tag-gh","tag-gheobhaidh","tag-gheocaigh","tag-got","tag-gotten","tag-lenition","tag-unlenite","tag-will-get"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7158","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=7158"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11151,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7158\/revisions\/11151"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}