{"id":8574,"date":"2016-11-12T19:54:52","date_gmt":"2016-11-12T19:54:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=8574"},"modified":"2016-11-29T18:37:35","modified_gmt":"2016-11-29T18:37:35","slug":"how-to-pronounce-irish-words-with-the-leas-prefix-cuidpart-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/how-to-pronounce-irish-words-with-the-leas-prefix-cuidpart-1\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Pronounce Irish Words with the ‘Leas-‘ Prefix (Cuid\/Part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"C\u00e9<\/a>

C\u00e9 h\u00ed an bhean sa teallach? An \u00ed leasmh\u00e1thair Luaithr\u00edona \u00ed? N\u00ed h\u00ed, is \u00ed m\u00e1thair bhaist\u00ed Luaithr\u00edona \u00ed. (https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Cinderella_-_Project_Gutenberg_etext_19993.jpg, picti\u00far beag\u00e1in\u00edn bearrtha)<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Leasainm … Leas-r\u00ed … Leas-ardeaglais<\/strong> … all fairly straight-forward in pronunci-ation, all things consider-ed.\u00a0 But what hap-pens to the “m” in “leas-mham\u00f3<\/strong>” or “leas-mh\u00e1thair<\/strong>” or the “c” in “leas-chod\u00e1n<\/strong>” or “leaschon-sal<\/strong>“?\u00a0 Why don’t the “s’s” of “leas-seanathair<\/strong>” and “leas-seanmh\u00e1thair<\/strong>” and “leas-seansail\u00e9ir<\/strong>” change at all?\u00a0 And what about “leis-chliamhain<\/strong>” and the presumably possible “leasbhanchliamhain<\/strong>” as discussed in the most recent blogpost?<\/p>\n

We’ll look at several aspects of pronunciation in this blogpost:\u00a0 a) “leas-“<\/strong> the prefix itself (for “step-“),\u00a0 b) “leas-“<\/strong> before vowels (easy peasy!), c) “leas-“<\/strong> before leniteable consonants (like “m” or “c”), d) “leas-“<\/strong> before leniteable consonants that don’t lenite after “leas-“<\/strong> (Yeah, I know, tautology alert — but that really does describe the situation), e) “leas-“<\/strong> before non-leniteable consonants (like “r,” also easy peasy, or as we say in Irish, “\u00e9asca p\u00e9asca<\/strong>“), and finally, f) “leas-<\/strong>” occasionally changing to “leis-<\/strong>,” at least in earlier forms of Irish.<\/p>\n

Also, we’ll look at the slight difference in the stress patterns in words where “leas-<\/strong>” is a prefix as opposed to words that happen to have “leas<\/strong>” in them as a core element.<\/p>\n

a)) \u00a0“leas-“<\/strong> itself: straightforward enough. The “L” is slender, so it’s like the “ll” of English “million” or “billion,” or the Irish “leaba<\/strong>” or “Liam<\/strong>.” This is indicated in the pronunciation guide with a superscript “y” [ly<\/sup>].\u00a0 It rhymes with Irish ‘deas<\/strong>” and “cleas<\/strong>,” with the vowel sound like the English “lass” or “Lassie!” \u00a0Admittedly, “Lassie” as the dog’s name tends to sound more like “Laaa-seee”! when a desperate Timmy or Mrs. Martin calls her.\u00a0 \u00a0But that aspect of language (special intonation for calling people or animals from afar) will have to have a separate blogpost some day.<\/p>\n

For newcomers to Irish, the “ea” vowel combination is almost always pronounced as in US English “bat,” “cat,” or “mat.”\u00a0 The one main exception is “beag<\/strong>” (small, little) where the word sounds more like “beg” (explaining why the place name “Na Cealla Beag<\/strong>a” ends up anglicized as “Killybegs” and Brian Friel’s fictitious “Ballybeg” comes from a hypothetical “Baile Beag<\/strong>” — note that we have a “beg” sound here, not a “bag” sound)<\/p>\n

b)) “leas-<\/strong>” before vowels: leasainm, leas-ardeaglais, leasathair, leas-ionada\u00ed, leasuachtar\u00e1n<\/strong> (or hyphenated as “Leas-Uachtar\u00e1n<\/strong>” in an actual title, like “An Leas-Uachtar\u00e1n Joe Biden<\/strong>“). No real issue here except to remember that the prefix is also stressed in these compound words, so we have:<\/p>\n

leasainm<\/strong> [Ly<\/sup>ASS-AN-yim; notice the extra “nyi” sound!]<\/p>\n

leas-ardeaglais<\/strong> [Ly<\/sup>ASS-ARrr<\/sup>D-AG-lish]<\/p>\n

leasathair<\/strong> [Ly<\/sup>ASS-AH-hirzh<\/sup>]<\/p>\n

leas-ionada\u00ed<\/strong> [Ly<\/sup>ASS-UN-ud-ee]<\/p>\n

leasuachtar\u00e1n<\/strong> [Ly<\/sup>ASS-OO-ukh-tur-awn]<\/p>\n

You might remember the translations from previously, but just in case, they’re in the n\u00f3ta\u00ed, th\u00edos<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

c)) “leas-<\/strong>” before “m” or “c” (lenition): the “mh” in today’s example is pronounced “w” or “v” and the “ch” is pronounced like the “ch” in German “Buch<\/em>” or Welsh “bach<\/em>” or Irish “c\u00f3ta Ch\u00e1it<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

leasmh\u00e1thair<\/strong> [Ly<\/sup>ASS-WAW-hirzh <\/sup>or Ly<\/sup>ASS-VAW-hirzh<\/sup>]<\/p>\n

leasmham\u00f3<\/strong> [Ly<\/sup>ASS-WAHM-oh or Ly<\/sup>ASS-VAHM-oh]<\/p>\n

For the next two examples, our eyes may have a tendency to play tricks on us, at least if we’re used to seeing words like “Mensch” or “Kitsch,” which have been adopted into English, or actual German words like “Fleisch<\/em>” or “Deutsch<\/em>.”\u00a0 Those “SCH’s” have a “sh” sound like English “fish” or “wish.” In the following Irish examples, the “s” is part of the prefix and the “ch-” is totally separate.<\/p>\n

leaschod\u00e1n<\/strong> [Ly<\/sup>ASS-KHOD-awn], from “leas-<\/strong>” + “cod\u00e1n<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

leaschonsal<\/strong> Ly<\/sup>ASS-KHON-sul], from “leas-<\/strong>” + “consal<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

In theory, this principle should also apply to the consonants “b,” “f,” “g,” “p” if they follow the prefix “leas-<\/strong>” but so far no such examples have occurred in this recent set of blogposts.\u00a0 By the way, these pronunciation rules aren’t unique to the prefix “leas-<\/strong>” (cf. drochbhlas, drochbholadh, seanfhear, seanphinsean, srl.<\/strong>, which use the prefixes “droch-<\/strong>” and “sean-<\/strong>” and also cause lenition)<\/p>\n

Well, we’re about halfway through our list, and already out of space, so the remaining few examples (sections d, e, and f) will have to wait for the next blogpost.\u00a0 Till then, happy leniting!\u00a0 SGF — R\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/strong><\/p>\n

PS: If you want to check out a version of Cinderella in easy Irish, Luaithr\u00edona<\/em><\/strong>, try the translation by M\u00e1ir\u00e9ad N\u00ed Ghr\u00e1da (An G\u00fam, eagr\u00e1n nua<\/strong>, 2007, ISBN 978-1-85791-675-1)<\/p>\n

Aistri\u00fach\u00e1in<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gr\u00fapa B: leasainm<\/strong>, nickname; leas-ardeaglais<\/strong>, pro-cathedral; leasathair<\/strong>, stepfather; leas-ionada\u00ed<\/strong>, vice-regent; leasuachtar\u00e1n<\/strong>, vice-president<\/p>\n

Gr\u00fapa C: leasmh\u00e1thair<\/strong>, stepmother; leasmham\u00f3<\/strong>, stepgrandma; leaschod\u00e1n<\/strong>, improper fraction; leaschonsal<\/strong>, vice-consul<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn) Leasainm … Leas-r\u00ed … Leas-ardeaglais … all fairly straight-forward in pronunci-ation, all things consider-ed.\u00a0 But what hap-pens to the “m” in “leas-mham\u00f3” or “leas-mh\u00e1thair” or the “c” in “leas-chod\u00e1n” or “leaschon-sal“?\u00a0 Why don’t the “s’s” of “leas-seanathair” and “leas-seanmh\u00e1thair” and “leas-seansail\u00e9ir” change at all?\u00a0 And what about “leis-chliamhain” and the presumably possible “leasbhanchliamhain”…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":8575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3898],"tags":[8961,5141,474612,460296,6144,2418,474615,474619,474618],"class_list":["post-8574","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-irish-language","tag-cinderella","tag-father","tag-leas","tag-luaithriona","tag-mother","tag-prefix","tag-step","tag-stepfather","tag-stepmother"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8574","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=8574"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8574\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8608,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8574\/revisions\/8608"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}