Pronouncing and reading Irish

teacher3003

Hi,
this is really embarrassing but I need help with how to pronounce words in Irish. I find if very difficult with á, a etc. and 90% of the time I get the pronunciation wrong!

Thanks

deise go deo

á is an 'aw' sound
é is an 'a' as in hay
í is an 'e' is in he
ú is an 'oo' sound
ó is an 'oh' sound.

Su Campu

deise go deo wrote: »

á is an 'aw' sound
é is an 'a' as in hay
í is an 'e' is in he
ú is an 'oo' sound
ó is an 'oh' sound.

Unless you're in Donegal!

teacher3003

Thanks and how about a,e,i,o and u without the fada?

QUOTE=deise go deo;75716290]á is an 'aw' sound
é is an 'a' as in hay
í is an 'e' is in he
ú is an 'oo' sound
ó is an 'oh' sound.[/QUOTE]

Su Campu

teacher3003 wrote: »

Thanks and how about a,e,i,o and u without the fada?

a = between cat and dot
e = like e in get
i = like i in bit
o = like o in pot
u = like a strong Irish accent would pronounce "pub" or "Dublin". No real "oo" sound, more like a grunt!

implausible

a = "ah" e.g. ba mhaith liom
e = "eh" e.g. in aice le mo chara
i = "ih" e.g. Bhí mé i mo shuí
o = "uh" e.g. mo gheansaí
u = "uh" e.g. ag cur allais

Of course, there are more sounds than this, made up of combinations of vowels

*Exceptions of course for Donegal

Enkidu

Basically, using Munster:
á = aw in thaw
é = the ay in stay
í = ee in sheep
ó = like the ow in tow, but with your lips more rounded
ú = ew in chew, but longer.

ia = í followed by a, ee-ah in English.
ua = ú followed by a, basically ew-ah in English.
ao = é
aoi = í

Other vowel combinations are just one vowel, for example:
oi = i

It's the consonants that are hard.

An gal gréine

Su Campu wrote: »

Unless you're in Donegal!

í ó ú would be the same in Donegal as elsewhere.
á would certainly sound different

deirdremf

deise go deo wrote: »

á is an 'aw' sound
é is an 'a' as in hay
í is an 'e' is in he
ú is an 'oo' sound
ó is an 'oh' sound.

Enkidu wrote: »

Basically, using Munster:
á = aw in thaw
é = the ay in stay
í = ee in sheep
ó = like the ow in tow, but with your lips more rounded
ú = ew in chew, but longer.

Actually, if you follow those rules, you will still probably not get the right sounds for é, ó or ú.
The reason for this is that AY, OW and EW in English are usually dipthongs.

If you listen carefully to the word
STAY, you will hear the vowel as EH-EE.
TOW, you will hear the vowel as OH-OO
CHEW, you will hear the vowel as eh-OO or yOO

Country people in Ireland used to use the Irish vowels when speaking English, but that is disappearing quickly from our speech. Education, television and pop culture are bringing our speech ever closer to the "norm" - the only problem here is that there are two norms, US and RP, which leves us with a bit of leeway.

So back to those vowels:
IF you know French, Spanish or Italian WELL, it should be easy for you to get the right sounds, as their E, O and U seem fairly close to é, ó and ú - but shorter.
Or try German EH, OH and UH.

Otherwise, try using these:
é - EHEH
ó - OHOH
ú - OO (as in fOOl; not as in look)

I hope that is of some help!!!

Enkidu

deirdremf wrote: »

Country people in Ireland used to use the Irish vowels when speaking English, but that is disappearing quickly from our speech.

I still do, didn't realise what I was doing until you pointed it out!

deirdremf

Enkidu wrote: »

I still do, didn't realise what I was doing until you pointed it out!

Most people aren't aware of this, beginning with our primary school teachers, who make no effort at teaching the phonetics of Irish, even in Gaelscoileanna. The same goes for most Irish teachers in secondary schools.
It was Spanish students of mine learning English who taught me about English vowels being dipthongs.
They were beginners, and when I gave them the alphabet in English, I was surprised to see that they had written EI beside A to show the pronunciation of the letter,
AI for I, OU for O and IU for U.
Later, I came across the same thing in my readings on phonetics and linguistics, but that was only building on what I then knew.

mar a deirtear, is fánach an áit a gheofá gliomach ....

teacher3003

Oh Im sorry this is getting very confusing, everyone seems to be saying a different sound for the letters : (

deirdremf

teacher3003 wrote: »

Oh Im sorry this is getting very confusing, everyone seems to be saying a different sound for the letters : (

Sorry about that, but as you have seen, it's not really simple, in part because we don't know what your normal pronunciation is - there are lots of different accents in Ireland, and the main differences between them are the vowel sounds.

If we knew where you are from (approximately), and whether you have a country/town/working class/middle class accent, it would give us some clues to work with.

So: if you could tell us how you would define your own accent, we could probably work from there!

teacher3003

Thanks, Im from Clare but Im living in Dublin but I assume i stick with Munster Irish? Is there a big difference between the two? Thanks a million

deirdremf

teacher3003 wrote: »

Thanks, Im from Clare but Im living in Dublin but I assume i stick with Munster Irish? Is there a big difference between the two? Thanks a million

If you're from Clare, and more particularly if you have a more traditional Clare accent, your pronunciation of AY in the word STAY is probably grand for é
your pronunciation of OW in the word LOWis probably grand for ó
your pronunciation of EW in the word CHEW is probably grand for ú

EE = í
AW = á

Sorry for any confusion caused!

Enkidu

teacher3003 wrote: »

Thanks, Im from Clare but Im living in Dublin but I assume i stick with Munster Irish? Is there a big difference between the two? Thanks a million

Between what two? Clare Irish and general Munster Irish?

There's a few others things to know if you want to stick to Munster Irish. I'll post them if you want to know.

By the way, I assume you a teacher, fair play for going out and trying to find the real pronunciation. My teachers in school didn't, so without my granny (who was a native speaker), I wouldn't have learned the pronunciation as a little fella.

Enkidu

deirdremf wrote: »

Most people aren't aware of this, beginning with our primary school teachers, who make no effort at teaching the phonetics of Irish, even in Gaelscoileanna. The same goes for most Irish teachers in secondary schools.

I'm actually still really surprised, I'd no idea I'd been using Irish vowel sounds in English my whole life!

teacher3003

Thanks a million for that. How about a,o,u,i and e without the fada? Thanks again

deirdremf

teacher3003 wrote: »

Thanks a million for that. How about a,o,u,i and e without the fada? Thanks again

u and o are pronounced the same in Munster & Connacht: for instance, the words LOCH and LUCH are pronounced the same (outside Ulster). Much the same sound as the U in RUT or BUT

e on its own is only written at the end of a word. It is similar to the vowel in "huh".
a at the end of a word is the same as e

a in other situations would be similar to the vowel in "mop"

i is like the I in BIT

ei is pronounced like the e in "met"
ai and ea are pronounced like the a in "hat".

These are general rules, and do not all apply to Ulster/Donegal pronunciation which is a little different.
If you want better, genuine information, get yourself the book "Learning Irish" by Mícheál Ó Siadhail, and listen to the recordings that go with the first lesson, where he goes through the sounds of the Irish language.

Best of luck!!!

Su Campu

One thing that struck me during Michael D's recent speeches was how his pronunciation is not entirely correct. His "ch" is non-guttural, more like a "k". Listen to him the next time. "Uktaráin"

I know he's a proud fluent speaker, but I would have thought that coming from Galway he would have a better standard of pronunciation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AI3N-Tat81E

uch

Have a look here

http://angaelmagazine.com/pronunciation/introduction.htm

Tigerandahalf

Pronunciation is very important. Many people find it hard to speak a language if they don't have a good grasp of the phonetics of it.
Irish is quite tough in this area.
As has been said the different dialects cause a lot of confusion and there are no hard and fast rules.
e.g. mh and bh ...these two sounds are used in Irish instead of w and v. However, depending on the area you live in, they will be pronounced differently.
mo mháthair (my mother) ...some pronounce it as 'mo wáthair' whereas others will pronounce it as 'mo váthair'.