Pronunciation question "Teaglach" If the dipthong "ea" sounds like "a", shouldn't this word sound like "tag-lach"? According to Teanglann.ie, the following dialects pronounce it like this: Ulster-

Joseph

Pronunciation question "Teaglach" If the dipthong "ea" sounds like "a", shouldn't this word sound like "tag-lach"? According to Teanglann.ie, the following dialects pronounce it like this: Ulster- "chai-la" Connacht- "tai-luch" Munster- "tai-loch" Those are the sounds I heard. So why is it pronounced like that? and why is the G silent? "a" is broad so the G should sound like g right?

Nov 12, 2015 5:05 PM

Corrections · 5

Actually, the correct spelling is "teaghlach", with "gh" rather than a simple "g" (you got the spelling right in your previous Notebook entry). That "h" makes all the difference.

Just a quick aside before I answer your question: technically speaking, "ea" in Irish isn't a diphthong, as diphthong refers to two adjacent vowel <em>sounds</em> in the same syllable. What you have here is a digraph, i.e. two <em>letters</em> used to represent a single sound, namely /a/. Here the written "e" serves to show that the preceding consonant is slender; it's not pronounced as such, but without it the consonant would be next to an "a" and therefore be broad.

In Irish it's very important to distinguish between normal consonants and their lenited counterparts, which are written with an "h" after them: bh, ch, dh, fh, etc. The lenited consonants have a weaker pronounciation, the air being allowed to flow through the mouth, with audible friction, rather than being blocked and then released by the tongue or lips. For example, to pronounce "gh", prepare to articulate a /g/ sound, but instead of closing off the airstream with your tongue, open the passage very slightly to let the air pass through.

Now, the lenited consonants "dh", "gh", "bh" and "mh" have pronunciations which are very close to being vowel-like -- the flow of air through the mouth is obstructed very little as they are articulated. For this reason, when they occur after or between vowels they very often combine with the vowel to create a diphthong. So /a/ + gh sounds like /ai/, as you correctly heard on teanglann.ie. (/a/ + dh has the same pronunciation; similarly /a/ + bh/mh sounds like /au/, listen to "cabhlach", for example).

November 14, 2015

Just a quick explanation of what Sparky means by "strong D", in case you were wondering: it's a D sound pronounced with the tip of the tongue pressed against the front teeth. It sounds a bit "thicker" than an English D, in which the tongue touches the bony ridge behind the teeth (the alveolar ridge) rather than the teeth. In fact the English D sound doesn't exist in Irish: the broad D is pronounced further forward in the mouth, and the slender D is pronounced further back. The same is true of T (and LL and NN in some dialects). It's a good idea to try and perfect your pronunciation as early as possible, to avoid learning bad habits that are difficult to lose.

November 24, 2015

Thank you!

November 23, 2015

Similar to the previous comment. Vowels in Irish often tell us how to pronounce consonants. This is especially clear with the letter 's' sí sé is pronounced like English she(e) and shay while sa is pronounced as you would expect using the english phonetics/phonics. sa Slender vowels make the 's' sound sh This applies to 't' in your example in that the 't' + slender vowel, i,e sounds a little like 'tj' or the soft 'ch' you mentioned (its not a strong CH like in English CHURCH but more like a tjube sound (or bastjion). This brings us to some other less obvious sounds. Doras (strong D), Déan (djane), its not a strong Jay sound but a bit like how we say During in english with a slightly softer dj sound. Note for example; fiú -- (like English fjew) versus fút (like an English fooot) or Bán versus Beoir (bjur) Check out: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_orthography#Vowels https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_orthography#Consonants you should remember that we dont write the Irish language using English phonetics or phonics (if you'd prefer that method, try Manx), we write it using the Latin alphabet where we have assigned certain sounds to certain symbols some of which correspond to how we use them English but quite often thats not the case. The same applies when you learn italian or Spanish or german or slavic languages. At first it seems complex and annoying because of letters which are silent or which arent pronounced or when we add letters to the begining of words etc but theres a reason for it. dont overthink it... choose a particular accent or stick with the standard and keep an open mind :D

November 23, 2015

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