Basic Pronunciation

[SweetFarThing94]

Irish pronunciation is very different to English and often people new to Irish can find it difficult to grasp. I'll try to simplify it here! Of course, you might hear in spoken differently to this, depending on the dialect.

Vowels

There are five of these in Irish:
a (pr. "ah" - closest English equivalent: ago
e (pr. "eh" - closest English equivalent: pet)
i (pr. "ih" - closest English equivalent: pick)
o (pr. "oh" - closest English equivalent: cot)
u (pr. "uh" - closest English equivalent: muck)

Irish only has one accent, unlike many European languages, and it is called the fada. The fada lengthens the sound of a vowel (fada is the irish word for "long")

á (pr. "awh" - closest English equivalent: paw)
é (pr. "ay" - closest English equivalent: say
í (pr. "ee" - closest English equivalent: seat
ó (pr. "oe" - closest English equivalent: toe
ú (pr. "oo" - closest English equivalent: soon

Consonants

Most consanants in Irish are pronounced similarly to English when they come beside a vowel. "S," "t" and "d" are exceptions to this rule.
When the closest vowel to a "t" is "i" or "e" (i.e. when "t" is slender), it sounds like the English "ch," e.g., "duit" is pronounced "ditch". When the closest vowel to an "s" is "i" or "e" (when "s" is slender) it sounds like the English "sh," e.g., "sin" is pronounced "shin". When the closest vowel to a d is "i" or "e," it sounds like the English "j," e.g "creid" is pronounced "crej." When the closest vowels to these consanants are "a", "o" or "u", they sound as they do in English.

Consonant combinations

These should be learnt because their pronunciations are completely different to how an English speaker might expect them to be!
Again, their pronunciations often depend on whether they are broad or slender. ( Broad = beside one of the vowels a, o or u; Slender = beside one of the vowels i or e)

bh (broad) - closest English equivalent: wall; Irish e.g. sa bhaile
bh (slender) - closest English equivalent: van; Irish e.g. an bhean
ch (broad and slender) - closest English equivalent: loch (throaty sound that doesn't really exist in English); Irish e.g. mo chóta
dh (broad) closest English equivalent: loch (except with more of a "guh" sound); Irish e.g. dhá
dh (slender) - closest English equivalent: yet; Irish e.g. mo Dhreoilín
fh (broad and slender) - silent; Irish e.g. an fhuinneog
gh (broad) - closest English equivalent: loch (except with more of a "guh" sound); Irish e.g. sa ghairdín
gh (slender) - closest English equivalent: yet; Irish e.g. mo gheata
mh (broad) - closest English equivalent: wall; Irish e.g. mo mhála
mh (slender) - closest English equivalent: vet; Irish e.g. ba mhian liom
ph (broad and slender) - closest English equivalent: fat; Irish e.g. fuair mé
sh (broad and slender) - closest English equivalent: hat; Irish e.g. a Shíle
th (broad and slender) - closest English equivalent: hat; Irish e.g.
thit mé

Exceptions
There are some exceptions to the above rules:
Broad dh or gh in the middle of a word is usually pronounced like a "y", e.g. fadhb "fibe." If a broad bh or mh ("w") is followed by a consonant which makes it hard to pronounce, like mo bhróga, a "v" sound is used instead. Also, sometimes a "v" sound is used when bh or mh is at the end of a word, such as creidimh "krej-iv" .

Hope that helps! biggrin  

[Yang Yue]

How would one pronounce 'liom'? li as in lick and om as in om-nom?  

[Ceomhar]

Yang Yue

How would one pronounce 'liom'? li as in lick and om as in om-nom?

Its pronounced "Lum" smile  

[fray_ava]

Therefore, Dia Duit is pronounced Dj-ah Ditch?  

[Trompeur]

I'll try to practice with what you gave,,, ooh, can you give some words that i and others can practice on pronouncing (using in correct usage to wat you said), cus im am having trouble figureing out how you know what double letters ( eg dh,mh,etc.) to use and when and what to do with the other letters in the original word, and do you even refer to english words... uhh, i just need an irish dictionary... hehe^.^  

[SweetFarThing94]

Ok I'll try smile
This might get a little complicated, so I'm sorry in advance!

Irish spelling can be difficult because there are many letters and combinations that sound similar. Most beginners would make a lot of spelling mistakes when trying to write down what they hear when they listen to an irish speaker, even if they were following the pronunciation rules. As time goes on, just as in English, the spelling of many words becomes instinctive.
Here's a hint though:
If it is a past tense verb you hear and you can't decide whether it ends in in gh or dh, it probably ends gh. Eg. Thosaigh(However there is an exception to this, when you're saying that something "was done" e.g the door was closed, the verb usually ends in dh Eg. Dúnadh an doras)

Some more stuff: biggrin
Mo mháthair (my mother) is pronounced "muh waw-her"
Ceannaigh (to buy) according to the rules I gave you is pronounced "keeyan-ig" , but can also be pronounced "keeyan-ee."
arrow Actually remember this: most (if not all) words that end in "igh" or "aigh" can either be pronounced "-ig" or "-ee." Another example of this is Dúisigh (pronounced either doosh-ig or doosh-ee") Both are acceptable smile
"dh" can also be pronounced in different ways, depending on dialect. "Rinneadh" for example, which means "was done or made" can be pronounced "rinn-uck" or "rinn-oo"

I hope I've helped you out a bit smile  

[Naughty Vampiress]

hi I was wondering how would you pronounce tha gaol agam ort  

[SweetFarThing94]

Naughty Vampiress

hi I was wondering how would you pronounce tha gaol agam ort

That's Scottish Gaelic. Both Irish and Scottish are related but they're not the same. I don't know any Scottish but I searched the pronunciation on the internet and was given: "Hah GEUL AH-kum orsht." Hope that helps confused

By the way if you wanted to say the same thing in Irish (i.e. "I love you") you'd say "Mo ghrá thú" pronounced "muh graw hoo."

smile  

[iiwhisper]

Naughty Vampiress

hi I was wondering how would you pronounce tha gaol agam ort

it would be pronounced as 'ta gail ugum ort'
hope that helps ^^  

[rp LAD]

Hey, tá mé Rián. Tá mé Gaeilge An bhfuil, aon duine anseo nGaeilge nó go bhfuil sé ach dom?  

[rp LAD]

Beidh mé ag múineadh Gaeilge roinnt daoine ach amháin más féidir iad a léamh an teachtaireacht seo.