1.Old/Middle Irish:
"p[in loanwords], t, c" sound like their English equivalents if at the
*beginning* of a
word ("c" is always hard, like 'k'). If elsewhere in a word, "t" sounds like a
'd', and "c"
sounds like a hard 'g'. When the voiceless sounds 't' and 'c' occur in non-
initial position,
they are spelled "tt" and "cc".
"d" "g" sound like their English equivalents if at the *beginning* of a word
("g" is
always hard). If elsewhere in a word, sounds like 'v', "d" sounds like the
soft "th" in
"then", and "g" sounds like a voiced guttural spirant (a little like the
Parisian French 'r',
but with no hint of a trill in it).
"th" is the hard 'th' as in "think"; "ch" is a voiceless guttural spirant,
like the German
Ach-laut or the proper Scottish pronunciation of the last sound of "loch".
"m" sounds like its English equivalent at the *beginning* of a word. If
elsewhere in a
word, it sounds like a nasalised 'v' (that is, it nasalises any vowel in front
of it). The sound
'm' occurring in non-initial position is written "mm".
"n" "l" sound roughly like their English equivalents. "r" is a trill, like in
Spanish or
Italian. "f" is as in English, but if it has a dot over it or an after it
it is silent.
In addition to this, all consonants are either "broad" or "slender". Broad
consonants are
followed by the vowels "a" "o" . Slender consonants are followed by the vowels
"e" (if
a slender consonant occurs at the end of a word after the vowels "a" "o" ,
it's preceded
by a purely orthographic 'i'). In very general terms, a slender consonant is
*palatalised*
(ie, it has a little 'y' sound after it -- sometimes it turns a stop into a
fricative). sounds like
English 's' if broad, like 'sh' if slender.
I won't attempt to describe the extremely complex vowel system here (perhaps
another
time! :-) ) All vowels are either long or short: long vowels are distinguished
by an acute
accent (s/ine fada) over them.
2. Modern Irish
The same basic system, with the following changes:
"t" "c" "d" "g" "m" have their basic sounds in all positions (not just at
the beginning
of words). The old non-initial values are now represented by a written
's/eimhi/u' (an 'h'
written after the consonant): "ph" "th" "ch" {these two, of course, were
already used in
OI] "bh" "dh" "gh" "mh".
"bh" and "mh" have merged. Basically, they sound like a 'w' if broad before a
vowel,
like a 'v' elsewhere.
"th" has become the sound 'h' ("sh" has the same sound).
"dh" and "gh" have merged. If broad, they have the voiced guttural sound; if
slender,
they have the sound 'y'.
Broadness and slenderness are now consistently indicated by the vowels *on
either side*
of a given consonant.
The vowel system is even more complicated. Long vowels always have the same
sound
(long "a" is 'ah" or "aw", long "o" is something like "oah", long is roughly
"oo", long is
"ee", long "e" is "ay" without the "y" sound at the end). The short vowels
change their
sound in many ways according to their environment. There are only two
diphthongs: "ia"
(pronounced "eea") and "ua" (pronounced "ooa"). In any other written
combination of
vowels, one of them is not a real vowel but an orthographic device to indicate
broadness
or slenderness. The only exception is the vowel represented as "ao" (derived
from the OI
diphthongs "ae" and "oe"), which is a kind of guttural "ee" (the sound
represented by
the "barred i" symbol in International Phonetics).
Although it appears complicated, this system is applied very regularly and,
once
mastered, makes it very easy to read Irish phonetically. Of course, some
inconsistencies
have cropped up, but they're very few and relate to extremely common words
(the verb
'is', for instance, is pronounced "iss", not "ish").
Hope this helps a bit. :-)
Alexei
Corrections
"d" "g" sound like their English equivalents if at the *beginning* of a word
("g" is
always hard). If elsewhere in a word, "b" sounds like 'v', "d" sounds like the
soft "th" in
"then", and "g" sounds like a voiced guttural spirant (a little like the
Parisian French 'r',
but with no hint of a trill in it).
(snip)
"s" sounds like
English 's' if broad, like 'sh' if slender.
(snip)
The vowel system is even more complicated. Long vowels always have the same
sound
(long "a" is 'ah" or "aw", long "o" is something like "oah", long "u" is
roughly
"oo", long "i" is
"ee", long "e" is "ay" without the "y" sound at the end).
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