Orthography of Munster Irish

目錄
  1. (updated on 2020-12-15)Introdution
  2. Broad and slender
    1. Broad & slender vowels
    2. Broad & slender consonants
  3. Consonants
    1. Lenition and eclipsis
      1. Lenition
      2. Eclipsis
    2. Consonants in loanwords
  4. Vowels
    1. Stressed vs. unstressed
    2. Monophthong
      1. Short vowels
      2. Long vowels
    3. Diphthongs & triphthongs
      1. Diphthongs & triphthongs with long vowels
    4. Vowel + bh, dh, gh, mh
    5. The hidden vowels
  5. Special suffixes of verb conjugations
  6. Word stress rule
  7. Resources for finding Munster pronouncation
  8. References
    1. Footnote
  9. 註腳

(updated on 2020-12-15)

Introdution

As there are few specific introdution pertaining to the spelling rule of Munster Irish, I’ve collected some sources to compile the article related to the rules. It may contain errors. If you find one, please leave a comment to let me know. GRMA.

Besides, Irish spelling rules are somewhat complex, they will not be listed wholly. Reading The Irish of West Muskerry, Co. Cork (by Brian Ó Cuív) may help if you’re insterested in.

Broad and slender

In all the original consonants in Irish, except /h/, it’s distinguished between slender one (palatalized) and broad one (velarized), and those which are next to a broad vowel are broad consonants, while consonants adjacent to a slender vowel are slender consonants.

Broad & slender vowels

NOTE: ae is a broad vowel after the spelling reform.

Categories Short vowels Long vowels
Broad vowels a, o, u á, é, ú, ae
Slender vowels i, e í, é

Broad & slender consonants

  • Broad consonants:
    • flanked by broad vowel(s), eg.: croí, Gael
    • flanked by broad consonant(s) if being next to no vowels, eg.: orm
  • Slender consonants:
    • flanked by slender vowel(s), eg.: abair
    • flanked by slender consonant(s) if being next to no vowels, eg.: ainm

Consonants

Consonants Slender Broad Note
b bʲ bˠ
c c k
d dʲ d̪ˠ The broad d is not the same as the RP English d.
f fʲ fˠ See Special suffixes of verb conjugations.
g ɟ ɡ
h /h/ , no distinguishment
l/ll lʲ l̪ˠ The broad l is not the same as the RP English l.
lt lʲtʲ l̪ˠh Compare scéalta /ˈʃcial̪ˠtə/ and oscailte /ˈoscəlʲtʲə/.
m mʲ mˠ
n nʲ n̪ˠ The broad n is not the same as the RP English n.
nn ɲ nˠ The broad nn is not the same as the RP English n.
-ng- ɲɟ ŋɡ Compare teanga /ˈtʲaŋɡə/ and inginiúil /ɪɲɟɪˈnʲuːlʲ/.
-ng ɲ ŋ Compare long /l̪ˠɔŋ/ and cuing /kɪɲ/.
p pʲ pˠ
r- n.a. ɾˠ Word-initial r is always broad.
-r-/-rr- ɾʲ ɾˠ It’s said that the slender r is a fricative. See R in Irish Gaelic in r/gaeilge of Reddit.
s ʃ s
t tʲ t̪ˠ The broad t is not the same as the RP English tt.

Lenition and eclipsis

In Irish, there are 2 kinds of consonant mutations—lenition and eclipsis.

Lenition

Consonants Slender Broad Note
bh, mh βʲ βˠ When it’s between short vowels or after short vowel, see Sections Vowel + bh, dh, gh, mh.
Broad one is not /w/ in Munster.
ch ç
( /h/ after vowel)		 x Slender ch is /h/ after a vowel, see “Irish Phonology” in English Wikipedia.
dh- , gh- j ɣ When it’s between short vowels or after short vowel, see Sections Vowel + bh, dh, gh, mh and Special suffixes of verb conjugations.
fh (slient) (slient)
sh ç h
th h h
ts- tʲ t̪ˠ word initially while preceded by a definite article in specific cases

Eclipsis

Triggered word-initially only. Only the first letter is read (except bhf and ng).

Consonants Slender Broad Note
bp- bʲ bˠ
bhf- βʲ βˠ
dt- dʲ d̪ˠ
gc- ɟ ɡ
mb- mʲ mˠ
nd- nʲ n̪ˠ
ng- ɲ ŋ

Consonants in loanwords

There are 2 consonants borrowed from English.

Consonants IPA Example
j d͡ʒ jób
z z zú

Vowels

For vowels succeeded by bh, dh, gh, mh, see Section Vowel + bh, dh, gh, mh.

Stressed vs. unstressed

Syllables in Irish are stressed, unstressed, and secondary-stressed (only in compound words). Unstressed short monophthong (a, e, i, o, u) are usually reduced to schwa /ə/. For the stress rule, see Section Word stress rule.

The unstressed schwa /ə/ between slender vowels is sound like /ɪ/.

Monophthong

Short vowels

Short vowels have no diacritics marked. However, short vowels may be longthed or diphthongized while succeeded by specific consonants (eg. fearr), while some of them were marked by acute accent in old orthography (fearr was written as “feárr” or “fearra” in Dinneen’s Dictionary).

Vowel IPA Note
a a
a + {ll, m, nn}
(monosyllable)		 au ceann /caun̪ˠ/
a + {rd, rl, rn} aː ard /aːɾˠd̪ˠ/
a + rr aːɾˠ or aɾˠə fearr /fʲaːɾˠ/ or /ˈfʲaɾˠə/
e ɛ
i ɪ
i + {ll, m, nn}
(monosyllable)		 iː cill /ciːlʲ/
o ɔ
o + {ll, m, nn}
(monosyllable)		 oʊ donn /doʊn̪ˠ/
u ʊ

Long vowels

They’re usually marked by acute accent, called “síneadh fada” in Irish. “Acute ~” is called “ ~ fada” in Irish.

Vowel IPA Note
á aː
é eː
í iː
ó oː
ú uː

Diphthongs & triphthongs

Usually, only one vowel of a polyphthong is pronounced, and others are indicators of broadness or slendernesss for the flanked consonants. Those polyphthongs of which stressed pronounciation is a short vowel will be pronounced /ə/ usually when unstressed.

The following table shows the unstressed pronouncing of the diphthongs and triphthongs. Because the spelling rules are complex, they may have a different pronounciation not listed below.

Vowel IPA Note
ai a
ae eː treated as a broad vowel wholly
aei eː
ao eː
aoi iː
au ai
ea(i) a
ei ɛ, etc. uncertain
ei + {ll, m, nn}
(monosyllable)		 ai or əi greim /ɟɾʲəimʲ/
eo oː (usually)
ia(i) iə
io i, u, etc. Uncertain. Compare fios /fʲɪs/ and siopa /ˈʃʊpˠə/
iu ʊ fliuch /fʲlʲʊx/
oi ɪ, etc Uncertain. Compare anois /əˈn̪ˠɪʃ/ and scoil /skɔlʲ/
ua(i) uə
ui ɪ, etc. uncertain.

Diphthongs & triphthongs with long vowels

Generally, only the vowel(s) marked by acute accent in a polyphthong is/are pronounced.
For example: in páipéir /pˠaːpʲeːɾʲ/ (paper), only á and é are pronounced.

** Except {i, u} + {á, ó} ** where i and o are pronounced long, eg. fiáin /ˈfʲiːaːnʲ/, raidió /ɾˠaˈdʲiːoː/.

Besides, éa may be pronounced /ia/, eg: Béarla /ˈbiaɾˠl̪ˠə/ and céad /ciad̪ˠ/, but éan /eːnˠ/.

Vowel + bh, dh, gh, mh

As time went by, syllables in an Old Irish words might combined into a syllable, and some consonants became slient. However, like the historical kana orthography of Japanese, the orthography of Modern Irish still reflects the historical spelling instead of the modern pronounciation in some degree, even if the new orthography where some slient consonants are removed has been promoted in 20th century. Therefore, there are rules some lenited consonants with the preceding vowel that learners have to memorize.

Besides, new vowels that are a combination with “mh” will be nasalized(/◌̃/) by some speaker.

Here is the table listing the rule of short vowel(s) with lenited consonants.
P.S.: V is a abbr. of short vowel (a, e, i, o, u) or their diphthong (eg. ai).

Vowel IPA Stress Note
(e)a + {mh, bh} (+ V) /au/ or /ou/ gabhar /ɡouɾˠ/, leabhar /lʲauɾˠ/
(e)omh (+ V)} /ãũ/, /õũ/, or /õː/ Domhnach /ˈd̪ˠãũn̪ˠəx/, domhan /d̪ˠõũn̪ˠ/, comhairle /ˈkõːɾʲlə/
o + {dh, gh} (+ V) /au/ (or /ou/ ?) bodhar /bˠauɾˠ/, rogha /ɾˠau/
(i)umh (+ V) ũː Mumhan /mˠũːnˠ/
a(i) + {dh, gh} (+ V) /əi/ or /ai/ gadhar /ɡəiɾˠ/ , aidhm /aimʲ/
aimh /ə̃ĩ/ (or /ãĩ/ ?) aimhleas /ˈəilʲəs/
eidh (+ V) /əi/ or /ai/ feidhm /fʲəimʲ/, veidhlín /βˠaiˈlʲiːnʲ/
oigh (+ V) /əi/ (or /ai/ ?) loighic /l̪ˠəic/
-(e)a + dh ə unstressed Refer Section Special suffixes of verb conjugations first. Dh is slient.
-i+ {dh, gh} əɟ unstressed Refer Section Special suffixes of verb conjugations first. Dh & gh are pronounced /ɟ/.
-í+ {dh, gh} iːɟ Dh & gh are pronounced /ɟ/.
-i+ {dh, gh} + e iː (Usually) appeared in older orthography.

If some long vowels is appended by mh, they may be combined and nasalized.

Vowel IPA Note
á + mh (+ a) ãː rámha /ɾˠã/
ó + mh (+ a) õː fómhair /fõːɾʲ/

The hidden vowels

Between **{l, n, r} + {b, bh, ch, g, m, mh} (excluding ng)**, there are usually have schwa /ə/ not written. eg. ainm /anʲəmʲ/.

Special suffixes of verb conjugations

The pronounciation of verb suffixes -f(a)idh, -óidh, -eoidh, -f(e)adh differs between dialects.

Suffix Desc. Followed by prons (sé, sí, siad)
and demonstrative (san, so, siúd etc.)		 Elsewhere Note
-faidh future analytic fˠə (hə) fˠəɟ (həɟ)
-fidh future analytic fʲ (hə) fʲəɟ (həɟ)
-óidh
-eoidh		 future analytic oː oːɟ
-fadh conditional analytic fˠəx (həx) fˠəx (həx)
-feadh conditional analytic fʲəx (həx) fʲəx (həx)
-eodh
-ódh		 conditional analytic oːx oːx
Suffix Desc. Pronounciation
-adh
-eadh		 autonomous preterite
past habitual analytical		 əɡ (Muskerry (Cork), Ring (Waterford))
əx (Kerry)
əv(Southwest Cork)
-aíodh
-íodh		 autonomous preterite
past habitual analytical		 [Personal reckoning]:1
iːɡ (Muskerry (Cork), Ring (Waterford))
iːx (Kerry)
iːv(Southwest Cork)
-adh
-eadh		 3rd singular imperative əx (Cork)

Word stress rule

According to Teach Yourself Irish (1961), the stress of a non-compound word is usually on the 1st stress, except the 3 rules:

  • Except some verbal endings, if the 2nd syllable is long, the stress is on the 2nd syllable. eg.: cailín.
  • If the 1st & 2nd syllables are short and the 3rd syllable is long, the stress is on the 3rd one. eg.: amadán.
  • If the 2nd syllable has -ach ending, and there is no long syllable, the stress is on the 2nd syllable. eg. casachtach.

Resources for finding Munster pronouncation

References

Footnote

註腳

1 Since the suffix-adding of the 2nd conjugation rule is almost the same as the 1st conjugation, but the spelling is different due to the orthography simplication for vowel-value changing (-ighe-→-í-) at the same time.