Vowels

Eoin — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 09:36:58 +0000

Long Vowels

These are always pronounced this way, whatever their position in a word. Often, the vowels marked with the sineadh fada (áéíú) will be written with another short vowel before or after it. This generally does not affect the pronunciation, but it written to obey the rule of broad vowels with broad consonants, and slender vowels with slender consonants.

Broad Vowel	Pronunciation	Example	Translation
á	aw as in “law”	lá [law]	day
ae	ay as in “day”	Gael [g(w)ayl]	Irish (culture)
ao	ay as in “day” (Munster)	saor [sair]	free
	ee (Connacht, Ulster)	saor [seer]	free
aoi	ee	saoirse [SEER-shuh]	freedom
é	ay as in “day”	céad [kyaid]	first, hundred
eo	oh as in “go”	ceol [kyohl]	music
í	ee	cailín [KAH-leen]	girl
ia	EE-uh	bia [BEE-uh]	food
ó	oh as in “go”	a dó [uh DOH]	two
ú	oo as in “too”	fiú [fyoo]	even
ua	OO-uh	bua [BOO-uh]	win, talent

Short vowels

Short vowels are pronounced as follows only when they are the stressed syllable of a word.

All short vowels in unstressed syllables are pronounced “uh”.

Short Vowel	Pronunciation	Example	Translation
a	ah as in “father”	fada [FAH-duh]	long
ai	often like a in “cat”	aithne [A-huh-nuh]	to know a person
e	eh in “bet”	te [cheh]	hot
ea	often like a or ai	fear [fyar]	man
		bealach [BYAH-lukh]	way
ei	eh in “bet”	feis [fesh]	festival
i	i as in “hit”	fir [fir]	men
io	i as in “hit”	scrios [shkriss]	destroy, to wreck
	yuh	pioc [pyuk]	to pick
o	o in “pot”	sos [soss]	rest, break
oi	often like eh in “bet”	oifig [EFF-ig]	office
u	oo as in “book”	muc [muck]	pig
ui	often wi as in “quick”	cuid [kwidge]	part

Learn the Irish Gaelic vowels by listening on learning at Bitesize Irish Gaelic.

Articles on the Irish Language » vowels

Vowels

Long Vowels

Short vowels