Irish Translation Forum

We should put this in the "articles" section for posterity. Good stuff!

I remember when I first started with this language, looking in despair at the words and thinking "what do they DO with all those letters???"

Redwolf

Great Stuff a whombait! I'm learning tons! GRMA! Keep it coming!

Wombat,

Did you want us beginners to try your pronounciation word list on this thread or just do it for ourselves?

Garth

Ceart go leor a Wombat, seo duit.


sos - soss
cas - kahss
cais - kash
cláróg - klahr-ohg
leas - lass
léas - lay-as
rois - resh
ros - ross
géin - gay-in
scar - skahr
scair - skar
fram - frahm
casla - kahs-lah
íle - eel-eh
scil - skil
scál - skahl
doirt - dehrt
leá - leh-ah
sall - sahl
séid - shay-id
fras - frahs
fadú - fah-doo
siolp - shil-up
sábh - sahv
seabhac - shah-vak
osar - oh-sahr
féidín - fay-deen
séirse - shayr-sha
sár - sahr
sáir - sawr
ósais - oh-sahsh

I think I am doing ok with the single vowels and consanants. I do have some trouble with vowel combinations though.

GRMA for all your help. These are great threads.

Garth

xxxHere are my "answers". Don't worry if you didn't write the pronunciation exactly the way I did, as long as you had the right sound in mind. Also, don't worry about which syllable has the emphasis; we'll cover that in another thread.

sos SOSS
cas KAHSS
cais KASH
cláróg KLAR-OHG
leas LASS
léas LAYSS
rois ROSH
(The vowel sound is somewhere between ROSH and RUSH.)
ros ROSS
géin GAYN
scar SKAR
scair SKARdj
fram FRAM
casla KASS-luh
íle EEL-uh
scil SHKIL
scál SKAHL
doirt DERCH
leá LyAH
sall SALL
séid SHAYD
fras FRASS
fadú FAH-DOO
siolp SHOL-up
sábh SAW - Be sure to pronounce that final "w".
seabhac SHAH-wuk
osar OSS-er
féidín FAY-djeen
séirse SHAYR-shuh
sár SAHR
sáir SAHRdj
ósais OH-sash


Garthstone, I only saw one real mistake, but there are some other things that you might want to double-check:

léas, géin, leá - I think you got these right, you just wrote them a little differently than I would. As long as you know these are one syllable, then give yourself full marks.

scar, scair - The vowel sound is actually the same for both words. The only diffference is the final "r". Again, if you realised that, give yourself full marks.

scil - Aha! Gotcha! That's a slender "s", because the consonant cluster "sc" is next to a broad vowel, "a".

doirt - What you had was probably fine, as long as you realised that final "t" is slender.

sábh, seabhac - Broad "bh" is pronounced w, slender "bh" has more of a v sound.

osar - There's no fada on that "o", so it's short.

Garthstone wrote:I think I am doing ok with the single vowels and consanants. I do have some trouble with vowel combinations though.

GRMA for all your help. These are great threads.

I'm really glad you find them helpful. I will do a second thread on vowel combinations and which syllable gets the emphasis. (I don't want to overwhelm this thread with too much information.)

Wombat,
Thanks for the input. You did pick out all of my mistakes the consanant clusters threw me, and also the vowel combinations with the fadas. I was pronouncing them with two syllables.
Other than that I will give myself a pat on the back and await the next lesson.

Garth

Bumping for new people to see.

Redwolf

Re-bumping

I continue to have problems with words using: mh, bh, gh, ng etc.What is the best method to overcome this problem ?

John (irishdoowop)