Irish Translation Forum

Hi everyone,

I found the lyrics to the original Jacobite version of Oró Sé do Bheatha 'Bhaile on Wikipedia earlier. Being a beginner in Gaelic, I'm not sure the pronunciation for these lyrics.

Here are the lyrics in Gaelic:

A Shéarlais Óig, a mhic Rí Shéamais
'Sé mo mhór-chreach do thriall as Éirinn
Gan tuinnte bróig' ort, stoca nó leinidh
Ach do chascairt leis na Gallaibh

'Sé mo léan géar nach bhfeicim
Mur mbéinn beo 'na dhiaidh ach seachtain
Séarlas Óg is míle gaiscidheach
Ag fógairt fáin ar Ghallaibh

Tá Séarlas Óg ag traill thar sáile
Béidh siad leisean, Franncaigh is Spáinnigh
Óglaigh armtha leis mar gharda
'S bainfidh siad rinnce as éiricigh!

Could someone provide the pronunciation of the lyrics, please? For instance, I know "Oró, Sé do Bheatha 'Bhaile" is pronounced "Oro, shey do vaha wallya" (as I know how to pronounce Patrick Pearse's version) but, how would the rest of the above lyrics be pronounced in the same manner.

Thanks.

Oro, shey do vaha wallya

That's how learners pronounce, but native speakers would pronounce more like this (roughly):

Oro, shay do va-huh wah-lih

(if it were "wallya" the word would be spelt abhaille)

Pwyll2 wrote:

Oro, shey do vaha wallya

That's how learners pronounce, but native speakers would pronounce more like this (roughly):

Oro, shay do va-huh wah-lih

(if it were "wallya" the word would be spelt abhaille)

Ah, I see. Thank you for pointing that out.

Anyway, if it's not too much trouble, could someone provide the pronunciation for this?

Thanks.

So, could someone provide the pronunciation for this?

A Shéarlais Óig, a mhic Rí Shéamais
'Sé mo mhór-chreach do thriall as Éirinn
Gan tuinnte bróig' ort, stoca nó leinidh
Ach do chascairt leis na Gallaibh

'Sé mo léan géar nach bhfeicim
Mur mbéinn beo 'na dhiaidh ach seachtain
Séarlas Óg is míle gaiscidheach
Ag fógairt fáin ar Ghallaibh

Tá Séarlas Óg ag traill thar sáile
Béidh siad leisean, Franncaigh is Spáinnigh
Óglaigh armtha leis mar gharda
'S bainfidh siad rinnce as éiricigh!

Thanks.

Anyone?

If it's not too much trouble could someone help me out with the pronunciation of the lyrics, please? Thanks.

....

I haven't got time but will give it a go tomorrow if no-one else has.

scoobytyson wrote:I haven't got time but will give it a go tomorrow if no-one else has.

Thank you!

The following is of course an approximation only. It is predominantly Munster dialect (I'm not a native speaker, so like many 'experienced learners' I will have been influenced by other dialects also. A person with Ulster Irish would pronounce this very differently. Some sounds are difficult to represent using English spelling. I'm not 100% happy with my approximation of the underlined sounds in the following words for example: Tuinnte / Ar Ghallaibh

A hayurlish oh-ig, a vick ree hay-mish
shay muh voor-chrach (ch as in 'loch') duh threel oss (rhymes with 'toss') airing,
Gone tinteh bro-ig urt, stuck-a noo lay-neh
och (rhymes with loch) duh choss-kirt lesh nuh goh-liv (as in got)

Shay muh layn gayr noch veckihm
murr maying byo (rhymes with 'show') na yeeg och shoch-tin
Shayr-luss og (rhymes with 'rogue') iss mee-leh gosh-keeuch (gosh rhymes with 'cosh')
egg foe-gurt foyne ar goh-liv

Taw Shayr-luss og egg tree-ul harr soil-yeh
beg she-ud lesh-sun Frohn-kig iss Spoi-nig
ow-gig arm-ha lesh mohr garda
iss bwinhig she-ud rink-eh oss ay-rick-ig (ay as in hay)