Irish Translation Forum

Can I please get a phonetic pronunciation of this, and its meaning. Thank you.

willyhood wrote:Can I please get a phonetic pronunciation of this, and its meaning. Thank you.

Well, it's badly misspelled:

A cuisle, grá mo chroí.

Roughly:

uh KOOSH-leh, grah muh khree

Redwolf

Thank you Redwolf. What does it mean? And would it be spelled and pronounced the same around Galway? Thank you for your reply.

Just one correction:
A chuisle, grá mo chroí.
uh KHOOSH-leh, grah muh khree
[The "kh" sounds are guttural, like the "ch" in Loch Ness as pronounced by a Scot]

It means "My darling, love of my heart", as spoken to the person. If said when describing the person to someone else, it would be:
Mo chuisle, grá mo chroí
muh KHOOSH-leh, grah muh khree

The word cuisle actually means "pulse". The expression cuisle mo chroí literally means "pulse of my heart", but has came to mean more or less "my dear" or "my darling", and cuisle by itself has taken on a similar figurative meaning. The "h" which I added, and the resulting sound change, are grammatical changes caused by cuisle coming after a or mo.

The expression would be pronounced about the same in all dialects.

Breandán wrote:

kevin45sf wrote:The expression would be pronounced about the same in all dialects.

Except for grá which is more like GRAW in Conamara and Munster.

In our part of the U.S., there is no distinction in sound between "ah" and "aw."

Redwolf

Breandán wrote:
So, there is no distinction between "Pa" and "paw" where you are?

Nope. They sound exactly the same.

Other regions of the U.S. do make a distinction in the sounds (New Jersey springs immediately to mind), but not the West Coast. Pa, paw, and Bob all have identical vowel sounds out here.

Redwolf

Redwolf wrote:

Breandán wrote:
So, there is no distinction between "Pa" and "paw" where you are?

Nope. They sound exactly the same.

Other regions of the U.S. do make a distinction in the sounds (New Jersey springs immediately to mind), but not the West Coast. Pa, paw, and Bob all have identical vowel sounds out here.

Redwolf

I never knew that about the West Coast, but I've spent very little time there. They are definitely different in the Midwest, where we pronounce Chicago either "Shih-CAW-go" or "Shih-CAH-go" (but despite what some Irish people say, never Shih-cargo )
An tOileánach

I would have thought A cuisle, a ghrá mo chroí

David