p h o u k a  h o m e i r i s h  l e s s o n s  h o m e

§ 17. EXERCISE I

SOUNDS OF IRISH VOWELS

The Irish Vowel	Is sounded like the phonetic sign	i.e., like the vowel sound in the word:
á long	au	naught
a short	a	knot
é long	ae	Gaelic
e short	e	let
í long	ee	feel
i short	i	hit
ó long	ō	note
o short	ŭ	done
ú long	oo	tool
u short	u	put, full, took

NOTE—Final short vowels are never silent; thus, mine, míle are pronounced min'- ĕ and meel'- ĕ . From the above table it will be seen that a is never like a in fate, e like e in me, i like i in mine, o like o in not, or u like u in mule. The short vowels, as will be seen, are sometimes modified by the following consonant. In giving the vowel-sounds we will follow the western Irish, as the most consistent. The Munster and Ulster sounds of the vowels are treated separately below.

 

§ 18. Consonants

b, f, m, p are sounded like the phonetic signs b, f, m p in § 16.
d BROAD (see § 8) are sounded like the phonetic sign dh in § 16
t is sounded like the phonetic sign th in §16
g, l, n, r, s, often like g, l, n, r, s in §16