Book I:
Lessons
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exercise XI
§ 90. Sounds of groups or vowels
In Irish, as in English, vowels are grouped together in three ways. (1) In the word ruin, the u and i are pronounced separately.; the u being pronounced distinctly and the i somewhat obscurely. The same may be said of the e and a in the word real. (2) In the word round the sounds of o and u melt into each other, forming what we call a diphthong. (3) In the word mean, the ea represents one simple vowel sound, like that of e in me. But as this one vowel sound is represented in writing by two letters, these two letters, ea, are called a digraph. Other digraphs are ai in main, ou in through, ae in Gaelic, ao in gaol, oa in goal, etc. We shall now examine the vowel-groups in Irish.
§ 91. Sounds of ia and ua
| ia | is pronounced ee-ă almost like ea in real |
| ua | is pronounced oo-ă almost like ua in truant |
Each vowel is pronounced separately, the second vowel being obscure.
§ Vocabulary
| cuan | (koo'-ăn), a harbour |
| Dia | (dee-ă), God |
| fial | (fee'-ăl), generous |
| fuar | (foo'-ăr), cold |
| gual | (goo'-ăl), coal |
| Niall | (nee'-ăL), Niall |
| sgian | (shgee'-ăn), a knife |
| siad | (shee'-ădh), they |
| suas | (soo'-ăs), up, upwards |
| uan | (oo'-ăn), a lamb |
note that
phonetic
symbols
are
not
necessarily
pronounced
as in English