Book I

Phonetic Key

a	like	a	in	man, cat`
aa	like	a	in	car
ee	like	ee	in	teeth, feel
e	like	e	in	pet, wet
í	like	i	in	fire, sire
i	like	i	in	fit, ill
o/	like	o	in	store, bore
o	like	o	in	on, hot
oo	like	oo	in	tooth, cool
u	like	u	in	tub, up
aw	like	aw	in	hawl, saw
ae	like	ae	in	Gael
ow	like	ow	in	cow, how

The sounds difficult to represent by English spelling are "ch" and "gh". "Ch" is like "ch" in loch, but is diffucult to pronounce at the beginning of words, so for initial "ch" is put "kh" throughout the book, as it is the nearest approach to is in English spelling. To get the sound perfectly one must hear it. So also with "gh".

Where ó occurs over a vowel it is to denote that the vowel is short, as in ko/h [o/ like in hot, not like in oh]

Sounds of the aspirated letters in Irish

bh and mh	= v, in Munster
bh and mh (initial)	- v, in Connacht when slender, but w when broad as bhí, vee; bhó, wo/ But at end of word always v, as annamh, onnav.
ch	= ch
dh	= gh at beginning of word when broad, y when slender, but in the middle or end of a word is silent, as dhuit, ghuith; dhibh, yeev; seadh, shah
gh	= gh, but in the middle or end of word, silent. (at end of word it is genreally pronounced "g" in Munster, as eirigh, i/ree (irig).)
fh	= silent
ph	= f
sh and th	= h

N.B.— In Irish, unlike English, the plural form of the personal pronouns "you", the possessive pronoun "your", and the prepositional pronoun "on you", "with you", "for you" etc is quite different to that of the singular form. Therefore the following list giving both forms :—

[SINGULAR] tú	— thoo	—thou or you
[PLURAL] sibh	—shiv	—ye or you
[S] do	—dhu	—thy, your
[P] bhúr	—voor	—your
[S] dod'	—dudh	—to or for you
[P] do bhur	—dhu voor	— to or for you
[S] id' chuid	—idh khuij	—in your portio of
[P] in bhúr gcuid	—in voor guij	—in your portion of
[S] dhuit	—ghuitch	—to you
[P] dhibh	—yeev	—toyou
[S] agat	—og'guth	—at you
[P] agaibh	—og'-gee (og'-giv)	—at you
[S] chugat	—hug-gath (hooth)	—to or towards you
[P] chugaibh	—hug-giv (hoo-iv)	—to or towards you
[S] ort	—urth	—on you
[P] orraibh	—urree (urriv)	—on you
[S] leat	—lath	—with you
[P] libh	—liv	—with you
[S] romhat	—ro/-ath	—before you
[P] romhaibh	—ro/-iv	—before you
[S] fút	—footh	—under you
[P] fúibh	—foo-iv	—under you
[S] slán leat	—slawn lath	—Good bye
[P] slán libh	—slawn liv	—Good bye
[S] má's é do thoil é	—mawshae dhu hull ae	—if you please
[P] má's é bhúr dtoil é	—mawshae coor dhul ae	—if you please

note that
phonetic
symbols
are not
necessarily pronounced
as in English

See GUIDE

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