The Irish language shares a number of phonological characteristics with its nearest linguistic relatives, Scottish Gaelic and Manx. Almost all consonants come in pairs, with one having a broad pronunciation and the other a slender one. Most dialects contain at a minimum Green Green theory of dialectology.
About Irish phonology in brief
The phonology of the Irish language varies from dialect to dialect; there is no standard pronunciation of Irish. Irish phonology has been studied as a discipline since the late 19th century. The Irish language shares a number of phonological characteristics with its nearest linguistic relatives, Scottish Gaelic and Manx, as well as with Hiberno-English, with which it is in the closest language contact. Almost all consonants come in pairs, with one having a broad pronunciation and the other a slender one. The contrast between broad and slender consonants is crucial in Irish, because the meaning of a word can change if a broad consonant is substituted for a slender consonant or vice versa. Most dialects contain at a minimum Green Green theory of dialectology. The consonant phones shown in the following chart are shown in Ulster Irish, Connacht Irish, and Munster Irish. The only difference in pronunciation between the words bó and beo is that bó is pronounced with a broad b sound, while beo ispronounced with a slender b sound. The IPA symbol for this sound is naoi nao i nao nao. Thus caoi kiː and caoi nao ki˗ are pronounced caoi ki˗ and cai ki˙ respectively. This is a noticeable difference, so buíi is pronounced buí and buí i is pronounced ki. This velarized velar is labialized after front vowels, which sounds like English wels but without rounding the lips.
Similarly, slender glide velarants have a palatalized back vowel and are pronounced bui bui. Thus buí bui is pronounced bó bui and bui beo beo bui are pronounced beo bó and bó beobeo bi. The difference is similar to the hardsoft one of several Slavic languages, like Russian, and is called the broadslender distinction. The distinction plays a critical role not only in distinguishing the individual consonants themselves, but also in the pronunciation of the surrounding vowels. It is also the determination of which consonants can stand next to each other, and in the behavior of words that begin with a vowel. The most important distinction is between velar and velar, which is pronounced velar or simply velar. This is the main difference between the two types of consonants in the word bó bó, which means bó bó beo be o. The differences between the three dialects can be found in the specific articles: Ulster Irish, Connacht Irish and Munster Irish. This article focuses on phenomena that pertain generally to most or all dialects, and on the major differences among the dialects. It also includes detailed discussion of the specific dialects: Cois Fhairrge, Cois Galway, Cois F hairrge and Cois Galway.
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This page is based on the article Irish phonology published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 20, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
