Irish phonology
The
phonology of the Irish language varies from
dialect to dialect. The processes discussed here reflect a somewhat idealized version of "school Irish" that tends to be used by teachers outside of the
Gaeltacht areas.
Consonants
The
consonant inventory of Irish is set out – using the
International Phonetic Alphabet – in the table below.
The distinction between velarized "broad" consonants and palatalized "slender" consonants is
phonemic in Irish. is the only consonant phoneme without a broad/slender distinction; other pairs not immediately obvious in the table above are:
| Broad correspondent | Slender correspondent | | |
| |
| |
Broad (velarized) consonants have a noticeable velar offglide before front vowels, thus 'thatch' and 'way, manner' are pronounced and . This velar offglide is
labialized after
labial consonants, so 'yellow' is pronounced . The realization of the slender consonants varies somewhat from dialect to dialect; for example is an
affricate in Ulster, a palatalized in Connacht, and an
apical postalveolar in Munster.
and are not separate phonemes. In Munster only is found, and in Ulster only . In Connacht is found in
syllable onsets and in
syllable codas. In older varieties of Irish, and were
bilabial fricatives but today because of English influence most people make them
labiodental.
The broad
coronals have a
dental articulation as in
Romance languages, and as in the
Hiberno-English pronunciation of the English th sounds of
thin and
this.
is not strictly a
postalveolar but rather an
alveopalatal fricative like
Polish si or
Mandarin x. Nevertheless the more familiar symbol is usually used.
is a short palatalized
flap similar to the
tt in
American English pretty.
Slender is a
voiceless (post)palatal fricative like the
German ich-Laut. The symbol is used to emphasize its relationship with the stop in the system of
initial mutations.
is a
palatal glide (like English
y in
yellow) before vowels; before consonants and at the ends of
syllables it is a
voiced (post)palatal fricative .
Usually all the consonants in a
cluster have the same broad/slender quality, for example
freagra 'answer'. Cf. also
seachain 'avoid (imperative)' with slender but
seachnaím 'I avoid' with broad , because it is next to broad . But there are some systematic exceptions:
* is always broad before coronals, even when the second coronal sound itself is slender, for example
airde 'height',
eirleach 'destruction',
tuirne 'spinning wheel',
cairde 'friends'
*Word-initial is always broad before labials, even when the labial itself is slender, for example
smig 'chin',
speal 'scythe'
As in
English,
voiceless stops are
aspirated at the start of a word, and unaspirated after . Also, as in English, voiced stops may not be fully voiced but are never aspirated.
Vowels
The
vowels (
monophthongs and
diphthongs) of Irish are given in the tables below.
| Diphthongs | Closer component
is front! Closer component
is back | | Closing | | |
| Centering | | |
The
backness contrast in short vowels is not phonemic.
Of the high phoneme:
*The allophone appears:
**before slender consonants (written
i, ui)
**between a slender consonant and a broad coronal or (written
io)
*The allophone appears:
**between broad consonants (written
u; also in
uicht, uirs, uirt(h) where the first consonant of the cluster is broad)
**between a slender consonant and a broad labial or velar (written
io, iu)
Of the mid phoneme:
*The allophone appears:
**before a slender consonant except (written
ei, oi)
**rarely between a broad consonant and slender in
raibh 'was',
saibhir 'rich', and
daibhir 'poor'
**rarely between a slender consonant and a broad consonant, for example
bheadh 'would be',
bheadh sé 'he would be'
*The allophone [o] appears:
**between broad consonants (written
o; also in
oicht, oirs, oirt(h) where the first consonant of the cluster is broad)
**before (written
ois)
**rarely between a slender consonant and a broad velar, for example
deoch 'a drink',
beag 'small'
The backness distinction
is phonemic among long vowels, and all long vowels and diphthongs can stand next to both qualities of consonant. Exception: stands only word-initially or after a slender consonant, while stands only word-initially or after a broad consonant. Thus
minimal pairs for these two diphthongs can be found only word-initially, for example
iallach 'constraint' vs.
ualach 'burden'.
The mid vowels are raised to high vowels before a nasal and orthographic
mh .
Short vowels are reduced to schwa in unstressed syllables.
Long is optionally diphthongized to before broad , , for example
fíor ~ 'true',
eolaíocht ~ 'science'.
is a slightly
rounded lax mid central vowel; in effect, it is the vowel of the English word
cup with slightly rounded lips. (This is in fact a common Hiberno-English pronunciation of that vowel.)
The back long vowels tend to be diphthongized before slender consonants, for example
Máire 'Mary',
go fóill 'still',
cúig 'five'.
Vowel-initial words in Irish exhibit behavior that has led linguists to suggest they begin with a latent onset that, like consonants, can be either velarized (broad) or palatalized (slender).
For example, when the vowel-initial words
arcán 'piglet' and
uimhríonn 'numbers' (present-tense verb) are preceded by a
proclitic ending in a consonant, that consonant is broad:
m'arcán 'my piglet';
d'uimhrigh 'numbered'.
But when the words
earc 'lizard' and
imíonn 'leaves' (present-tense verb) are preceded by the same proclitics, the consonant is slender:
m'earc 'my lizard';
d'imigh 'left'.
This difference is not predictable, it is a lexical property of each individual vowel-initial word. Thus some linguists have argued that roots like
arcán and
uimhr- actually begin with a consonant containing no features except that of being velarized, and roots like
earc and
im- with a consonant containing no features except that of being palatalized.
When is lenited to zero, its quality remains if a consonant-final proclitic takes its place, as in:{|
fargán | m'fhargán | | 'my ledge' | | fearg | | m'fhearg | | 'my anger' |
| filleann | | d'fhill | | 'returned' |
| fuilíonn | | d'fhuiligh | | 'bled' |
