Appendix:Old Irish pronunciation

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search

The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Old Irish pronunciations in Wiktionary entries.

See w:Old Irish language § Phonology for detailed discussion of the phonology of Old Irish.

Some details of Old Irish phonetics are not known. /sʲ/ may have been pronounced [ɕ] or [ʃ], as in modern Irish. /hʲ/ may have been the same sound as /h/ and/or /xʲ/. The vowels /i/ and /e/ may have had backed allophones like [ɨ] and [ə] when they were preceded by a plain consonant (which happened only in unstressed syllables).

The precise articulation of the fortis sonorants /n͈/, /n͈ʲ/, /l͈/, /l͈ʲ/, /r͈/, /r͈ʲ/ is unknown, but they were probably longer, tenser, and generally more strongly articulated than their lenis counterparts /n/, /nʲ/, /l/, /lʲ/, /r/, /rʲ/, as in the Modern Irish dialects (e.g. Connacht Irish) that still possess a four-way distinction in the coronal nasals and laterals. /n͈ʲ/ and /l͈ʲ/ may have been pronounced [ɲ̟] and [ʎ̟] respectively. The difference between /r͈(ʲ)/ and /r(ʲ)/ may have been that the former were trills while the latter were flaps.

Consonants
Plain Palatalized[1] English approximations
IPA Example IPA Example
b bó bʲ bél boot; beautiful
β aball βʲ gaibid voodoo; view but bilabial, meaning the bottom lip touches the top lip rather than the upper teeth
β̃ demon β̃ʲ cnáim (no equivalent; like /β/ and /βʲ/ but nasalized)
d daimid dʲ derg do (but dental), dew
ð adarc, d ðʲ buide though; bathe you
ɡ gaibid ɡʲ gér goose; argue
ɣ ag ɣʲ aig (no equivalent)
h a úil ‘his eye’
a athair ‘her father’ (not written)
hʲ a éitig ‘his wife’
a iasc ‘her fish’ (not written)
hand; hew
k caraid kʲ ceist coot; cute
lár, ball ʲ lebor, céille filth; million
l laith, colainn lʲ lesc, gaile pool; leaf
m mór mʲ milis moot; mute
nóeb, ennac ʲ nél, fírinne tenth; inch
n gonaid nʲ ne noon; new
ŋ ngaibid ŋʲ ngér long; angular
p póc pʲ persan poor; pure
ɸ fuil
phóc
ɸʲ fín
phersan
fool; fuel but bilabial, meaning the bottom lip touches the top lip rather than the upper teeth
rún, berraid ʲ rí, airrecht rule (but trilled); real (but trilled)
r beraid rʲ beirid rule (but tapped); real (but tapped)
s sacart sʲ sen soon; bless you or possibly sheet
t tarb tʲ tír tool (but dental); tune
θ tharb θʲ thír thorn; birth you
x charaid xʲ cheist loch (Scottish English); hue (pronounced strongly)
Vowels
IPA Examples English approximation
Monophthongs
a banb pot (General American)
bás father
e bein best
bél pay
i bith kit
mí meet
o bocc cloth
bó boat
u cullach good
cúl too
Short diphthongs
au̯ daum house
eu̯ neuch (no equivalent; a bit like coat in very posh RP)
iu̯ do·biur (no equivalent)
Long diphthongs
aːi̯[2] áes prize
aːu̯[3] dáu loud
eːu̯ béo stay with
iːa̯ cíall fear (nonrhotic accent)
iːu̯ díummus be with
oːi̯[2] cóem void
oːu̯[4] bóu go with
uːa̯ cúan tour (nonrhotic accent)
uːi̯ dr do it (but compressed into a single syllable)
Supersegmentals
IPA Explanation
ˈ Primary stress (placed before the stressed syllable)
ˌ Secondary stress (usually found only in compounds)

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ Old Irish makes contrasts between plain and palatalized consonants. Palatalized consonants, denoted in the IPA by a superscript ⟨ʲ⟩, are pronounced with the body of the tongue raised toward the hard palate, in a manner similar to the articulation of the ⟨y⟩ sound in yes.
  2. 2.0 2.1 The sounds /aːi̯/ and /oːi̯/ merged into a single phoneme during the Old Irish period. It is not known how this merged sound was pronounced, but by Early Modern Irish it was spelled ao(i) and pronounced [ɯː].
  3. ^ The sound /aːu̯/ merged with /oː/ during the Old Irish period.
  4. ^ The sound /oːu̯/ merged with /aːu̯/, which then later merged with /oː/.