irish phonology

The Phonemes of Irish

Consonants

The consonant inventory of Irish is shown in the chart below. The symbol [] indicates palatalization of the preceding consonant.

	Broad			Slender
Voiceless stops	p	t	k	p	t	k
Voiced stops	b	d	g	b	d	g
Voiceless fricatives	f	s	x h	f	s	x
Voiced fricatives/Glides	w~v		ɣ	v		j
Nasals	m	n	ŋ	m	n	ŋ
Liquids		l r			l r

"Broad" consonants are velarized, "slender" consonants are palatalized. The distinction is phonemic in Irish. Note that h is the only consonant phoneme without a broad/slender distinction. As in English, voiceless stops are aspirated word-initally, and unaspirated after s. Also, as in English, voiced stops may not be fully voiced but are never aspirated. Broad (velarized) consonants have a noticeable velar offglide before front vowels, thus ti: 'thatch' and ki: 'way, manner' are pronounced t^ɰi: and k^ɰi:. This velar offglide is labialized after labial consonants, so bi: 'yellow' is pronounced b^wi:. The realization of the slender consonants varies somewhat from dialect to dialect; for example t is an affricate tʃ in Ulster, a palatalized t^j in Connacht, and an apical postalveolar t in Munster. w and v are not separate phonemes. In Munster only v is found, and in Ulster only w. In Connacht w is found in syllable onsets and v in syllable codas. In older varieties of Irish, f and v were bilabial fricatives but today because of English influence most people make them labiodental. The broad coronals d n l have a dental articulation as in Romance languages, and as in the Hiberno-English pronunciation of the English th sounds of thin and this. s is not a palatalized alveolar but an alveopalatal fricative ɕ like Polish si or Mandarin x. r is a short palatalized flap similar to the tt in American English pretty. Slender x is a voiceless (post)palatal fricative like the German ich-Laut. j 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, e.g. freagra fragrə 'answer'. Cf. also seachain saxən 'avoid (imperative)' with slender n but seachnam saxni:m 'I avoid' with broad n, because it is next to broad x. But there are some systematic exceptions:

r is always broad before coronals, even when the second coronal sound itself is slender, e.g. airde a:rdə 'height', eirleach e:rləx 'destruction', tuirne tu:rnə 'spinning wheel', cairde ka:rdə 'friends'

Word-initial s is always broad before labials, even when the labial itself is slender, e.g. smig smig 'chin', speal spal 'scythe'

Vowels

The vowels and diphthongs of Irish are given in the chart below.

Short vowels	Long vowels		Diphthongs
i~u	i:	u:	ai	iə
e~o	e:	o:	au	uə
a		a:

The front-back contrast in short vowels is not phonemic.

The allophone i appears:

before slender consonants (written i, ui)

between a slender consonant and a broad coronal or h (written io)

The allophone u appears:

between broad consonants (written u; also in uicht, uirs, uirt(h) where the first consonant of the cluster is broad)

between a broad consonant and a broad labial or velar (written io, iu)

The allophone e appears:

before a slender consonant except s (written ei, oi)

rarely between a broad consonant and slender v in raibh rev 'was', saibhir sevər 'rich', and daibhir devər 'poor'

rarely between a slender consonant and a broad consonant, e.g. bheadh v'ex 'would be', bheadh s s'e: '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 s (written ois)

rarely between a slender consonant and a broad velar, e.g. deoch dox 'a drink', beag bog 'small'

The front-back distinction is phonemic among long vowels, and all long vowels and diphthongs can stand next to both qualities of consonant. Exception: iə stands only word-initially or after a slender consonant, while uə stands only word-initially or after a broad consonant. Thus minimal pairs for these two diphthongs can be found only word-initially, e.g. iallach iələx 'constraint' vs. ualach uələx 'burden'. The mid vowels are raised to high vowels before a nasal and orthographic mh v. Short vowels are reduced to schwa ə in unstressed syllables. Long i: is optionally diphthongized to iə before broad x, r, e.g. for fi:r ~ fiər 'true', eolaocht o:li:xt ~ o:liəxt 'science'. o 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 o: u: tend to be diphthongized before slender consonants, e.g. Mire ma:irə 'Mary', go fill fo:il 'still', cig ku:ig 'five'.

Vowel-initial words

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 arcn arka:n 'piglet' and uimhronn ivri:n 'numbers' (present-tense verb) are preceded by a proclitic ending in a consonant, that consonant is broad: m'arcn marka:n 'my piglet'; d'uimhrigh divri: 'numbered'. But when the words earc ark 'lizard' and imonn im'i:n 'leaves' (present-tense verb) are preceded by the same proclitics, the consonant is slender: m'earc mark 'my lizard'; d'imigh dimi: '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 arcn 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 f is lenited to zero, its quality remains if a consonant-final proclitic takes its place, as in: fargn>

farəga:n	'ledge'	\|\| m'fhargn \|\| marəga:n \|\| 'my ledge'
fearg	farəg	'anger'	\|\| m'fhearg \|\| marəg \|\| 'my anger'
filleann	filən	'returns'	\|\| d'fhill \|\| di:l \|\| 'returned'
fuilonn	fili:n	'bleeds'	\|\| d'fhuiligh \|\| dili: \|\| 'bled'

Stress in Irish

An Irish word normally has only one stressed syllable, namely the first one: capall 'horse'; seoltir 'sailor'; siopadir 'shopkeeper'. Certain adverbs and loan words have stress on a noninitial syllable: amhin 'only'; anuas 'down from above'; tobac 'tobacco'; Atlantach 'Atlantic'; matamaitic 'mathematics'. In compounds more than one syllable is stressed: menaois 'middle ages'; drochobair 'bad work'; dodhanta 'impossible, hard to do'; droch-mhenscoil 'bad secondary school'. Most compounds are like menaois, the primary stress falls on the first member and the secondary stress on the second: dlmhach 'two-handed'; seanathair 'grandfather'; oiseoil 'venison'. The prefixes do- 'bad, hard to ..., un-X-able', so- 'good, easy to...' and in- '-able' take the secondary accent; the primary accent falls on the second member: dothuigthe 'incomprehensible'; sodhanta 'easy to do'; inlta 'drinkable'. Some compounds have primary stress on both the first and the second member: bithbhuan 'everlasting'; comhbhrn 'sympathy'; gnthit 'usual place' promhoide 'principal (teacher)'

Irish Phonology

The Phonemes of Irish

Consonants

Vowels

Vowel-initial words

Stress in Irish

See also