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Irish phonology varies from dialect to dialect; there is no standard pronunciation of Irish language. Therefore, this article focuses on phenomena shared by most or all dialects, and on the major differences among the dialects. Detailed discussion of the dialects can be found in the specific articles: Ulster Irish, Connacht Irish, and Munster Irish.
Irish phonology has been studied as a discipline since the late 19th century, with numerous researchers publishing descriptive accounts of dialects from all regions where the language is spoken. More recently, Irish phonology has been a focus of theoretical linguists.
One of the most important aspects of Irish phonology is that almost all (except ) come in pairs, a "broad" and a "slender" pronunciation. Broad consonants are either velarized (◌ˠ; back of tongue is pulled back and slightly up in the direction of the soft palate during articulation) or simply Velar consonant (for example, ). Slender consonants are palatalized (◌ʲ; tongue pushed up towards the hard palate during articulation). 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. For example, the only difference in pronunciation between the words bó ('cow') and beo ('alive') is that bó is pronounced with broad , while beo is pronounced with slender . The contrast between broad and slender consonants plays a critical role not only in distinguishing the individual consonants themselves, but also in the pronunciation of the surrounding , in the determination of which consonants can stand next to each other, and in the behaviour of words that begin with a vowel. This broad/slender distinction is similar to the hard/soft one of several Slavic languages, like Russian language.
Irish shares a number of phonological characteristics with its nearest linguistic relatives, Scottish Gaelic and Manx language, as well as with Hiberno-English, which it currently has the most language contact with.
Research into the theoretical phonology of Irish began with , which follows the principles and practices of Chomsky and Halle's The Sound Pattern of English and which formed the basis of the phonology sections of . Dissertations examining Irish phonology from a theoretical point of view include , in optimality theory, and and in government phonology.
| + Consonant phonemes ! rowspan="2" colspan="2" | ! colspan="2" Labial consonant ! colspan="2" | Coronal ! colspan="2" | Dorsal consonant ! rowspan="2" | Glottal |
Similarly, slender (palatal or palatalised) consonants have a palatal offglide (; like English ) before , e.g. tiubh ('thick') is pronounced .
When a broad consonant follows a front vowel, there is a very short vowel sound (called an onglide) just before the consonant, e.g. díol ('sell') is pronounced . Similarly, when a slender consonant follows a back vowel, there is an onglide before the consonant, e.g. áit ('place') is pronounced ,óil ('drinking' genitive case) is pronounced , meabhair ('understanding') is , and dúinn ('to us') is .
These all are also a feature of certain Slavic languages such as Russian language, and a feature of Lithuanian.
(written as ) has two basic [[allophone]]s: the labiovelar approximant and the velarized voiced labiodental fricative . The distribution of these allophones varies from dialect to dialect. In Munster, generally only is found, and in Ulster generally only is found. In Connacht, is found word-initially before vowels (e.g. bhfuil 'is') and in other positions (e.g. naomh 'saint', fómhar 'autumn', and bhrostaigh 'hurried').
The remaining labial fricatives are typically labiodental , but they as well as the fricative allophone of have bilabial allophones in many dialects; the distribution depends partly on environment (bilabials are more likely to be found adjacent to rounded vowels) and partly on the individual speaker.
Most coronals are alveolar, except broad stops and approximants which are typically Dental consonant , and the slender fricative is typically postalveolar . may be realized as alveolo-palatal in a number of dialects, including Tourmakeady, Erris, and Teelin.
may be true palatals or [[palatovelars|velar consonant]] .
has three allophones in most dialects: a palatal approximant before vowels (except ) and [[syllable]]-finally (e.g. dheas 'nice', beidh 'will be'); a voiced (post)palatal fricative before consonants (e.g. ghrian 'sun'); and an intermediate sound (with more frication than but less frication than ) before (e.g. dhírigh 'straightened').
has the primary allophone , a palatalized postalveolar fricative.
In many varieties, and alternate with under a variety of circumstances. For example, as the lenition of and , is replaced by before back vowels, e.g. thabharfainn ('I would give'), sheoil ('drove'). In Munster, becomes after a vowel, e.g. fiche ('twenty'). In Ring, final becomes in monosyllabic words, e.g. scáth ('fear'). In some Ulster varieties, e.g. Tory Island, can be replaced by , e.g. cha ('not'), be deleted word-finally or before , e.g. santach ('greedy') and seacht ('seven').
As in English language, voiceless stops are aspirated (articulated with a puff of air immediately upon release) at the start of a word, while voiced stops may be incompletely voiced but are never aspirated. Voiceless Stop consonant are unaspirated after and (e.g. scanradh 'terror'); however, stops remain aspirated after the clitic is (e.g. is cam 'it's crooked'). Several researchers (e.g. , , , , and ) use transcriptions like , etc., indicating they consider the stops that occur after voiceless fricatives to be devoiced allophones of the voiced stops rather than unaspirated allophones of the voiceless stops, but this is a minority view.
In the modern language, the four rhotics have been reduced to two in all dialects, having merged as . For the laterals and nasals, some dialects have kept all four distinct, while others have reduced them to three or two distinct phonemes, as summarized in the following table.
| word-initially elsewhere | |||||||
| Note: and are alveolo-palatal consonants. | |||||||
As for fortis and lenis , in time the lenis version (nasalized semivowel or labial fricative) came to be pronounced as a regular semivowel or fricative along with nasalization of the preceding vowel. The later loss of between vowels has resulted in phonemically nasalized vowels in some modern dialects (see below), but these are not robustly maintained in any dialect; the strong tendency is to eliminate the nasalization entirely. The original nasalized semivowel is still reflected as in the spelling, however.
The vowels of Ulster Irish are more divergent and are not discussed in this article.
The near-close vowels and show a similar pattern. is realized between slender consonants as a front , e.g. tigh ('house' dative case). After a slender consonant and before a broad one, it is a near-front vowel , e.g. giota ('piece'). After a broad consonant and before a slender one, it is a more retracted , e.g. tuigeann ('understands'). Finally, between two broad consonants it is a central , e.g. goirt ('salty'). is a near-back vowel when all adjacent consonants are broad, e.g. dubh ('black'), and a more centralized after a slender consonant, e.g. giobal ('rag').
The short also vary depending on their environment. Short ranges from a front between slender consonants (e.g. beidh 'will be') to a retracted between a broad and a slender consonant (e.g. bead 'I will be', raibh 'was') to a central when the only adjacent consonant is broad (e.g. croich 'cross' dat.). Short between two broad consonants is usually a back , e.g. cloch ('stone'), but it is a centralized adjacent to nasal stop and , e.g. ansan ('there') and bog ('soft'). Between a broad and a slender consonant, it is a more open : scoil ('school'), deoch ('drink').
In Connacht varieties, the allophones of short are consistently further front than the allophones of long . In Erris, for example, short ranges from a near-open front vowel before slender consonants (e.g. sail 'earwax') to an open after slender consonants (e.g. geal 'bright') to a centralized back between broad consonants (e.g. capall 'horse'). Long , on the other hand, ranges from a back between broad consonants (e.g. bád 'boat') to an advanced back before slender consonants (e.g. fáil 'to get') to a centralized back after slender consonants (e.g. breá 'fine'). In Toormakeady, the back allophone is rounded to after broad labials, e.g. bán ('white'). In Connemara, the allophones of are lengthened in duration, so that only vowel quality distinguishes the allophones of from those of .
The starting point of ranges from a near-open central after broad consonants to an open-mid advanced central after slender consonants, and its end point ranges from a near-close near-back before broad consonants to a centralized before slender consonants.. Examples include bodhar ('deaf'), feabhas ('improvement'), labhairt ('speak'), and meabhair ('memory'). In West Muskerry and the Dingle Peninsula, however, the starting point of is rounded and further back after broad consonants, e.g. gabhar ('goat').
The starting point of ranges from a close front after slender consonants to a retracted after word-initial broad (the only context in which it appears after a broad consonant). Its end point ranges from a mid central before broad consonants to a close-mid centralized front before slender consonants. Examples include ciall ('sense'), riamh ('ever'), and diabhail ('devils').
The starting point of is consistently a close back while the end point ranges from to : thuas ('above'), uan ('lamb'), buail ('strike').
| 'yarn' |
| 'luck' |
| 'righteous' |
| 'hound' |
| 'two people' |
| 'limit' |
| 'day' |
| 'generous' |
| 'washing' |
| 'saying' |
In addition, where a vowel is nasalized because it is adjacent to a nasal consonant, it often retains its nasalization in related forms where the consonant is no longer nasal. For example, the nasal of máthair ('mother') is replaced by nonnasal in the phrase a mháthair ('his mother'), but the vowel remains nasalized. Similarly, in sneachta ('snow') the vowel after the is nasalized, while in an tsneachta ('the snow' gen.), the is replaced by in some northern dialects, but the nasalized vowel remains.
One exception to quality agreement is that broad is found before slender labials (and for some speakers in Connemara and Dingle before as well). Examples include: sméara ('berries'), speal ('scythe'), spleách ('dependent'), spreag ('inspire'), and scéal ('story').
In the environment of an initial consonant mutation, there is a much wider range of possible onset clusters; for example, in a lenition environment the following occur: bhlas ('tasted'), bhris ('broke'), chleacht ('practiced'), chrom ('bent'), ghreamaigh ('stuck'), ghníomhaigh ('acted'), shleamhnaigh ('slipped'), shnámh ('swam'), shroich ('reached'). In an eclipsis environment, the following are found: mbláth ('flower'), mbliana ('years'), mbrisfeá ('you would break'), ndlúth ('warp'), ndroichead ('bridge'), ndréimire ('ladder'), ngléasfá ('you would dress'), ngreadfá ('you would leave'), ngníomhófá ('you would act').
In Donegal, Mayo, and Connemara dialects (but not usually on the Aran Islands), the coronal nasals can follow only respectively in a word-initial cluster. After other consonants, they are replaced by : cnoc ('hill'), mná ('women'), gnaoi ('liking'), tnúth ('long for').
Under lenition, become as expected in these dialects, but after the definite article an they become : sneachta ('snow'), shneachta ('snow' lenited), an tsneachta ('the snow' gen.).
A cluster of , , or followed by a labial or dorsal consonant (except the voiceless stops , ) is broken up by an epenthesis vowel : borb ('abrupt'), gorm ('blue'), dearmad ('mistake'), dearfa ('certain'), seirbhís ('service'), fearg ('anger'), dorcha ('dark'), dalba ('bold'), colm ('dove'), soilbhir ('pleasant'), gealbhan ('sparrow'), binb ('venom'), Banbha, (a name for Ireland), ainm ('name'), meanma ('mind'), ainmhí ('animal').
There is no epenthesis, however, if the vowel preceding the cluster is long or a diphthong: fáirbre ('wrinkle'), téarma ('term'), léargas ('insight'), dualgas ('duty'). There is also no epenthesis into words that are at least three syllables long: firmimint ('firmament'), smiolgadán ('throat'), caisearbhán ('dandelion'), Cairmilíteach ('Carmelite').
One analysis of these facts is that vowel-initial words actually begin, at an abstract level of representation, with a kind of "empty" consonant that consists of nothing except the information "broad" or "slender". Another analysis is that vowel-initial words, again at an abstract level, all begin with one of two , one triggering palatalization and the other triggering velarization of a preceding consonant.
In Donegal and Mayo, lengthening is found only before , before (except when a vowel follows), and in a few words also before word-final , e.g. barr ('top'), ard ('tall'), orlach ('inch'), tuirne ('spinning wheel'), thall ('yonder').
In Connemara, the Aran Islands, and Munster, lengthening is found generally not only in the environments listed above, but also before (unless a vowel follows) and before word-final . For example, the word poll ('hole') is pronounced in all of these regions, while greim ('grip') is pronounced in Connemara and Aran and in Munster.
Because vowels behave differently before broad sonorants than before slender ones in many cases, and because there is generally no lengthening (except by analogy) when the sonorants are followed by a vowel, there is a variety of vowel alternations between different related word-forms. For example, in Dingle ceann ('head') is pronounced with a diphthong, but cinn (the genitive singular of the same word) is pronounced with a long vowel, while ceanna (the plural, meaning 'heads') is pronounced with a short vowel.
This lengthening has received a number of different explanations within the context of theoretical phonology. All accounts agree that some property of the fortis sonorant is being transferred to the preceding vowel, but the details about what property that is vary from researcher to researcher. also repeated in argue that the fortis sonorant is tenseness (a term only vaguely defined phonetically) and that this tenseness is transferred to the vowel, where it is realized phonetically as vowel length and/or diphthongization. argues that the triggering consonant is underlyingly associated with a unit of syllable weight called a mora; this mora then shifts to the vowel, creating a long vowel or a diphthong. expands on that analysis to argue that the fortis sonorants have an advanced tongue root (that is, the bottom of the tongue is pushed upward during articulation of the consonant) and that diphthongization is an articulatory effect of this tongue movement.
may also assimilate to the place of articulation of a following consonant, becoming labial before a labial consonant, palatal before a palatal consonant, and velar before a velar consonant. For example, of ceann ('one') becomes in ceann bacach ('a lame one') and in ceann carrach ('a scabbed one'). A voiced consonant at the end of a word may devoice when the next word begins with a voiceless consonant, as in lúb sé ('he bent'), where of lúb ('bent') became before the voiceless of sé.
In most compound words, primary stress falls on the first member and a secondary stress (ˌ◌) falls on the second member, e.g. lagphortach ('spent bog'). Some compounds, however, have primary stress on both the first and the second member, e.g. deargbhréag ('a terrible lie').
In Munster, stress is attracted to a long vowel or diphthong in the second or third syllable of a word, e.g. cailín ('girl'), achainí ('request'). In the now-extinct accent of East Mayo, stress was attracted to a long vowel or diphthong in the same way as in Munster; in addition, stress was attracted to a short vowel before word-final when that word was also final in its utterance. For example, capall ('horse') was pronounced in isolation or as the last word of a sentence, but as in the middle of a sentence.
In Munster, stress is attracted to in the second syllable of a word if it is followed by , provided the first syllable (and third syllable, if there is one) contains a short vowel. Examples include bacach ('lame') and slisneacha ('chips'). However, if the first or third syllable contains a long vowel or diphthong, stress is attracted to that syllable instead, and the before is reduced to as normal, e.g. éisteacht ('listen'), moltachán ('wether').
| Bhí sé ag amharc amach as an bhfuinneog nuair a bhí mise ag dul thart. | He was looking out the window when I went past. | |
| He wouldn't see a hole through a ladder (i.e. he's very near-sighted). | ||
| I am wet through and through. | ||
| He took a large stone and he threw it against the window. | ||
| He came in in a rage. | ||
| ―Did you pay much for the turf? ―We certainly did, considering how little there is of it. | ||
| I come there every day but often I'm not very welcome. | ||
| I have heard tell that we'll have a wet summer this year, but it seems to me that that story is strange. | ||
| Are the potatoes as good as he said? | ||
| The Irish spoken in Munster isn't the same as our Irish. |
The first eight chapters of Peadar Ua Laoghaire's autobiography at Wikisource include recordings of the text being read by a native speaker of Muskerry (Munster) Irish.
Manx and many dialects of Scottish Gaelic share with Ulster Irish the property of not reducing unstressed to before .
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