Ar a laghad

Féabar · **Posted:** Fri 16 Dec 2011 12:09 pm

I know this may be simple, but I've never heard it pronounced and would like to see a standard and Donegal pronunciation.

Lughaidh · **Joined:** Thu 15 Sep 2011 12:06 pm **Posts:** 2436

"airh uh laid" /er' ə Le:d/
-agha- is often a long é sound in Ulster.

kokoshneta · **Joined:** Wed 07 Sep 2011 5:05 pm **Posts:** 422

I don’t think there’s all that much variation in how this particular phrase is pronounced.

I’d pronounce it either as Lughaidh wrote, or slightly more standard-esque, as [əɾ ə ˈɫaɪd], i.e., “uhr uh LIED”. I think the latter is more or less how it would be in the other dialects, too.

Lughaidh · **Joined:** Thu 15 Sep 2011 12:06 pm **Posts:** 2436

Yeah, -agh(a)- is generally /ai/ in Munster and Connachta and /e:/ in Ulster.
Other example : aghaidh, pronounced /e:i/ in Ulster, /ai/ in Connachta and /aig'/ in Munster...

Breandán · **Posted:** Fri 16 Dec 2011 1:13 pm

Connacht:

ar a laghad
airh uh LIED
/er´ ə Laid/

Féabar · **Posted:** Fri 16 Dec 2011 1:59 pm

Thanks so much. I was thinking it was a "hard" - broad"ish" "g" and something didn't feel right about that. I had forgotten about ar aghaidh which I say all the time. When I started a couple of years ago, Brendan told me that Irish had a system about it that in time made the pronunciation predictable. I can't say I believed him too much at time. He was very very right. I now can get it right about 90% of the time before I hear it.

When I was in Donegal last summer, I saw other students who have been at it for 20+ years and they were still writing out Irish in their own "phonetical" alphabets. I think this is a HUGE crippling impediment on learning. I sometimes put my own pronunciation notes if I find a word "way weird and not what I expected", but that is the exception now.

Buíochas le Breadán!
Féabar Mac

:GRMA:

kokoshneta · **Joined:** Wed 07 Sep 2011 5:05 pm **Posts:** 422

Lughaidh wrote:

Yeah, -agh(a)- is generally /ai/ in Munster and Connachta and /e:/ in Ulster.
Other example : aghaidh, pronounced /e:i/ in Ulster, /ai/ in Connachta and /aig'/ in Munster...

And some speakers from the far north of Donegal (maybe other places?) tend to pronounce it in that very peculiar way they also pronounce ao, viz., as [ɨː] or [ɯː].

I always hated that. I had a teacher once who had that, and whenever he said something like saol [sɯːɫ], caora [ˈkʰɯːɾə], or even these two words, laghad/aghaidh [ɫɯ͡ɪd/ɯ͡ɪ], I’d cringe a wee bit. Such an unbecoming sound for the Irish language. (To my ears, anyway)

Lughaidh · **Joined:** Thu 15 Sep 2011 12:06 pm **Posts:** 2436

I heard that sound for "ao" but never for agha so far. Actually I kinda like this sound, it's funny. But normally I don't use it since I try to speak the Irish of the western part of Gaoth Dobhair (that ao sound is used in the eastern part, and in Cloich Cheannaola and Rann na Feirste etc).

kokoshneta · **Joined:** Wed 07 Sep 2011 5:05 pm **Posts:** 422

Lughaidh wrote:

I heard that sound for "ao" but never for agha so far. Actually I kinda like this sound, it's funny. But normally I don't use it since I try to speak the Irish of the western part of Gaoth Dobhair (that ao sound is used in the eastern part, and in Cloich Cheannaola and Rann na Feirste etc).

I think it’s limited to the north eastern parts of the county for -agha- (and perhaps only for those few words, I don’t know). I haven’t heard it in people from Cloich Cheannaola and Rann na Feirste either. (Though I have to admit, I can’t recall hearing it for -ao- in people from Cloich Cheannaola, either)

Lughaidh · **Joined:** Thu 15 Sep 2011 12:06 pm **Posts:** 2436

Tá mise chóir a bheith cinnte gur chualaidh mé é ó dhaoiní as Gort a' Choirce (fá choinne -ao-)

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