I've heard two pronunciations of "leabhair". I can't tell if it's dependent on how it's used or if it's just a difference between speakers in the recordings I'm hearing.

In one sentence: Tá na leabhair mór. - It's being pronounced more like "laoish" (ao sounding like the 'ow' in cow). Always the same speaker which makes me think it's just her accent.
In most other uses: Tá sé na leabhair. - It's pronounced with the 'air' at the end sound like a soft 'ed' or 'et' - lao-ed.

Anyone have any insight if there's supposed to be a difference in how the work is pronounced depending on how it's used (same spelling) or if this is possibly just a difference in the accents of the speakers the program uses?

GRMA,
Kelly

Evidently books are a sore point for me

Same lesson there was something that is bugging me but I can't tell if it's just an oversight (i.e. wrong) or I'm just missing something.

The picture is of 3 girls with a book each. The text is "Tá leabhair againn." - We have books.
Same picture in another frame has this text: "Táimid ag léamh leabhar." - We read book(?). It seems like that should be "Táimid ag léamh leabhair." Am I missing something?

Thanks. I'll try to find a non-book related question next time :P

GRMA,
Kelly

I'll leave the pronunciation question to others, but in this case what you're seeing is the genitive plural ("of books"), and the Irish actually says (idiomatically):

Táimid ag léamh leabhar
We are at the reading of books

That structure, using the genitive (plural, in this case) is very common in Irish.

By contrast, in the first expression, "books" is in the nominative case:

Tá leabhair againn
We have books ["There are books at us"]

_________________
I'm not a native (or entirely fluent) speaker, so be sure to wait for confirmations/corrections, especially for tattoos.

This is only my own interpretation of this phenomon:
At the end of an utterance a slender "r" sounds often like a "d" because the flap is performed incompletely, a "half flap", i.e. the tip of tongue stays at the gums, the sound ends in a silent release of air, resembling a stop sound "d"
In the middle of an utterance the flap is complete, a "full flap". So a rather buzzing, fricative sound occurs like "zh"

In IPA perhaps [ ɾ̝ ̚ ] (at the end) vs. [ ɾ̝ ] (normal)

Hey Kelly,

Do you know Turkish or have you listened to Turkish? They have the same slender "r" as Irish and it is much easier to find someone to speak Turkish for you than Irish if you are not in Ireland (or perhaps even if you are *sigh*). Like Labhrás was explaining, it can sound very much like a "zh" especially at the end of words.

If you would like to listen to a recording that is 100% correct go to:
https://forvo.com/word/leabhair/#ga
and listen to the one by Bríd Eilis (she says leabhair and then leabhartha in the recording)
leabhair being the standard and leabhartha the dialect form

I find this sound to be one of many that the vast majority of learners completely ignore and fail to reproduce so it is good indeed that your attention has been brought to it.

Cúmhaí

_________________
ЯГОН ТОҶИК НЕСТ ИНҶО???

In Scottish Gaelic, a slender "r" also approaches a "th" sound, originally only in some dialects, but increasingly now in most places.

_________________
I'm not a native (or entirely fluent) speaker, so be sure to wait for confirmations/corrections, especially for tattoos.

O.k. That makes sense. I completely didn't consider that the genitive plural would be spelled the same as the nominative singular. Thanks for the explanation. That's going to take some getting used to.

Appreciate it!

Kelly

Thanks to you and Labhrás for explaining this. It was confusing me and I really couldn't tell if it was just a dialect difference. So, in general the slender 'r' at the end of words will have that "zsh" sound? I'll definitely listen to the recording at the link you provided.

Thanks to you both!

Kelly

Not in all dialects. In Gaoth Dobhair "ir" becomes "ee." And in Southwestern Donegal, the main difference is in the vowel sound...the "r"doesn't have that "tipped" sound you hear in Connacht.

Redwolf

Not in all dialects. In Gaoth Dobhair "ir" becomes "ee." And in Southwestern Donegal, the main difference is in the vowel sound...the "r"doesn't have that "tipped" sound you hear in Connacht.

Redwolf[/quote]

O.k. I guess for now I'll try to stick with CO until I feel that's ingrained enough that another dialect won't make me start questioning my own pronunciation.

I will say, I listened to the pronunciation that was suggested here: https://forvo.com/word/leabhair/ by BridEllis and it almost seems to me that the starting consonant sounds more like a 'g' than an 'l'.

Oh well, time will improve both my ear and tongue I suppose. As always, thanks to everyone for the insight and references.

Kelly