Cliathach wrote:
Dia daoibh aríst.
Tá ceist bheag a'm. The modh Coinníollach has always given me trouble so I want to get it right this time round. Am I correct in assuming that the "f" in this modh is not pronounced (or maybe it's that it is pronounce like a "h"? I can't for the life of me remember)? So Déarfainn would be pronounced (roughly) along the lines of déar-in ?
Depends on dialect and verb, but more or less usually "h" (except for 2nd person -fá and impersonal -faí with pronounced f)
So, "
déar-hinn", yes.
Verbs with -b, -d, -g, -bh, -mh devoice this sound, so we get -p, -t, -c, -f (e.g. ligfinn -> "
licinn")
Cliathach wrote:
Also the 3rd person sing/plural always gave me trouble ith regard to pronunciation, "Déarfadh sé" again I'm assuming the "f" isnt pronounced but what about the "adh" part? Abair.ie (which I know is not concrete so to speak) comes out with a slight "ch" kind of sound "déar-hach" is what I can hear, though I could be hearing things. .
That depends on dialect and the subject word.
In Munster "
déar-hach" all the time
In Connacht "
déar-hach" with nouns, but "
déar-hit" with sé, sí, siad
In Ulster "
déar-hú" with nouns, but "
déar-hit" with sé, sí, siad
BTW, there's a special 3rd person plural form: déarfaidís ("
déar-hidís"), ligfidís ("
licidís")