Hello,

I have been practicing reading lots of sentences and trying to get my pronunciation more accurate. I am eventually aiming for the Connacht dialect, but I am using TYI for the time being so some of my pronunciations might be a bit "mixed". I am eventually aiming for Connacht as I visit Donegal often, so I am most likely to encounter Ulster Irish in life but I would prefer a happy medium, and I also just prefer the sound of Connacht dialects.

Any critique or pointers on how I am doing and how I can improve would be more than welcome.

I read the following sentences at: https://vocaroo.com/i/s1QFspadHoil

Tá bróga nua ag Máire
Tá gadder óg ag an mbóthar
Tá cóta mór ag Tadhg anois
Tá an tAifreann léite ag an sagart
Tá litir scríte ag Pádraig
Tá an doras dúnta ag an bpáiste
Tá an fhuinneog briste ag na garsúnaibh
Tá maide beag ag an ngadhar
Tá scoil nua ar barra an chnoic
Tá an t-airgead caillte ag Mícheál

Go rabid maith agaibh!

I'm sorry not to give more useful feedback.

It didn't sound like you pronounced the [ç] in Mícheál. it just sounded like a h to me

The word "chnoic" sounded altogether wrong to me. Sort of like /knək/ whereas I would have said it (and I am not an expert) /xrɪk/
(sorry I know those attempts at ipa are wrong)

There are other things, but I am not confident enough to point them out since I am not a native speaker

One thing I will say is that the cadence and stress of the sentences did not feel natural. I don't know if you were paying any attention to that, but if so, there you go.

And one other note -- the long vowels I believe should be longer. They are not just different sounds but are actually longer than the short vowels.

Again I am not a native speaker so if one tells you differently, believe her (or him)

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ЯГОН ТОҶИК НЕСТ ИНҶО???

I know you want to aim for Connacht pronunciation, but you've very good MUNSTER pronunciation , specifically Cork. Better than most learners of Irish

The use of the dative plural, and the fact that you used the word garsún instead of gasúr, in your example are other dead give aways that you have been learning Munster Irish; and since you mentioned TYI, I assume you have the older version, which is solely based on the Cork sub-dialect.

Just a few small issues:

Nua is pronounced as nú in native Munster and Connacht Irish (https://www.teanglann.ie/en/fuaim/nua).

and cnoc, you pronounced it as if it were in the nominative (i.e. broad); its genitive here so, the c should be palatalised and the o becomes a u sound. The older spelling was more accurate in this instance, e.g. mullach an chnuic and fear an phuist. In old Post Office signs you'll actually see fear an phuist.

ag na garsúnaibh, is actually aiges na garsúnaibh in all Munster dialects.

Scríte: The í in these situations is delengthened in Munster: scríte becomes /s'crit'ə/, dlíthe > dlite, ríthe > rite.

Another small issue, native Irish has a tendency to run words into each other, and to do this consonants are elided in certain situations, particularly in two instances.

(1) When you have a preposition + the definite article + a noun beginning with a consonant, the n in the definite article is devoiced.

In your example: Tá gadhar óg ag [you actually say ar] an mbóthar, I think you pronounce the n in the definite article, but you definitely have it with ag an sagart.

Respectfully, these should be ar a' mbóthar and ag a'sagart.

HOWEVER, If the noun following the preposition + def. article begins with a vowel, the n is pronounced.

(2) The same occurs with verbal nouns, the g in ag is voiced/ devoiced depending on whether the verbal noun in question begins with a consonant, or a vowel:

e.g. a' déanamh, a' dul, a' snámh vs 'g athrú, (its almost as if the a in ag is devoiced and the g become part of the verbal noun itself), 'g aistriú etc...

Scottish Gaelic actually incorporates this feature into its orthography, by marking the elision with an apostrophe.



I'm not sure what you mean. Can you give an example of a word containing [ç] that can be found on teanglann. Davush pronunciation sounded perfectly fine for how it is said in Munster Irish; c.f. Conchur version (https://forvo.com/word/m%C3%ADche%C3%A1l/#ga) vs Bríd's (https://forvo.com/word/miche%C3%A1l/#ga).




Apart from the issue with palatalisation, the n is pronounced as an n in Munster. Whereas, its an r everywhere else.



I thought it was perfectly fine for Munster Irish (cf. with native, Cork-Irish speakers on Doegen.ie: https://www.doegen.ie/taxonomy/term/21510).

Maybe I am misunderstanding what you mean by 'stress'.

Stress usually falls on the second syllable in Munster Irish; or, by 'stress' do you mean something more subtle. Like for instance, when you want to express possession in English, you stress the possessive adjective, e.g. 'that's MY ball', or 'that's MINE'. This doesn't occur in native Irish, an emphasising pronoun is used instead of shifting the stress, e.g. Is liom-sa an liathróid, and NOT is LIOM an liathróid; and ár gcuid-ne airgid and NOT ár GCUID airgid.

Could you explain more what you mean by 'stress', it sounds like an interesting point.

Cian

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Please wait for corrections/ more input from other forum members before acting on advice

Thank you both very much for your comments and encouragement!

As I’m currently only using TYI with the audio as a guide, I am indeed using Cork pronunciation. Although I’m aiming for Connacht, I have a feeling I may be converted to Munster dialect if I ever finish TYI...

The older spelling ‘chnuic’ does seem more intuitive! I always struggle with ‘oi’...

As an aside, can you recommend any other Munster Irish resources? Preferably with audio.

Many thanks!

What is spelt "oi" is pronounced either like "o" or like "i" and you can't never know, afaik, when one uses one pronunciation or the other -- have to learn by heart. It's one of the few things you can't guess from the spelling... Sometimes it depends on the dialect!

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Is fearr Gaeilg na Gaeltaċta ná Gaeilg ar biṫ eile
Agus is í Gaeilg Ġaoṫ Doḃair is binne

Here is David's answer concerning West Cork (Muskerry) pronunciation:

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Is fearr Gaeilg na Gaeltaċta ná Gaeilg ar biṫ eile
Agus is í Gaeilg Ġaoṫ Doḃair is binne

Am I right in assuming West Muskerry has scríofa because of something like scriobhtha > scríofa, where bh devoiced before /h/?

Yes, check out the Irish of West Muskerry.

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The dialect I use is Cork Irish.
Ar sgáth a chéile a mhairid na daoine, lag agus láidir, uasal is íseal

Afaik all dialects use and write scríofa, simplified spelling from the older spelling scríobhtha (which was more regular...). Only the spelling changed since the 1950s, the sound of bhth was already [f] before.

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Is fearr Gaeilg na Gaeltaċta ná Gaeilg ar biṫ eile
Agus is í Gaeilg Ġaoṫ Doḃair is binne

Acc. to the old (Cork based) TYI version it is "scríte (irreg.)"