Thanks guys.
Labhrás wrote:
Suairc wrote:
I feel I have a pretty good understanding of the Irish sound system but this is one area where I'm not sure.
Are the words an phian and an fíon pronounced identically do you think?
I can't think of more examples off the top of my head.
Go raibh maith agaibh.
I'd say "ia" is a real diphthong ([
iː] + [
ə]), so [
iːə],
but "ío" is [
iː] + on-glide [
ə] before velar consonants, so [
iːə].
The usual phon. transliteration is /p´iːən/ an /f´iːn/.
In reality, both are very close or even the same because [
ə~
ə] can be stronger or weaker.
Thanks for that, Labhrás. From what I've heard they seem pretty much identical in most cases. I think some speakers may have a more perceptible glide then others in the case of i:
∂ (sorry, not sure how to do the minuscule schwa or glide).
Also, I have a feeling that underdifferentiation of the diphthong i:∂ from long vowel i: may also be a factor? What do you think? I'm only shooting from the hip here!