It's been a while since I posted and was on a different board, but I'm back speaking Irish a bit more and I'm curious about my pronunciation of some words... (I've learned from a lot of different dialects over the years at school in Ireland, most of my teachers in primary school were from Munster if that's an influence.)

When I pronounce the following words I seem to add an extra vowel... and I'm not sure if it's right, or if it's a dialect thing or if I'm just bad at pronouncing these.

fearg (sounding like: far-ag)
gorm (sounding like: grr-um)
ainm (sounding like: an-im)

There's others too, but these are the ones that spring to mind, oh and dorcha (defintely 'door-a-ka' is how I say it) is a another. Hmm... it's like I'm making them into two syllable words rather than one, and in doing so I introduce a vowel?

(waves at familiar nicknames from... 2009/2010?)

Ah yeah, it is quite common. Known as a helping vowel in English or Guta cúnta in Irish. The dialects can be a little different in terms of when this helping vowel is inserted, but they all have it.

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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

Yes, they are two syllables.

Like An Lon Dubh said helping vowels are common. Although I don't know the rule of when to use or not to use.
Dorcha
Sorcha
Donncha
ceannbhán
... and loads more.



Waves back
Welcome to the forum Fio.

Go raibh maith agaibh!

Wouldn't that be more like gor-rum ?

Generally speaking after L, N, or R, and before B, BH, CH, G, M, or MH, an unwritten, unstressed vowel is pronounced — the so-called “epenthetic vowel”. This effect can also cross over into English as spoken by some Irish people, so that e.g. the English word “film” could be pronounced as “fill ’em”.

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Múinteoir Gaeilge - Irish Teacher
My "specialty" is Connemara Irish, particularly Cois Fhairrge dialect, but I can also speak Ulster and Munster Irish with native-level pronunciation.
Is fearr Gaeilge ḃriste ná Béarla cliste, cinnte, aċ i ḃfad níos fearr aríst í Gaeilge ḃinn ḃeo na nGaeltaċtaí.
Gaeilge Chonnacht (GC), go háraid Gaeilge Chois Fhairrge (GCF), Gaeilic Uladh (GU), Gaelainn na Mumhan (GM), agus Gaeilge an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil (CO).