Yes but that's a different thing between certain pairs of consonants, a neutral helping vowel (svarabhakti) appears, but as far as I know it doesn't happen at the beginning of words.
These helping vowels exist in Scottish Gaelic and also in Manx (but in Manx, not always in the same cases as in Irish). In Munster Irish they also use helping vowels in many more cases, where you don't have any in Connachta and Ulster.

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

Thank you for your kind words, Mick! Well, the recordings may be on slow speed for us learners, but they are definitely often merging the vowel at the end of one word with the vowel at the beginning of the next word, in the vein of your duin' eil' ann example.

That's why I hit replay so often on the audio! I have to figure out what's going on.

Lughaidh, I thought I had noticed a couple of instances where an unwritten vowel showed up in the pronunciation between a word that ends with a consonant and another that begins with a consonant, but of course I can't think of anything now. I will keep an eye (ear) out for that. It is entirely possible that I imagined it.

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Brand new Irish learner inclined to ask questions. Writer, Words & Worlds of New York, a website about language-learning. http://www.ellenjovin.com

Another reason for having the a at the beginning of ariamh is that slender r is usually broadened at the beginning of words, but the r in riamh really is slender and having an a at the beginning keeps it that way.


It might save a bit of embarassment.

So many beginners fail to pronounce the n in ainm AE-nim /æ:n´əm´/ as a slender n /n´/. Instead they broaden it and end up pronouncing ainm like anam AH-num /a:nəm/:

Pól is ainm dom. "My name is Paul" versus
Pól is anam dom. "My soul is Paul".

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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).

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a n-anam. May their souls be at the right hand of God.

Except I used to think the prayer was "May their NAMES be at the right hand of God." Actually, I like my version better (God checking names off that list he keeps on his right hand side).

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Táim ag foghlaim fós. Fáilte roimh gach aon cheartúchán.

There's another website that accompanies a book where you can listen to the way dialects vary from one another and that's Fuaimeanna na Gaeilge - www.fuaimeanna.ie/en/ which was posted in the Learning Resources section here on this forum by Saoirse, which I find very interesting and is in addition to Forvo. You can also listen to words pronounced on the online dictionary www.focloir.ie which is now linked together with Pota Focal.com srl

that's why we say "uh-yee-uw" in Gaoth Dobhair

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

[əˈjiu]

The good thing about Gaoth Dobhair Gaelic is that even for beginners it's mighty hard to confuse broad and slender r

ə ˈjiu or əˈjiəw
well, not all slender r's are pronounced y, it's only between vowels (in most words) and at the end of words, and in very few words after a consonant, as in "oibre".

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

Granted. On second thought, that might make it even harder, since you're likely not to know these exceptions unless you happened to have heard them on Raidió na Gaeltachta (or have been there to amuse the locals with your horrible Irish ).

Also, since I'm here already and the topic has gone haywire anyway, I might as well hijack the thread: I read that "The Ulster /oː/ corresponds to the /au/ of other dialects." One thing I can think of is "amhrán", whose Scottish Gaelic cognate is "òran" [ˈɔːɾənˠ]. Am I therefore correct in assuming it would become [ˈoːɹænˠ] (or something similar) and if yes, does this happen to all "abh" and "amh"?

P.S. Is there no way to edit a post? I don't like double-posting.