Hi! I’m researching flower names in Irish. I’ve noticed from past experiences that Ulster SEEMS to generally put the word emphasis on the FIRST syllable, regardless of word length. But, for example, it seems really odd for the words “peatúinia”/ “gairdéine”/ “hiodrainsia” to be pronounced “PAT•oon•yuh”/ “GERR•dayn•yuh”/ “HUH•drahn•shuh” ... and even stranger as plurals, such as hiodrainsianna = “HUH•drahn•shuh•nuh”

Focloír and Teanglann don’t have pronunciations for these. I put them through the Ulster filter on Abair.ie, and, AUDIBLY, it sounds like the emphasis is on the second syllable, but, when I press “show IPA” and “show emphasis,” it says it’s on the first.

I’m thoroughly confused. Can anyone please help? Thank you!!!

I don't speak Donegal Irish, so I don't know about stress.

But what doesn't help is that those are coined words, made up words so that there is an Irish version of every botanical word in English or Latin. So stress probably wouldn't be natural.

I'd say most Gaeltacht speakers would say "hydrangea", I don't think there is another Gaeltacht term for them, although they are extremely common growing wild on bogs and in gardens.

A natural translation, for example, is "Deora Dé" for "fushia", not "fiúise".

I speak Donegal Irish but it looks like most of these names are adaptations from English, so even if we usually stress words on the 1st syllable in Ulster, I think people may stress these words on the same syllable as the English original words...

Also, the plural -anna doesn't exist outside Munster (and in Standard Irish that got it from Munster), Donegal people say -annaí instead.

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

Thank you both so much! This was very helpful!