I generally use the lips and tongue, much in the manner of English, but I high school I knew a guy who could burp tune names on command, in English or Gaelic. So you see, there's always more than one way to do it.
Firstly DON'T use the English alphabet. Nothin te do wid notin.
Irish has European vowels and constantants closer to Magar/Dutch than any other language I know. (I lived in The Netherlands- Holland for you (some) dumbos- and toured for 6 weeks per year for 5 yrs in Hungary in the early 80's). I'm familiar with three or four languages other than those and English / Irish and Latin.
You gotta HEAR IT to get it. Irish dosen't have an H officially (or j,k,q,v,w,x,y,z) so.......... it's a grammer thing. NEVER pronounce it. ie Mahon is Ma'aan. Cliffs of Moher.... Moore. etc C is closser to K and fh is w. Bh is V, opposite of Spanish. For more check out Gaelic League or Comhaltas web-sites.
Peter
I might not be able to give you a completely correct answer, since I don't know nor speak Irish-- but if the pronuncation is anything similar to Gaidhlig (that is, Scottish Gaelic), then here would be the pronunciations:
An Buachaill Caol Dubh -- [ An Boo'ha'l Kaowl Du ]
An Buachaillin Ban -- [An Boo'ha'lin Baan]
Yes, 'bh' is sometimes pronouced as a ''v',' however at the end of a word (and sometimes often in the middle-- like the word sabhal-- which is pronounced [saal].) often the bh is silent.
Thanks for clarifying that only *some* of us are dumbos, Peter :~}
But your absolutely right about you have to hear it to get it. Several years ago I got mesel one of them Teach Yourself books on Scots Gaelic. I was doing not bad, I got through a handful of chapters (forgotten it all now of course).
A gang of us were out for a drink one night in London. My mate's girlfriend was there. She's from the Outer Hebrides and her first language is Gaelic. So I decides to sledge her with some text book phrases....guess what? She couldn't understand a word of it! So I had to say in English what I *meant* to say in Gaelic. So she goes "Oh, you mean ...$£^*&f*&!%, don't you?" ...totally different from the phonetic spelling. If I'd've been sober I might have been embarassed, but as it was, it was all a bit of larff. So yep, you have to hear it.
Doesn't that apply to all languages? Many languages may share the same alphabet, but each has its own system of pronunciation and spelling, and has sounds that do not necessarily exist in other languages. It is perhaps more true of Irish than some european languages, since the alphabet that it uses (a version of the Latin alphabet) is so inadequate for its purposes - since there are many more sounds than there are letters, all manner of vowel and consonant combinations need to be used, and even some of these can represent more than one sound, according to what precedes or follows them. But if it were up to me, I wouldn't change it for the World.
http://www.lincolnu.edu/~focal/ Has a pretty good pronunciation guide- yes, you do have to hear it, and you will run into variations depending on the dialect.
It really, really helps to hear the language spoken on a regular basis. I spend part of each day listening to Raidió na Gaeltachta (you can listen on-line at http://www.rte.ie/rnag/ ... click on Éist to listen to the live stream...some good music too!) and I'm also a fan of the TV program Turas Teanga, which is available on DVD from RTÉ here: http://www.rte.ie/tv/turasteanga/). Even so, my pronunciation is shaky, and I tend to get my dialects mixed up!
If you're ever looking for an Irish translation or pronunciation, visit us at http://www.irishgaelictranslator.com. There's a live forum where people are always willing to help others out with the Irish language.
How do you pronounce these words...?
How do you pronounce these words...?
An Buachaill Caol Dubh
and
An Buachaillin Ban
...
I've ALWAYS wanted to know! By the way...
I teh lurve An Buachaill Caol Dubh
Cheers,
Armand
# Posted on February 7th 2005 by fiddlinviolinin
Re: How do you pronounce these words...?
I generally use the lips and tongue, much in the manner of English, but I high school I knew a guy who could burp tune names on command, in English or Gaelic. So you see, there's always more than one way to do it.
# Posted on February 7th 2005 by Jon Kiparsky
Re: How do you pronounce these words...?
(Don't forget On Bookal Bawn, jim)
# Posted on February 7th 2005 by Kerri Brown
Re: How do you pronounce these words...?
Firstly DON'T use the English alphabet. Nothin te do wid notin.
Irish has European vowels and constantants closer to Magar/Dutch than any other language I know. (I lived in The Netherlands- Holland for you (some) dumbos- and toured for 6 weeks per year for 5 yrs in Hungary in the early 80's). I'm familiar with three or four languages other than those and English / Irish and Latin.
You gotta HEAR IT to get it. Irish dosen't have an H officially (or j,k,q,v,w,x,y,z) so.......... it's a grammer thing. NEVER pronounce it. ie Mahon is Ma'aan. Cliffs of Moher.... Moore. etc C is closser to K and fh is w. Bh is V, opposite of Spanish. For more check out Gaelic League or Comhaltas web-sites.
Peter
# Posted on February 7th 2005 by Peter O'Connor
Re: How do you pronounce these words...?
I might not be able to give you a completely correct answer, since I don't know nor speak Irish-- but if the pronuncation is anything similar to Gaidhlig (that is, Scottish Gaelic), then here would be the pronunciations:
An Buachaill Caol Dubh -- [ An Boo'ha'l Kaowl Du ]
An Buachaillin Ban -- [An Boo'ha'lin Baan]
Yes, 'bh' is sometimes pronouced as a ''v',' however at the end of a word (and sometimes often in the middle-- like the word sabhal-- which is pronounced [saal].) often the bh is silent.
Hope this helps.
Tioraidh,
John
# Posted on February 7th 2005 by hiharin83
Re: How do you pronounce these words...?
Thanks for clarifying that only *some* of us are dumbos, Peter :~}
But your absolutely right about you have to hear it to get it. Several years ago I got mesel one of them Teach Yourself books on Scots Gaelic. I was doing not bad, I got through a handful of chapters (forgotten it all now of course).
A gang of us were out for a drink one night in London. My mate's girlfriend was there. She's from the Outer Hebrides and her first language is Gaelic. So I decides to sledge her with some text book phrases....guess what? She couldn't understand a word of it! So I had to say in English what I *meant* to say in Gaelic. So she goes "Oh, you mean ...$£^*&f*&!%, don't you?" ...totally different from the phonetic spelling. If I'd've been sober I might have been embarassed, but as it was, it was all a bit of larff. So yep, you have to hear it.
# Posted on February 7th 2005 by Alf Tupper
Re: How do you pronounce these words...?
"You gotta HEAR IT to get it."
Doesn't that apply to all languages? Many languages may share the same alphabet, but each has its own system of pronunciation and spelling, and has sounds that do not necessarily exist in other languages. It is perhaps more true of Irish than some european languages, since the alphabet that it uses (a version of the Latin alphabet) is so inadequate for its purposes - since there are many more sounds than there are letters, all manner of vowel and consonant combinations need to be used, and even some of these can represent more than one sound, according to what precedes or follows them. But if it were up to me, I wouldn't change it for the World.
# Posted on February 7th 2005 by ragaman
Re: How do you pronounce these words...?
No. It doesn't apply to sign language, Braille, or C++, to name a few.
# Posted on February 7th 2005 by GaryAMartin
Re: How do you pronounce these words...?
Heeeey... Well what do ya know?
My first interpretation of An Buachaill Caol Dubh is similar to the Scots Gaelic! Rock on XD
Anywho, ok, thank you all. This makes me happy =]
Cheers,
Armand
# Posted on February 7th 2005 by fiddlinviolinin
Re: How do you pronounce these words...?
http://www.lincolnu.edu/~focal/ Has a pretty good pronunciation guide- yes, you do have to hear it, and you will run into variations depending on the dialect.
# Posted on February 7th 2005 by Murph
Re: How do you pronounce these words...?
I would pronounce it the Scots Gaelic way too...it's pretty much the same as the Donegal Irish pronunciation
# Posted on February 7th 2005 by Cáit
Re: How do you pronounce these words...?
Peter O'Connor: "You gotta HEAR IT to get it."
Me: "Doesn't that apply to all languages?"
GaryAMartin: "No. It doesn't apply to sign language, Braille, or C++, to name a few."
Very true, Gary. I should have specified that I was referring to languages that rely on sound waves as their medium.
It most definitely *does* apply to The Music, however.
# Posted on February 7th 2005 by ragaman
Re: How do you pronounce these words...?
It really, really helps to hear the language spoken on a regular basis. I spend part of each day listening to Raidió na Gaeltachta (you can listen on-line at http://www.rte.ie/rnag/ ... click on Éist to listen to the live stream...some good music too!) and I'm also a fan of the TV program Turas Teanga, which is available on DVD from RTÉ here: http://www.rte.ie/tv/turasteanga/). Even so, my pronunciation is shaky, and I tend to get my dialects mixed up!
If you're ever looking for an Irish translation or pronunciation, visit us at http://www.irishgaelictranslator.com. There's a live forum where people are always willing to help others out with the Irish language.
# Posted on February 8th 2005 by MacTireRua