# Scottish: an diugh



## valskyfrance

hi,
Can you help me please?
I would like to know how to say the scottish words.
I don't understand phonetic, so if you can use another way of explaining this to me.
Many thanks 

an diugh: 1. today 
an dé: 1. yesterday 
boireannach: 1. woman
bòidheach: 1. pretty


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## Orreaga

I'm not an expert, and there are regional variations in pronunciation, but here's my best shot:

an diugh:   close to "an-JOO" 
an dé:  close to: "an-JAY"
boireannach:  "BOW-ra-nach" with Scottish trilled "r" and guttural "ch" (of course)
bòidheach: "BOY-ach" again, guttural "ch"

These are my simplified approximations based on English spelling and are not intended to be completely accurate (there may even be errors, so I hope someone with better command of Gaelic pronunciation will point them out).


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## avok

"d" in "diugh" and "dé" is pronounced as "dj"? very interesting


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## Wynn Mathieson

avok said:


> "d" in "diugh" and "dé" is pronounced as "dj"? very interesting


Yes, it's an (originally) palatalized *d* which has become the affricate [ʤ]. The Gaelic languages (like the Slavic) have a double series of consonants: palatalized and non-palatalized. In Scottish Gaelic *d* has this pronunciation when, in the spelling, it is preceded and/or followed by the "front" vowels *e* or* i*.

Wynn


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## avok

Wynn Mathieson said:


> Yes, it's an (originally) palatalized *d* which has become the affricate [ʤ]. The Gaelic languages (like the Slavic) have a double series of consonants: palatalized and non-palatalized. In Scottish Gaelic *d* has this pronunciation when, in the spelling, it is preceded and/or followed by the "front" vowels *e* or* i*.
> 
> Wynn


 
Like in Brazilian Portuguese but in BP d is palatalized when followed by "i" (not by "e"), getting more interesting


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## valskyfrance

thanks a lot everyone


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## Outsider

avok said:


> Like in Brazilian Portuguese but in BP d is palatalized when followed by "i" (not by "e"), getting more interesting


Orthographically, it can happen before either consonant: "dia", "desde".
But the phenomenon in Gaelic is much more extensive, and it's phonemic, rather than a predictable allophonic variation. Some of the idiosyncrasies in Gaelic orthography are an attempt to represent these sound alternations. The Latin alphabet did not have enough letters for the amount of sounds that exist in the Goidelic languages, so they eventually settled on using digraphs and similar conventions to distinguish them.


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## avok

Outsider said:


> Orthographically, it can happen before either consonant: "dia", "desde".


 

Yes Outsider I know that...what I meant d is not palatalized before a vowel that is pronounced as "e" as in "voc*e*" , if e is pronounced as "i", then it is also palatalized. Now I wonder if "e" and "i" are pronounced differently or the same in Gaelic when they follow the "d" sound which is palatalized.


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## Outsider

In many cases, they are silent letters. I suppose they may have been pronounced centuries ago. Wikipedia will give you an idea of the complexity of Gaelic orthography (this article is for Irish, but from what I understand Scottish Gaelic has a fairly similar orthography).


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## Orreaga

The Wikipedia article on Scottish Gaelic, including a pronunciation guide, is here.  People have told me that Gaelic pronunciation becomes predictable after you study it for a while, but the spelling still seems to me about as unrelated to the pronunciation as English must seem at first to speakers of Romance languages.

And I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post this (I know I can't post a link directly to a video without moderator approval), but very nice samples of Scottish Gaelic can be heard searching in YouTube for music sung by Julie Fowlis, a young singer from the Outer Hebrides. The song "Bothan Àirigh am Bràigh Raithneach" is particularly beautiful.



avok said:


> Now I wonder if "e" and "i" are pronounced differently or the same in Gaelic when they follow the "d" sound which is palatalized.


And to get back to your question, Avok, the "d" (or even "t") when palatalized in Gaelic do not affect the pronunciation of the following vowel (and can happen regardless of syllable stress in Gaelic), so "e" never goes to "i" as in Brazilian Portuguese.


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## Wynn Mathieson

For those interested in learning more about the sounds of Scottish Gaelic, there are also BBC Scotland's Gaelic lessons (example here), which include sound files, or you can _èist beò_ (listen live) / _èist a-rithist_ (listen again) to BBC Radio nan Gaidheal.

Wynn


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## Outsider

Thank you very much for the links, Orreaga and Wynn.


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## Orreaga

A group in Seattle called Slighe nan Gaidheal also maintains a website with helpful links, including links to videos in Gaelic.


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## bb3ca201

valskyfrance said:


> hi,
> Can you help me please?
> I would like to know how to say the scottish words.
> I don't understand phonetic, so if you can use another way of explaining this to me.
> Many thanks
> 
> an diugh: 1. today
> an dé: 1. yesterday
> boireannach: 1. woman
> bòidheach: 1. pretty


 
These are Scottish GAELIC words, to be precise; "Scottish" could be taken to mean Scots language (spoken in the east and south of Scotland).If pronounciations have already been given, I apologize:1. an-JOO (accent on last syllable)2. an-JAY3. BO-renach ("ch" like German "buch")4. BOY-uch


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