# Irish Gaelic: pronunciation of vowel combinations (ai & oi)



## langzot

Hello, all. I'm just beginning my study of Irish Gaelic and am struggling with the pronunciation. As such, more questions will follow.
Can anyone help with the pronunciation of "ai"? My book says that, after a consonant, it should sound like the 'a' in "father". However, the word "baile" seems to have a short -ee sound before the 'l', like _bye-le_ almost. Am I hearing incorrectly? Is there some sort of pattern to the pronunciation difference?
The same goes for "oi". Books says "e(i)", but what about moill? (sounds like moyl to me)

Many thanks!


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## Outsider

Have you taken a look at Wikipedia's entry on Irish orthography?


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## langzot

Thanks! I think I have read the page before, but long ago and had forgotten it was there.


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## elirlandes

"baile" is pronounced "bo-ilya"

The "o" in "bo" rhyming with "boss".


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## Banbha

Dia dhuit a Langzot! 

Well let me be the first to say well done for picking such a beautiful language  !!!

The pronounciation of Irish is hard and it can be very daunting in the beginning because there are so many sounds. But you will get very used to them fast. I think most pronounciation guides are only a rough guide, but sometimes words are pronounced in certain ways because that is the way they were always pronounced either historically or dialectually, even if the spelling may have been different in the past. Eg the word for ''forget'' is dearmad in irish pronounced darood in some places as it used to be spelt dearúd. So you often hear either 'darmad' or 'darood'. This is the only word I can think of like this but I know there are a few like it, some words are just pronounced in a certain way even if a similar looking word is pronounced differently. The Irish Language was standardised in the 1950's, well the written language not the spoken. So we have three major dialects in Irish in the North, South and West of the Country in the provinces Ulster, Munster and Connaught respectively. So while all words are spelt the same everywhere, sounds may vary depending on dialect. Eg the correct way to spell forget is 'dearmad', but we in Munster still say 'darood'. Just like the consonats gn and cn are often pronounced as gr and cr in Ulster (cnoc (hill) = croc and gnó (business) = gró), everywhere else its just cnoc and gnó. But the correct spelling is with 'n' and only 'n'. So while sounds may vary, the spelling is uniform. So it is mainly dialectual differences that might be confusing you. But you will be happy to hear that in general pronounciation can be fairly uniform.

With regards the pronounciation of 'ai' and 'oi', baile is pronounced bolya, aiste (essay) = ashta, ailse (cancer) = alsha and moill is like mweel, (just like coill (Forest) is kweel and coillte (Forests) is kweelta). However if there is an accent on 'ái' its more like an oy sound, gáire (laughter) = goyra, sáile (saltwater) = soyla, báite (drowned) = boyta.... Finally I suppose pronounciation of diphthongs often depends on where in the word the diphthong lies (at beginning, middle or end of a word) and what consonants surround it so maybe you will start seeing a pattern based on this. I saw in another post by you you asked about the open/closed pronounciation of 'ea' as in leat and neart/ceart/ceann. Leat is lat. The rest have a 'y' sound to give nyart, cyart and cyown (like english crown but y instead of r). Maybe its because leat is an open sound as it ends on a single consonant while the rest have two consonants which close the sound. Leac [oighir] (ice) is lak and leas (benefit) is las, nead (nest) is nad, feadóg (whistle) is fadóg and leadóg (tennis) is ladóg etc...

If you have any other questions anyway you can post them and we will be happy to try and help you! 

Go n-éirí leat leis an nGaeilge 
Slán tamaill


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## Seaicmac

Banbha said:


> Dia dhuit a Langzot!
> 
> Well let me be the first to say well done for picking such a beautiful language  !!!
> 
> The pronounciation of Irish is hard and it can be very daunting in the beginning because there are so many sounds. But you will get very used to them fast. I think most pronounciation guides are only a rough guide, but sometimes words are pronounced in certain ways because that is the way they were always pronounced either historically or dialectually, even if the spelling may have been different in the past. Eg the word for ''forget'' is dearmad in irish pronounced darood in some places as it used to be spelt dearúd. So you often hear either 'darmad' or 'darood'. This is the only word I can think of like this but I know there are a few like it, some words are just pronounced in a certain way even if a similar looking word is pronounced differently. The Irish Language was standardised in the 1950's, well the written language not the spoken. So we have three major dialects in Irish in the North, South and West of the Country in the provinces Ulster, Munster and Connaught respectively. So while all words are spelt the same everywhere, sounds may vary depending on dialect. Eg the correct way to spell forget is 'dearmad', but we in Munster still say 'darood'. Just like the consonats gn and cn are often pronounced as gr and cr in Ulster (cnoc (hill) = croc and gnó (business) = gró), everywhere else its just cnoc and gnó. But the correct spelling is with 'n' and only 'n'. So while sounds may vary, the spelling is uniform. So it is mainly dialectual differences that might be confusing you. But you will be happy to hear that in general pronounciation can be fairly uniform.
> 
> With regards the pronounciation of 'ai' and 'oi', baile is pronounced bolya, aiste (essay) = ashta, ailse (cancer) = alsha and moill is like mweel, (just like coill (Forest) is kweel and coillte (Forests) is kweelta). However if there is an accent on 'ái' its more like an oy sound, gáire (laughter) = goyra, sáile (saltwater) = soyla, báite (drowned) = boyta.... Finally I suppose pronounciation of diphthongs often depends on where in the word the diphthong lies (at beginning, middle or end of a word) and what consonants surround it so maybe you will start seeing a pattern based on this. I saw in another post by you you asked about the open/closed pronounciation of 'ea' as in leat and neart/ceart/ceann. Leat is lat. The rest have a 'y' sound to give nyart, cyart and cyown (like english crown but y instead of r). Maybe its because leat is an open sound as it ends on a single consonant while the rest have two consonants which close the sound. Leac [oighir] (ice) is lak and leas (benefit) is las, nead (nest) is nad, feadóg (whistle) is fadóg and leadóg (tennis) is ladóg etc...
> 
> If you have any other questions anyway you can post them and we will be happy to try and help you!
> 
> Go n-éirí leat leis an nGaeilge
> Slán tamaill




What a lovely and heartening response!
It's really nice to see someone in a forum actually trying to help and be supportive (instead of just showing off, as can all to often be the case)
Maith thú a mhac (nó a h-iníon, lol)!

Jack


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