Blair Collection > Argyleshire pronouncing Gaelic dictionary

KEY.
A has six sounds in the Key.
a long, like a in fame, came, tame.
a, a, à^, is the short sound of the last, as
a in fate, rate, gate, final.
a is the sound of a in far, far, star, star.
a is the short soft sound of the last ; as, in
farm, farm.
a is the short and shut sound of a, as in
can.
i is the nasal sound. The only sounds
that approach this, in English, is a in
palm, calm, psalm. It occurs uniform-
ly before m, rah, and n— sometimes be-
fore th ; as, in mathair, viother ; àth, a
ford ; nathair, a serpent ; math, good,
and its derivatives ; athar, sky, firma-
ment ; — in some words n is introduced
for r in order to give it the nasal sound ;
as in canran, mànran, mànrach, màrr-
an, kàrr-an, màrr-ach; also mànr,
marr, to obstruct ; — ai placed before
mh, &c. has the same sound, or one
nearly allied to ai in sprain, strain,
brains, as the Scotch pronounce these
words :— marked in the key sprèn,
strèn, brèns.
à is the short nasal sound ; è before n,
&e. the short one of ai or àè.
à in participles • thus, tyà sounds like
short u or ao shorter a little, chyao.
ào has nothing like it in English ; a pretty
correct idea may be formed of it by
pronouncing the u, in the surname
Bums, long; also u in gun, without
touching the -rns in the first instance,
and the -n in the latter. Bao — gao—
the French eu is somewhat like it.
a6 is the short sound of the last.
E has two sounds, long and short.
è long, like ee in teem, seem ; feed, hired
è, è, è-, is the short of the above.
è long, as e in there, pronounced long
ther— the y^ of the Greeks, as the Scotch
and Foreigners pronounce it.
è is the short sound of the last.
Before v, representing mh and n, it has
a nasal sound— see a nasal changed
into ai— also representing ea or eu ;
as Neumh or Neamh, nèv. Heaven,
neamh, nev, venom.
I has one sound long and short; as, y in
my, thy ; mi, thi, short; as i in sight,
might, sit, mit.
O has four sounds, long and short.
6, as o in more, mor, tone, ton, pole, pel.
Ò, o, Ò-, short sound of the above.
6 sounds like o in lord, lord, cord, kOrd.
Ò is the short of the last ; o shorter.
Ò is the long nasal sound, occurring uni-
formly before mh, and sometimes be-
fore n ; in many instances the nasal
sound of occurs otherwise placed ; as,
in mod, a court of justice, being a con-
traction of momhad ; also mo, contrac-
tion of momha, greater ; also moit, fas-
tidiousness ; mothuT, a horrifyingvoice;
glothar, gag; mògharr bland. The true
orthography is momhar, glomhar, &c
6 is the short nasal sound of o. Even be-
fore n, o sounds likeo in pole, sole, &c.
sometimes; as, tonn, t52nn, a wave;
n is introduced sometimes to give the
nasal sounds merely; thus ònrachd,
sònraich, òrr-achg, sòrrèch; the same
as ànrath, àrr-aA in a nasal.
U has a great number of sounds.
Ù sounds as u in pure, cure, tune.
Ù, ii, is the short sound of the last.
Ù sounds as oo in moor, cool, tool.
Ù is the short sound of the last.
Ù is the same as the French u nearly.
Ù is the French short sound,
u the same as the u in under, or un- a pre-
fix.
i is a contraction to save room, and repre-
sents the primitive sound ao-gh', being
a kind of a syllable and a half. See -gh".
-Gh', an idea of this original sound. It is
a kind of an ineffectual effort to disjoint
your jaws without touching the palate or
teeth with your tongue, and at the same
time making a strong respiration. It is
nearly akin to the Greek x- I' 'S not
possible, without oral instruction, to con-
vey an adequate idea of -gh'.
v2, this representing mh, shews that the v
is only slightly sounded, the object of mh
being chiefly to give the nasal twang to
the preceding vowel.
112, Uy', shews that the U is liquified, as in
filial, fe-Iyal ; for 11 and nn initial, see I
and n in the Grammar,
id, de.— This is represented by èj. It is said
that it does not express the true sound.
If not, Walker, and Fulton and Knight,
must be wrong in pronouncing age, aj ;
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