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From: rjw@ptsfc.UUCP (Rod Williams)
Newsgroups: net.nlang.celts
Subject: Re: Irish Pronunciation/Spelling
Message-ID: <437@ptsfc.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 5-Aug-85 11:35:44 EDT
Article-I.D.: ptsfc.437
Posted: Mon Aug  5 11:35:44 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 10-Aug-85 20:50:26 EDT
References: <3274@drutx.UUCP> <248@persci.UUCP> <204@steinmetz.UUCP> <299@persci.UUCP>
Reply-To: rjw@ptsfc.UUCP (Rod Williams-2e700)
Organization: Pacific Bell
Lines: 27


 It should be pointed out that not only are there major differences
 between Scots Gaelic and Irish Gaelic, but there are also several
 distinct dialects of Irish Gaelic (I know nothing about Scots, but
 suspect they have differences too). For this reason, you'll never
 find consensus about the pronunciation of ANY word. As a Dubliner,
 I'm probably least qualified to expound on this subject (:-)), but
 here's my contribution to the clairseach/Oisin debate:

   ,
 Clairseach (that's a 'fada' over the 'a') = CLAW-ir-shock
    ,
 Oisin (fada over the 'i'), anglicized as Ossian = UH-sheen

 Incidentally, the 'fada' (acute accent) over a vowel changes its
 pronunciation from 'short' to 'long', i.e. -
 
          a goes from short 'ah' to long 'aw'
          e                 'eh'         'ay'
          i                 'ih'         'ee'
          o                 'uh'         'oh'
          u goes from short 'oo' (as in 'book') to long 'oo' (as in 'fool')
-- 

 rod williams | {ihnp4,dual}!ptsfa!ptsfc!rjw
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