Gaelic names (was: names in conlangs)

Sgrìobh Elliott Lash:
> The _i_ is a mark of palatalization on the following
> consonant:
>
> Donnchadh mac Fearchair  /donxa mak fjarxarj/
> Fearchar  mac Domhnaill  /fjarxar mak do~nalj/
>
>  (note that that's VERY approximate, don't quote me on
> the pronunciation of the final <-dh> and the
> pronunciation of the double <n> or <l>. Also, <j> is
> meant to show palatalization and probably should be
> written differently in sampa, maybe r_j, f_j, l_j.
You've missed the lenition; masculine names are both lenited and
slenderized in the genitive:

Donnchadh MacFhearchair ["d_tOn_t@x@G ma~x"k_hE4@x@D] "Duncan
Farquharson", lit. "Donald son of Farquhar"

Fearchar MacDhòmhnaill ["fE4@x@4 ma~x"kO~@L] "Farquhar MacDonald", lit.
"Farquhar son of Donald"
(note: separately, "mac"=[ma~xk] and "Dhòmhnaill"=["GO~@L], but when put
together the initial [G] almost always drops in pronunciation.)

I've also gone phonetic rather than phonemic here; slender (palatalized)
r is widely realized as [D], and the labials (in this case, the f in
_Fearchar) do not have palatalized variants in Scottish Gaelic (though I
believe they still do in Irish). Also note that the n in the name
Dòmhnall is silent in modern Scottish Gaelic, and there are so-called
epenthetic vowels in nch (in Donnchadh) and rch) (Fearchar), i.e. /nx/
and /rx/ are realized [n_t@x] and [4@x].

And that, boys and girls, is today's Gaelic lesson. :-)

Tòmas

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