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Re: Gaelic broad/slender vowels

From:John Cowan <jcowan@...>
Date:Monday, August 21, 2000, 14:54
callanish wrote:

> In Gaelic this system is much more widespread and regularized, of course, but > that's really all there is to it. You just have to remember that certain > letters have two pronunciations: one next to A/O/U and one next to E/I.
Yes, that is the easy part, particularly since the slender pron. of consonants is simply palatalized. The hard part is to remember how all the different vowels, vowel diphthongs, and vowel triphthongs are actually pronounced, which is far from obvious. The worst case is "ao", which is pronounced "<broad> e <broad>". But even in cases like "ai", is that "<broad> a <slender>" or "<broad> i <slender>"? *grumble* *shoulda used Cyrillic script* -- Schlingt dreifach einen Kreis um dies! || John Cowan <jcowan@...> Schliesst euer Aug vor heiliger Schau, || http://www.reutershealth.com Denn er genoss vom Honig-Tau, || http://www.ccil.org/~cowan Und trank die Milch vom Paradies. -- Coleridge (tr. Politzer)