Long vowels

Long vowels

The <AO> vowel

LÍON — [i:]

Northern Western Southern

ÉAN — [e:]

Northern Western Southern

Note

1) This vowel tends to be raised in Southern Irish, especially in Corca Dhuibhne, i.e. éan = [i:nˠ].

ÁIT — [ɑ:]

Northern Western Southern

Note

1) In Northern Irish the á-vowel is fronted towards [æ:] or [ɛ:]. The fronting varies among speakers, with females leading this shift, with fronting and raising, even to [e:], e.g. hata Sheáin = [hatə çe:nʲ] ‘John’s hat’.

ÓL — [o:]

Northern Western Southern

Note

1) In Northern Irish there are two long mid back vowels, /o:/ and a lower /ɔ:/. The realisation of ól is with the latter, i.e. [ɔ:lˠ]. A word like tóg ‘take’ has the higher vowel, i.e. [to:g]. Because the vowel used is not predictable by the environment in which it occurs, these two long mid back vowels must be regarded as phonemes in Northern Irish.

GÚNA — [u:]

Northern Western Southern

Note

1) In Northern Irish a high mid realisation of the /u:/ is general: /u:/ = [ʉ], thus gúna = [gʉnˠə].

The <AO> vowel

This vowel has a special status in Irish for a number of reasons. It only occurs after non-palatal consonants, e.g. saol ‘life’ and it varies in pronunciation according to dialect. The sound used depends on how the input sound from much earlier forms of Irish developed in the particular Gaeltacht region. In general one can say that /i:/ is the pronunciation used for <AO> in the West and North while /e:/ is found in the South. There are some exceptions to this, notably the use of /e:/ in all regions for the adjective aon, as in aon duine a bhfuil suim aige ‘any person who is interested’. However, aon as a numeral has /i:/ in the West and North, i.e. a haon ‘one’ = [ə hi:nˠ], but [ə he:nˠ] in the South. The word daoine ‘people’ has the /i:/ vowel in all regions. In the far North, and previously in eastern Ulster, an unrounded and retracted realisation of the <AO> vowel is found, e.g. baol = [bɯ:lˠ].

BAOL

Northern Western Southern