Lesson 2: Consonants

Except for ‘h’, all Irish consonants have two variants, called broad (or velarised) and slender (or palatalised). Basically, broad consonants are pronounced with a [w] off‑glide, and slender consonants are pronounced with a [j] off‑glide. The distinction between broad and slender consonants is very important, as they may belong to words with different meanings.

Broad consonants are always written with the letters a, o, or u flanking them, as b in bó [bo:] (cow) or buí [bi:] (yellow).

Slender consonants are always written with the letters i or e flanking them as b in beo [b´o:] (life, alive) or bí [b´i:] (be, exist).

In speech, the difference between ‘beo’ and ‘bó’ is only the y‑glide heard in ‘beo’ [bjo] but the meaning of the words is different: ‘life’ and ‘cow’, respectively. Likewise, the difference between ‘bí’ and ‘buí’ is only the w‑glide heard in ‘buí’ [bwi] but the meanings are also different: ‘be’ and ‘yellow’, respectively.

As a result of the need to show the broad or slender quality of all consonants unambiguously, a consonant in the middle of a word cannot be flanked on one side by an ‘i’ and on the other by an ‘a’. Therefore, the golden rule of spelling in Irish is caol le caol agus leathan le leathan (i.e. slender with slender and broad with broad), referring to the necessity that consonants or groups of consonants should be flanked on each side by the same type of vowel – with some rare exceptions, such as: Gaeltacht, laethúil (daily).

The pronunciation of Irish consonants (velarised or palatalised) is not very different from that of their English counterparts. However, some slender consonants, as the ones below have specific sounds:

• d (slender) is pronounced [d´] in the North, as in deoch [d´ox]. Its pronunciation is similar to ‘ge’ in the English name ‘George’ .
• n (slender) is pronounced [n´] as in nead [n´ad], Its pronunciation is similar to the French pronunciation of ‘gn’ in ‘signe’.
• s (slender) is pronounced [s´] as in seo [s´o]. Its pronunciation is similar to the palatalised ‘sh’ in the English ‘shield’.
• t (slender) is pronounced [t´] in the North as in teach [t´ax]. Its pronunciation is similar to ‘ch’ in the English ‘chin’.