Key to Pronunciation

The system of phonetics is based on English pronunciation and reflects the local Irish dialect rather than standard Irish.

In the Irish language, letters are divided into two categories: broad and slender. The broad vowels are a,o,u. The slender vowels are i,e. Consonants before and after the broad vowels are considered to be broad and consonants before and after slender vowels are considered to be slender.

There are short and long vowels. Long vowels carry an accent over them e.g. á, é, í, ó, ú.

Consonants
Slender consonants are pronounced more or less as in English and are written in normal letters. Broad consonants are shown in bold italic letters e.g. ​b, g, l, ​ etc. and are pronounced as follows:

• ‘​b’​ is pronounced as ‘b’ in English ‘bother’, bounce.
• ‘​ch’​ and ‘ch’ sound like a soft German ‘ch’ or Dutch. ‘g’ or as in Scottish ‘loch’.
• ‘d’ is pronounced by placing the tip of the tongue against the front teeth.
• ‘f’ as in father, further.
• ‘​g’ is produced at the rear of the mouth e.g. good, gorgeous.
• ‘g*’ and ‘g*’. These reflect the aspirated versions of ‘d’ and ‘g’ and are pronounced as English ‘g’
  except one breathes gently through the letter.
• ‘​k’ is produced at the rear of the mouth e.g. caught, count.