Colin Mark. The Gaelic-English Dictionary/Гэльско-английский словарь

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3. Spelling and Pronunciation

The alphabet and the accented letters

The Gaelic alphabet has eighteen letters:

a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, u

The sounds indicated by j, k, q, v and w in English are indicated in a different way in

Gaelic, but loan words with the sounds indicated by x, y and z cause some difﬁculty – see

the section W, X, Y and Z at the end of the dictionary.

Besides the ﬁve vowels – a, e, i, o, u – found in the Roman alphabet, diacritics are used

to show long vowels:

à, è, é, ì, ò, ó, ù

Recent spelling reform has discontinued the use of the acute accent in modern Gaelic, with

the grave accent being used for both. For the sake of clarity they have been retained in this

pronunciation guide only.

It should be noted that the difference between the letters a, o, u, i, e and à, ò, ù, ì, è respec-

tively is one of length only. On the other hand, the difference between è, ò and é, ó respec-

tively is one of quality. The sound è is like the ai in ‘pair’; while é sounds like the ay in

‘may’. The sound of ò is like au in ‘taught’, while ó is like o in ‘crow’; the lips being more

rounded for ó than for ò.

However, the grave accent may be used to differentiate between unclear and clear vowels

as in the words a and as which are unclear (/ə/and /əs/ respectively), and à and às which

are clear (/a/ and /as/ respectively). With regard to this last example, you may come across

it in the literature as a(s), à(s) or á(s), with the recommended written form now being à(s).

Difﬁcult as it may be for the learner to believe, Gaelic spelling is more regular than

English, though it should be noted that the eighteen letters are used to portray more

individual sounds than in English.

Lenition

In Gaelic, a number of consonants at the beginning of words may be lenited or ‘softened’.

Lenition is usually shown by the insertion of ‘h

’ after the consonant. The lenitable conso-

nants are b, c, d, f, g, m, p, s and t, which become bh, ch, dh, fh, gh, mh, ph and th respec-

tively. In addition, the letters l, n and r are lenited in sound, but do not have the h attached.

These sounds are all shown in the pronunciation table, e.g.

cas /kas/ foot a chas /ə xas/ his foot

The subject of lenition is fully treated in Appendix 8 – Lenition, and in all the appendices

dealing with parts of speech.

The sound represented by each letter is not constant, but may vary according to the posi-

tion in the word, and according to the letter or letter combination preceding or following it.

Slenderisation / palatalisation

One important factor is the effect known as slenderisation, or palatalisation, where an

i is introduced into the last vowel of a word to indicate that the ﬁnal consonant is slender.

There is often also a change in the vowel preceding this consonant, e.g.

laochan /

xan/ a lad a laochain! /ə lxa/ lad!

ionnsachadh /jun

səxəγ/ learning ionnsachaidh /jun

səxi/ of learning

Note that slenderisation occurs only at the end of words.

The spelling rule

Consonants in Gaelic may be broad or slender. This is indicated by whether they are pre-

ceded or followed by a broad or slender vowel. The broad vowels are a, o and u, while the

slender ones are e, and i. Since they cannot be both broad and slender, consonants are

ﬂanked by vowels of the same quality. Thus we have mara and cuideachd on the one hand

and mairsinn and cupa on the other. It should noted that the a of mairsinn and the ﬁrst a

of mara have the same sound. The i has made no difference to the vowel, which is pro-

nounced /a/ in both cases. It is the r which is different in each word, being /r/ in mara and

/ in mairsinn. Similarly, the ea of cuideachd and the a of cupa both have the sound /ə/.

The Spelling Rule is expressed in Gaelic as caol ri caol is leathann ri leathann ‘narrow

to narrow and broad to broad’. There are some recognised exceptions to the Spelling Rule,

e.g. esan, leònte etc.

The stress in Scottish Gaelic nearly always falls on the ﬁrst syllable of a word. Some

words with a short preﬁx joined to the main word by a hyphen, have the stress on the

second element e.g. a-staigh, a-steach, a-muigh etc. There are also a few common excep-

tions e.g. airson and carson (which are really air son and car son – see the appropriate

dictionary entries).

Though the following tables show the various sounds using International Phonetics

Association (IPA) notation, the guide can only be an approximate one as, among other

factors, pronunciation may vary from district to district.

The ‘schwa’

You will notice that, in the pronunciation guide, certain words (usually containing l, n or

r) appear to have an extra vowel. This vowel is known variously as the ‘svarabhakti vowel’,

the ‘epenthetic vowel’ or simply the ‘schwa’. It will be noted that the extra vowel is always

a ‘twin’ of the preceding vowel, e.g.

gorm /gɔrɔ



m/ blue dearg /d

arak/ red

Pre-aspiration

You may also notice, in the IPA representation of some words, the letters /h/, /ç/ or /x/ which

do not appear to correspond to any letter in the Gaelic word. These indicate what is known

as pre-aspiration, i.e. a voiceless breathing sound before certain consonants, particularly

c, p and t. The /h/ is most usual, but /ç/ or /x/ may be found in some words, particularly

before a c, e.g.

pàipear /pεhpər

/ paper bàta /bahtə/ a boat

siùcar /ʃuhkər/ sugar gu tric /gə triçk

/ often

cnoc /krɔ



xk/ a hill sloc /s

ɔxk/ a pit

Rd and rt

Some dialects introduce an s between r and following d or t in stressed syllables. This is

shown in the pronunciation guide as /r



sd/, /r



st/ e.g.

ceart /k



st/ right àrd /ar



sd/ high

xxi Spelling and pronunciation

Hiatus

Hiatus is a gap between vowels (usually where there is a mute bh, dh, gh mh and, occa-

sionally, th. This is shown in the pronunciation tables by the symbol / – /:

saoghal /sɯ-a 

/ world

It is important to realise, when studying the following Pronunciation Guide, that, in cer-

tain vowel groups, some of the vowels may not be pronounced, but are there simply to indi-

cate whether a preceding or following consonant is broad or slender. See the Spelling Rule

above.

Key to symbols and letters used in the pronunciation guide

IPA Symbol Explanation



A subscript arch indicates that the consonant is dental,

e.g. dt

 – see d, t, l and n.

j This shows that the consonant is palatal i.e. having a ‘y’

like quality, e.g. d

, t

, k

– see c, d, f, g, l, m, n, p, r, s and t.



a superimposed tilde indicates a nasal quality in a consonant

e.g. 

 r



– see l, n and r.



a superscript tilde indicates a nasal quality in a vowel

e.g. a



– see under ài (/ai/) and various examples throughout the table

/ / These mark the conﬁnes of the IPA script, e.g. /kaht/

 This indicates a long vowel e.g. a – see à, ì, ò and ù.

IPA Letter

For : See:

ə a and e

ɯ ao

v bh and mh

k c

ç ch

x ch

γ dh and gh

ε e

j dh and gh

ʎ l

 n

 n

ŋ ng

ɔ o

 oi and u

ʃ s

Guide to pronunciation

Pronunciation of vowels

Gaelic IPA Comments and examples

Letter Symbol

a /a/ When stressed, like

a in ‘mat’.

cas /kas/ foot, leg

cat /kaht/ a cat

Spelling and pronunciation xxii

When unstressed, it may be:

1. as a above, i.e. ‘open’, not obscure, as in /ə/ below.

Mórag /morak/ Morag

sporan /spɔran/ purse

/ə/ 2. an obscure sound like the e in butter.

doras /dɔrəs/ a door

fada /fatə/ long

a-staigh /ə stj/ inside

ai /a/ As in a above, stressed and unstressed.

caileag /kalak/ a girl

aiseag /aʃək/ a ferry

cofhurtail /kɔ-ərstal/ comfortable

/ə/ As in a above when unstressed and obscure.

iuchair /juxər

/a key

cosgais /kɔskəʃ/ cost

uair /uər

/ hour

/ε/Like e in ‘met’.

geamair /gεmεr

/ gamekeeper

naidheachd /n

ε-əxk/ news

an comain /aŋ komεŋ/ obliged

/i/ Like ee in ‘deep’.

dùthaich /du-iç/ country

eachdraidh /εxdri/ history

madainn /ma



ti/ morning

à /a/Like a in ‘calves’.

càr /kar/ a car

bàta /batə / a boat

càraid /karεt

/ couple