Scottish Gaelic Phonology - Consonants

Consonants

Like the closely related languages, Modern Irish and Manx, Scottish Gaelic contains what are traditionally referred to as "broad" and "slender" consonants. Historically, Primitive Irish consonants preceding the front vowels /e/ and /i/ developed a -like coarticulation similar to the palatalised consonants found in Russian while the consonants preceding the non-front vowels /a/, /o/ and /u/ developed a velar coarticulation. While Irish distinguishes "broad" (i.e. phonologically velar or velarised consonants) and "slender" (i.e. phonologically palatal or palatalised consonants), in Scottish Gaelic velarisation is only present for /n̪ˠ l̪ˠ rˠ/. This means that consonants marked "broad" by the orthography are, for the most part simply unmarked, while "slender" consonants are palatal or palatalised. The main exception to this are the labials (/p pʰ m f v/), which have lost their palatalised forms. The only trace of their original palatalisation is a glide found before or after back vowels, e.g. beul /pial̪ˠ/ ('mouth') vs beò /pjɔː/ ('alive'). Celtic linguists traditionally transcribe slender consonants with an apostrophe following the consonant (e.g. m′) and leave broad consonants unmarked.

Consonants of Scottish Gaelic

	Labial	Coronal			Dorsal		Glottal
		Dental	Alveolar	Palatal		Velar
Stop	pʰ p	t̪ʰ t̪		tʲʰ tʲ	kʲʰ kʲ	kʰ k
Fricative	f v	s̪		ʃ	ç ʝ	x ɣ	h
Nasal	m	n̪ˠ	n	ɲ
Approximant		l̪ˠ	l	ʎ	j
Tap			ɾ ɾʲ
Trill			rˠ

In the modern languages, there is sometimes a stronger contrast from Old Gaelic in the assumed meaning of "broad" and "slender". In the modern languages, the phonetic difference between "broad" and "slender" consonants can be more complex than mere "velarisation"/"palatalisation". For instance, the Gaelic "slender s" is so palatalised that it has become postalveolar .

Certain consonants (in particular the fricatives and the lenis coronals ) are rare in initial position except as a result of lenition.