Munster Irish - Phonology

Phonology

The phonemic inventory of Munster Irish (based on the accent of West Muskerry in western Cork) is as shown in the following chart (based on Ó Cuív 1944; see International Phonetic Alphabet for an explanation of the symbols). Symbols appearing in the upper half of each row are velarized (traditionally called "broad" consonants) while those in the bottom half are palatalized ("slender"). The consonant /h/ is neither broad or slender.

The vowels of Munster Irish are as shown on the following chart. These positions are only approximate, as vowels are strongly influenced by the palatalization and velarization of surrounding consonants.

In addition, Munster has the diphthongs /iə, ia, uə, əi, ai, au, ou/.

Some characteristics of Munster that distinguish it from the other dialects are:

• The fricative is found in syllable-onset position. (Connacht and Ulster have here.) For example, bhog "moved" is pronounced as opposed to elsewhere.
• The diphthongs /əi/, /ou/, and /ia/ occur in Munster, but not in the other dialects.
• Word-internal clusters of obstruent + sonorant, +, and plosive + fricative are broken up by an epenthetic, except that plosive + liquid remains in the onset of a stressed syllable. For example, eaglais "church" is pronounced, but Aibreán "April" is (as if spelled Abrán).
• Orthographic short a is diphthongized (rather than lengthened) before word-final m and the Old Irish tense sonorants spelled nn, ll (e.g. ceann "head").
• Word-final /j/ is realized as, e.g. marcaigh "horsemen" .
• Stress is attracted to noninitial heavy syllables: corcán "pot", mealbhóg "satchel". Stress is also attracted to in the second syllable: coileach "rooster", beannacht "blessing", bacacha "lame" (pl.).
• In some varieties, long /ɑː/ is rounded to .