Original link: https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/30527560
[simple copy/paste for now. Will clean up formatting later]
Last Update: January 3, 2021
One of the more challenging aspects of learning Irish for beginners is learning the pronunciation, particularly because many learners will never have had any exposure to spoken Irish. This guide provides resources compiled by the users of this forum that you can use to develop your pronunciation as you learn the language. You should view acquiring good pronunciation as an ongoing process in tandem with learning vocabulary and grammar, rather than a task to be started, finished, and never seen again.
Some things to know about Irish pronunciation and learning it while using Duolingo:
There a 3 main dialects in Irish and many more accents
Resources offer varying advice based on the author's dialect, accent and viewpoint; this represents the richness of the language and can more beneficially be viewed as a feature rather than a bug
The audio in the Irish course was created by recording a person saying each phrase unlike most other languages on Duolingo, which use TTS (computerized text-to-speech). Because of this, audio is not available for every Irish sentence, and there is no slow-speed button to play the audio. It is possible, though complicated, to play the Duolingo audio at a slower speed. It is almost certainly easier and more effective to use other methods to improve your pronunciation and aural comprehension, but there is more information about slowing the Duolingo audio at the end of this post for those so inclined.
If you are an absolute beginner, you should begin with Karen Reshkin's video and handout, as well as gradually becoming comfortable looking up and listening to words in https://www.teanglann.ie/en/. As you progress, explore the other resources as you feel ready for them. Perfect pronunciation does not exist; every Gaeilgeoir (speaker of Irish), from beginner to highly educated, native speaker has their own idiolect. A good goal to set is to be able to understand others and be understood yourself.
Note: most of the links are to external websites; a lot of them are worth exploring for other resources
Where to start learning about Irish Pronunciation
Sounds and Spelling of Irish video by Karen Reshkin
Sounds and Spelling of Irish handout by Karen Reshkin
(June 2018 version, check video description to see if it's been updated)
How to Pronounce Irish for Beginners by Gearóid Ó Ceallaigh
http://www.angaelmagazine.com/pronuncia ... uction.htm
Omniglot article about the writing and pronunciation of Irish
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/irish.htm
Help with Broad / Slender post on Duolingo Irish forum
https://www.duolingo.com/comment/4378779
Where to hear Irish words pronounced
Dictionary and Language Library by Foras na Gaeilge
Irish <-> English Dictionaries with pronunciation of many words in 3 dialects
This is an excellent resource, put it at the top of your bookmarks list
Lookup a word, then click the pronunciation tab at the top right
https://www.teanglann.ie/en/
Abair.ie The Irish Language Synthesiser at Trinity College (Turn Written Text into Speech)
You can type as much Irish as you want and the computer will pronounce it in several dialects
http://www.abair.tcd.ie/?lang=eng
Forvo Irish pronunciation dictionary
Words and short phrases uploaded by anyone - be aware that some pronunciation might be nonstandard
https://forvo.com/languages/ga/
Rhinospike Irish
Site where people upload things they want to have pronounced and other people read them
https://rhinospike.com/language/gle/recordings/
Pronunciation Lessons on Ceacht.ie
This site provides resources for teachers of Irish
Beginners can make use of the pronunciation lessons
You can listen to the audio files and find the transcription in the pdf, Comhráite & Cleachtaí (conversations & practices)
Each audio file name indicates the unit (Aonad) and whether it is a conversation (Comhrá) or a practice (Cleachtadh)
For example, 002_aonad_1_comhra is the Unit 1 conversation, and 003_aonad_1_cleachtadh_1 is Unit 1 practice 1
http://www.ceacht.ie/content/blas
Vifax at Maynooth University
Video clips from TG4 TV news program with transcripts and lessons
If you've never heard Irish previously, it will take some time to be able to pick out words at the speed they talk
http://vifax.maynoothuniversity.ie/
RTÉ Easy Irish
Short Irish course with audio recordings of written dialogs
https://web.archive.org/web/20180204055 ... index.html
(The link goes to a copy on the Internet Archive. The original webpage is no longer active.)
Nuacht Mhall by Conradh na Gaeilge i Londain
The week's main news stories, read slowly in Irish.
https://anchor.fm/cnag-ldn
Recordings and transcripts are available on this website and from various podcast sources.
Where to read more (than you ever wanted to know) about Irish Pronunciation and Writing
The Sounds of Irish
A site from The University of Duisburg-Essen describing sounds of the Irish language and their variations by region, including recordings of native speakers.
https://www.uni-due.de/FnG/
Wikipedia
The phonology of the Irish language (how it sounds)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_phonology
Irish orthography (how it's written)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_orthography
Pronunciation key for IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcriptions of Irish on Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA/Irish
Recordings meant to Accompany Books about Irish
Fuaimeanna na Gaeilge
The website that accompanies the book Fuaimeanna na Gaeilge, a beginner’s course in phonetics and phonology
The book is written in Irish; the website is available in both Irish and English.
It has recordings of Irish sounds and short phrases in 3 dialects
http://www.fuaimeanna.ie/en/
Recordings to accompany the book First Steps in Irish by the Christian Brothers
http://fsii.gaeilge.org/
Recordings to accompany Colloquial Irish By Thomas Ihde, Maire Ni Neachtain, Roslyn Blyn-LaDrew, John Gillen
https://www.routledgetextbooks.com/text ... /irish.php
Recordings and pdf of the pronunciation guide from Foclóir Póca by Foras na Gaeilge
https://www.forasnagaeilge.ie/angum/focloir-poca/
Memrise Decks (online flashcards) Courses
Buntús Cainte
Memrise Decks courses created to support use of the Buntús Cainte books
Lessons 1-20 Lessons 21-30
Lessons 31-40 Lessons 41-50
Lessons 51-60 Lessons 61-70
Lessons 71-80 Lessons 81-90
Lessons 91-100 Lessons 101-110
Lessons 111-120 Lessons 121-130
Duolingo
Memrise Decks course created by users based on Duolingo vocabulary and organized like the Duolingo Irish tree; most cards have audio
https://app.memrise.com/course/375351/duolingo-irish/
Other Resources
Pronunciation Key from Daltaí na Gaeilge
Irish language learning site with many resources
http://www.daltai.com/grammar/pronunciation-key/
The Gettysburg Address written using Irish phonetics
You know what it sounds like, this shows what it might look like transliterated into Irish
http://scoilgaeilge.org/lessons/reading.htm
Irish On Your Own / Now You're Talking
Video, audio, and other resources from a course produced in the 1990s
Ulster dialect
http://www.dfwgaelicleague.com/p/irish-on-your-own.html
Gaelchultúr YouTube channel
Gaelchultúr, also known as Coláiste na hÉireann since 2013, is an Irish language school; their YouTube channel has several hundred Frása an Lae (Phrase of the Day) videos, as well as some other potentially helpful videos.
https://www.youtube.com/c/GaelchulturTeo
Playback Speed
At the time this is being written, it is possible to play the audio from the Duolingo Irish course at half-speed. The Duolingo website and the tools mentioned are always changing, and it requires the use of advanced tools. If you do want to give it a try, you'll need to find the URL for the sound file, then use that to play the audio with software that allows it to be slowed down.
Finding the URL for the Sound File
Some kind users have posted the audio URLs in sentence discussions as the topic has come up. To find examples of these, you can search within the Irish Forum for "Play Speed" then search within the page for the comment that has that phrase.
To find the URL yourself, you will need to open the developer console in your browser (usually with the F12 key).
- Make sure you are on a sentence discussion page that has an audio play button (not all sentences have audio - if it doesn't have audio, there will be no button) - Press the F12 key to open the developer console - Click the Network tab in the developer console - Click the play button on the web page (you should hear the sentence being spoken) - You should see a new entry in the network tab (the layout of the tab varies slightly depending on which browser you are using); it will be a GET request and the content type will be "mpeg", and it should be similar to one of the following:
https://d7mj4aqfscim2.cloudfront.net/tt ... 834752637d
https://d1vq87e9lcf771.cloudfront.net/g ... 856567af13 - Right click the name/URL and copy the URL
Playing the Audio Slowly
You can do this directly in the browser with Firefox by going to the audio URL, then right clicking on the player and changing the Play Speed. Neither Chrome nor the latest version of MS Edge have this function built in.
If you have a media player that supports slower playback, such as VLC, you can use that to play the audio directly by selecting Open Network Stream, or by downloading the mpeg as a file to your computer and then playing it.
L5
Beginner Irish/Gaeilgeoir