Pronouncing Scottish Gaelic

[PeterSandy]

Posters often ask for the 'correct' pronunciation of Scottish Gaelic words. The good news is - A Pronouncing Dictionary of Scottish Gaelic by Henry Cyril Dieckhoff should help. The bad news is - it is out of print.

This link is most interesting:
Scottish Gaelic

[wullie m]

Para Handy, ye really need a feed of the salt herrin tae master the finer points! wullie m

[PeterSandy]

No, Wullie, the point about this particular pronouncing dictionary is that it is based on a mainland dialect.

"The dialect of Glengarry is one of the more conservative of the mainland dialects. The older generations of speakers appear to have been little affected by foreign influences either in articulation, vocabulary or syntax; and for this reason their speech offers a favourable field for the study of Gaelic sounds."
Prof. J. Fraser, Jesus College, Oxford (1932)

[Duthill]

Originally Posted by wullie m

Para Handy, ye really need a feed of the salt herrin tae master the finer points! wullie m

I miss the strong fish (salted herring) I had in Scandinavia , and the smoked reindeer .

[wullie m]

I should imagine Gaelic's near enough extinct in Glengarry!
Reading the Gaelic link, interesting, but still quoting as fact the notion that Gaelic spread to Argyle from Ulster. This is now disputed by some scholars, it's not supported by the archaeological evidence.
Can you learn pronounciation from a book? I should imagine some contact with native speakers is necessary. The nightmare prospect of folk looking for train times and getting connected to a call centre in India, demonstrates the difficulty. The staff are brilliant and struggle with every conceivable UK accent, but the chances of ending up in Greenock instead of Greenwich are still fairly high. I've yet to meet an Englishman who can pass himself off as a Scot, Gordon Brown attempted the reverse! The lassie who played Kettles in Tutti Frutty was superb but that's exceptional. I spoke to a Danish girl recently who did Glasgow very well, and I know a Turk who could pass as a native, yet the Soudron can't hack it!
wullie m

[PeterSandy]

Wullie -
This link takes account of the new archaeological evidence.
Mid-Argyll Theme 11 of Travels in Time

How should a learner pronounce 'rathad', the Gaelic word for road given that the letters 'th' are silent?
Dieckhoff's pronouncing dictionary informs the learner that the letter 'a' in both places is pronounced as in the English word 'father'. The simple and effective phonetic symbol system is explained on two and a bit pages.
Hebrideans tend to pronounce 'a' in 'rathad' as in the English word 'rot'. That can sometimes cause confusion and puzzlement.

What is the point of doing that?

[wullie m]

Good link PS, some interesting stuff. As to the pronounciation of father, I say faither myself but I don't think that's what's wanted. The PM for example, has two different "a" sounds in Pakistan, which is pretty preposterous really, how do toffs know which to use, and where does this bizarre anomaly come from. Have Eton & Harrow special classes in this or does one have to cut ones mouth on a bottle first to attain the proper effect? wullie m