Mamun -university roman -german philology english department

broad and slender (leathan agus caol)

All consonants exist in two forms (with the exception of the [h]):

• 
  broad (velar) consonants: [p], [b], [v]/[w], [f], [m], [t], [d], [n], [l], [r], [s], [z], [k], [g], [x], [γ], [ng]
  
• 
  slender (palatal) consonants: [p'], [b'], [v'], [f'], [m'], [t'], [d'], [n'], [l'], [r'], [s'], [z'], [k'], [g'], [x'], [γ'], [ng']
  

In phonetic transcriptions, a small apostrophe ['] is used to denote the slender variant.
The difference between the two forms is important. The differences are also greater then the equivalent pairs in German or English.
In German, only "ch" in "ach" [ax] (velar) and in "ich" [iç] are woth mentioning, in Irish transcription: [ix'] (palatal))
In Irish, the differences are also to be heard in [d] and [d'] or [t] and [t'] and others (partially, and especially in Ulster, the slender consonants d,t are spoken like affricates: [dj], [tç] or [t])
It becomes especially obvious in the difference between [s] and [s']. A slender [s'] is always spoken like the German "sch" [].
Specifics:
In combinations like sp-, sf-, sm- at the beginning of a word, the s is always broad. e.g.: spléach [sp'l'e:x]
In the following combinations, the 1st consonant is always broad : -cht, -rd, -rl, -rn, -rs, -rt. e.g.: boichte [boxt'@] not: [box't'@]
At the beginning of a word the [r] is always broad: rí [ri:]
It is important to note that broad consonants may also stand next to slender vowels and also the other way around: slender consonants next to broad vowels.
In German, this is not possible. There, it is always only similar toned consonants and vowels beside one another (e.g. ach [ax], ich [ix']).
In Irish, the glide comes into use, in order to make this shift from slender to broad, and vice versa, possible.
The difference of broad and slender is made clear in the orthography through the neighbouring vowel signs.
e.g. seo [s'o], sin [s'in'], airgead [ar'@g'@d], airgid [ar'@g'@d']
The difference between "broad" and "slender" consonants in Irish is equivalent to the difference between "hard" and "soft" consonants in slavic languages.
This is made clear e.g. in Russian, where necessary, through a soft character ь and a hard character ъ : e.g. работать [rabotat'] = to work (soft т [t'] durch ь); or through "soft" vowels like я, ё and ю and the "hard" vowel ы (which is approximately the Irish ao).