Mamun -university roman -german philology english department

the neutral vowel (schwa) [ ]

• 
  It ia an "unarticulated" short sound, neither a nor e nor i. In German one calls it the "Murmel-e".
  
• 
  In phonetic transcriptions it is a (according to the IPA-Umschrift) [ ], but here a [@] is substituted (Blume = [Blu:m@])
  e.g.: broad = leathan [l'æh@n], eile = other [el'@]
  (in some transcriptions an i-coloured "slender" schwa-sound is separated from the standard schwa.
  e.g.: other = eile [el'i]. But, this is actually not audible. eile sounds almost like the German word Elle. With that, the transcription [el'@] is preferable.)
  
• 
  In an unstressed syllable, in many Irish dialects, every short vowel is spoken as a schwa ([@])
  
• 
  The aux. vowel: Sometimes, the schwa sound is not written, but spoken as an auxilliary vowel between certain consonants (see there):
  e.g.: blue = gorm [gor@m], name = ainm [an'@m']
  
• 
  Elision: If in spoken Irish, a [@] comes up against another vowel, the [@] is omitted.
  Should two [@] follow after another, only one [@] is spoken.
  e.g.: Tá sé ag ól = he drinks [ta: s'e:go:l] not [ta: s'e: @g o:l]
  baile áillainn = pretty town [bal'a:l'inn] not [bal'@ a:l'inn]
  na gaotha aduaidh = the north wind [n@ gi:h@du@j] not [n@ gi:h@ @du@j]
  The a in ag [@g] or in gaotha [gi:h@] or the e in baile [bal'@] is not spoken in such cases.
  

the dipthongs (na défhogair)

There are the following dipthongs:

• 
  [au] e.g.: amh in amhras [aur@s] (= doubt)
  
• 
  [ai] e.g.: adha in radharc [rairk] (= view)
  
• 
  [ei] e.g.: eidh in beidh [b'ei] (= will be)
  
• 
  [u@] e.g.: ua in fuar [fu@r] (= cold)
  
• 
  [i@] e.g.: ia in ciall [k'i@l] (= sanity)
  

in some dialects there are also the sounds [oi], [@i], [ui], [ou].