tontonton

sound guide
intro words

The Irish (Munster) Language

Irish is unique among the Earth's languages because of its heavy use of velarization, which is found almost nowhere else on Earth. In addition to the velarized tint it applies to many consonants, it also makes heavy use of palatalization, also common in Russian.

At first glance Irish spelling seems to have little relation to the pronunciation. But apparently after you master a large rule list, you can reliably pronounce words directly from reading Irish writing, which uses its own variant of the Latin script.

There are only about 100-200k people who speak Irish as a first language, with only roughly a million speakers of it at all, globally. It is interesting to hear, and like the other lesser used languages, it still offers some interesting examples of the sounds you can make with your voice.

Consonant Phonology for Irish (Munster)

Here are the 21 fundamental consonants used when speaking Irish (Munster).

For a complete list of possible consonants a human voice might make while speaking a natural language, check out the consonants page.

This language has velarized consonants and palatalized consonants.

bilabiallabiodentaldentalalveolarpostalveolarretroflexvelaruvularpharyngealglottal
voiced nasal
voiced palatalized nasal
m3m3
n3n3
quiet plosive
quiet velarized plosive
p4p4
quiet palatalized plosive
p3p3
t5t5
k3k3
voiced plosive
voiced velarized plosive
b6b6
voiced palatalized plosive
b5b5
d5d5
g5g5
quiet sibilant fricative
quiet velarized sibilant fricative
s4s4
quiet non-sibilant fricative
h5h5
quiet palatalized non-sibilant fricative
f3f3
h3h3
voiced non-sibilant fricative
voiced palatalized non-sibilant fricative
v5v5

Vowel Phonology for Irish (Munster)

These are the 6 base vowels used when speaking Irish (Munster).

Also, a complete list of possible vowels a human voice might make while speaking can be found here.

mannerfront unroundedfront roundedfront central unroundedfront central roundedcentral unroundedcentral roundedback central unroundedback central roundedback unroundedback rounded
near-close
mid
open-mid
open