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.
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.
bilabial | labiodental | dental | alveolar | postalveolar | retroflex | velar | uvular | pharyngeal | glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
voiced nasal | |||||||||||
voiced palatalized nasal | |||||||||||
quiet plosive | |||||||||||
quiet velarized plosive | |||||||||||
quiet palatalized plosive | |||||||||||
voiced plosive | |||||||||||
voiced velarized plosive | |||||||||||
voiced palatalized plosive | |||||||||||
quiet sibilant fricative | |||||||||||
quiet velarized sibilant fricative | |||||||||||
quiet non-sibilant fricative | |||||||||||
quiet palatalized non-sibilant fricative | |||||||||||
voiced non-sibilant fricative | |||||||||||
voiced palatalized non-sibilant fricative |
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.
manner | front unrounded | front rounded | front central unrounded | front central rounded | central unrounded | central rounded | back central unrounded | back central rounded | back unrounded | back rounded | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
near-close | |||||||||||
mid | |||||||||||
open-mid | |||||||||||
open |