Table Of Content•iRish-ensiish-
Ronouncins OicsionMij
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te A1>ti v\ X)o $ c\e"01A1 1>
By Rev. Gerai^d 0'Noi.an.
Introduction to Studies in Modern
Irish. 5/- net.
StudiksinModernIrish. PartI.,Grammar.
6/- net,
"Studies in Modern Irish. PartII. Con-
tinuous ProseComposition. 6/- net.
Studies in Modern Irish. Part III. Ad-
vanced Prose. 5/- net
Studies in Modern Irish. Part IV. A
Critical Study of Keating's Languageand
Style. 5/- net.
"DiA, "OiAbAil A5tis •QAomc
ACollectionofShort StoriesfromTolstoy
and Stories of Modern I/ife in Ireland.
Cloth. 5/- net.
Ciii Seo-OA Ó AlbAin.
Three Folk Tales translated from Scotch
Ca«iic, Paper cover, 2/6 net.
,
te c\tjR A "DO t; AeTJt A1 l3
For thk Home
'OuAtiAiKe 5Ae-oil5e.
By Rose M. Young. Au Anthology of
—themost exquisiteFolkLyrics of Ireland
theGoldenTreasur>'oftheGael. Cloth
3/6 net.
These poems are of the people, by the
people, for the people; and they depict
the life, the hopes, the fears, the joys,
andthe sorrowsof theGael,withaquaint,
winning, natural simplicity. Thebookis
exhaustively annotated, and there is a
vocabulary of unusual words.
Oi-DccAniKv Si-oe {FaeryNights).
AnArtand Story Book forIrishChildren.
Written and illustrated by Michael Mac-
Liaim Mhoir. 2/6 net.
This is the firstattemptofanIrishauthor
and artist to produceareallyartisticbook
for Irish children. The stories circle
round St. Brigid's Eve, May Day Eve,
St.John's Eve, and November Eve, and
they are printed in both Irish and Eng-
lish. Thecolouredblackand white illus-
trations are simple and charming.
.th.
' .J a
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aiitif
as ir
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in
s. h^
I y syst. is
' «»3 Lest ,he
' discover
h and
w^.ii ' vped
as i^ -it a
ehaii" '^«CP^,
i >awtohn . ^"^
' -osl.lejCrieis ,\
isday,
n a W(. , . : . ^ n^
e•jIlpi\fwoviinieildcahetrinni.es.dtessoewnntial ts.o»sp',etllha.ienndg,Tr'•wtj''lse^'ihfe'ns,'lnaaivi^-|,
Hge. and what the oountry is hungering,
J. P. CRAIQ (Clongowes Wood College).
THE EDUCATIONAL
PRONOUNCING DICTIONARY
OF THE IRISH LANGUAGE
COMPILED BY
séAtntis Ó T)iiiiinine
'''
r: '} A'ND
Ó
THE EDUCATIONAL COMPANY OF IRELAND
LIMITED 89 TALBOT STREET, DUBLIN
::
íial
Curtis
-. Dubllr
tlia.
PREFACE.
To the many who are now earnestly studying the Irish
Language this little Pocket Pronouncing Dictionary is
offered in the hope that it may assist them in their efforts
to master the language. There are many who cannot
often consult a teacher or native speaker and who must
have felt the necessity for a pronouncing dictionary. To
such, it is hoped, this book will be of service. The
method of indicating the sounds is simple, and a short
study of the Phonetic Key should enable anyone to inter-
pret the phonetic renderings accurate!}'. But let it be
always remembered that the imitation of the sound is
only approximate. The English Language does not
contain all the sounds of Irish, therefore it is impossible
to convey the sounds of Irish satisfactorily through the
medium of English.
With occasional help from an Irish speaker, it is
confidently expected that the phonetic renderings here
given will be a tolerably accurate guide to correct
pionunciation. But consult a native speaker on every
available opportunity.
Our object is to supply, in the smallest compass, a
dictionary that contains all the words in use in every-
2043558
—
VIU. PREFACE
day life, a book that will supply the needs of the student,
the commercial man, or the traveller in the SAolrAcc.
Words that have fallen into disuse in the spoken language
have been excluded, while words recently added have
been included.
m
Method To keep within the limit of the space
:
allowed it was decided, as a general rule :
1st: to omit regularly formed derivatives,
2nd To omit words with regular prefixes.
:
In such cases the prefix is given with its meaning, and
all the student has to do is to look up the word and make
the necessary modification indicated by the prefix. For
example, •oeAj;--óiiitie see -ooAt, a prefix, good, excel-
lent, then -0111110, a person, and you get x)eA5--óuino, a
good or excellent person.
3rd Compound words will be found under their
:
component parts and are not, as a rule, repeated
in their compound form.
In this way a considerable amount of space has been
saved, giving room for much matter which, otherwise,
would have to be excluded. But though economy of
space has been aimed at throughout, there is no over-
compression, exphuiations are fully given and, where
consider(?d necessary, examples of usage.
Spelling: The tendency at present is towards
simplification of spelling and the disus(^ of silent, leduti
I
PREPiíCR IX.
dant, doad, letters. This has been done to a cei'tain
pxtent, and it is hopec] Ihe simplified forms will commend
themselves. As an instance, Iparú is written for iPAstií^ATj,
IcAsmre for X(\\H\.\\f;to, ^^eARxilAcc for yeAUAtiilAcc, etc.
Plurals are written : -aí, -í, for Ai-ne i-oe, etc. Occasion-
ally alternative forms of spelling are given.
Order: The somid is indicated immediately after each
word. The pronunciation given is Munster, and where
it differs from Connacht the Connacht pronunciation is
either indicated in full after the Munster, or the sound
of the syllable which differs from Munster is indicated.
In West Munster a slender vowel preceding 11, nn, or
m is pronounced like ee ; e.g., Ci\\=l-eel, hinn=bee}if/,
im=eefn, approximately. In East Munster these words
are pronounced A'í', bing, ini, approximately. As the
West Munster sound runs right through our poetic litera-
ture we have generally adopted it in preference to that of
East Munster.
We would, however, point out that inn is not
pronounced exactly as eeng or ecn, but something
between them. This sound can be got perfectly only
from a native speaker. Even in West Munster the ee
sound in this combination is not universal, as the word
tinn is sounded not ieen but i'-nn.
The combination o+nn is pronounced in West Munster'
as 00, and in East Munster as ou. We find, however,
that in West Munster some onn words are sounded oo and
others on, e.g., fií>nn=fí>o//, áonia.=á\\oun, bonn=bo////,
t
PREFACE
X.
SO we have generally conformed to the East Mimster
usage, and adopted the ow sound which is universal in
the one district and, at least, partially current in the
other.
The soft sound oi c and "o in Connacht as compared
with Munster should be borne in mind. As it is merely
a softened sound of the Munster c and "o it was not
considered necessary to indicate it in the phonetic words
Some of the best Connacht speakers have been consulted,
and they say that the ch sound (as in r//op) should be
guarded against.
Initial5 or "6 broad, it is difficult to represent satisfac-
torily. There is no sound like it in English. Where it
occurs we write " Gh " in the phonic rendering, the sound
of which it will be necessary to get from an Irish speaker.
After nouns, the order is : gender, genitive, case,
nominative plural.
After declinable adjectives, the comparative degree,
which is generally identical with the genitive singular
feminine, is given.
The imperative, second singular, which is the root of
the verb, is given as principal word. Under this
the verbal noun is given and the first person singular,
indicative. By this arrangement the essential parts are
given in small compass. The verbal noun is not repeated
as principal word except in very few cases.
In indicating inflectional changes, where an addition
is made to the piincipal word, the addition only is
