Litreacha

An Aibítir/The Alphabet

We will now begin our lesson on the modern Irish alphabet, which uses the following standard letters:

a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, u

The letters j, k, q, v, w, x, y and z have not traditionally been present in Irish. There are now exceptions to these rules for words that have been Gaelicised, or adapted, into Irish from other languages. An example of this is the word veidhlín or violin, as well as zú which means zoo.

Another important consideration in the Irish alphabet is the use of vowels to create sounds in words. There are five vowels a, e, i, o, u. It is important to note that there are two caol/slender vowels - i and e, and three leathan/broad vowels - a, o, and u.

This will be important to bear in mind as we embark on this course, as it has quite an effect on how words are pronounced.

Please listen to the video above in which words starting with the letters of the alphabet are pronounced for you. You might like to make notes as you listen. These will aid you when completing future quizzes.

Listen carefully as each word is pronounced. Listen also to how the word changes when the first letter is followed by a slender vowel e.g. i, e or a broad vowel e.g. a, o, u. Listen also to the sound of the vowels that have a síneadh fada/an acute accent e.g. á, é, í, ó, ú.

As many of you have just completed Irish 101, take a look at the above video again. Reflecting on what we have learned since then, how does this video now make you feel? Do you feel the same as you did when you first saw it at the beginning of Irish 101 or have your thoughts on it changed? We look forward to hearing from you in the comments below.

For those of you who are not continuing from Irish 101 - listen to how words are pronounced in the above video. Then compare them with their spelling in the transcript at the bottom of the page. See if you can spot any patterns!

https://view.vzaar.com/17304879/download