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| chinita96 | Wednesday 24th of November 2004 02:12:26 PM |
| IRISH 07 (Ceacht 7) - I have discussed in earlier lessons Lenition, in this lesson, I will build upon Lenition and Eclipses. This can be a difficult subject to understand, especially for the beginner. Irish is a difficult language at first, but keep at it and it will start to make sense.
Click here to see a list of all PHRASE lessons. Lenition Lenition means softening, referring to the replacement of hard and abrupt sounds by the more hissing sounds. Lenition is what causes the word to change sound in Irish, since Irish is a very oral language pronounciation is very important... lenition causes a softening effect to the word. It only happens to consonants and not vowels, and something lenites by adding an "h" after the first letter of the word. Lenition is also known as mutation, aspiration, or séimhiú. Lenition only occurs for consonants. The nine consonants that are liable to lenition are: p, t, c, b, d, g, m, f, s These are how they would change: b --> bh c --> ch d --> dh f --> fh g --> gh m --> mh p --> ph s --> sh t --> th Lenition occurs with certain words, such as "a" used when addressing a person, the definite article [i]an[/i], and possessive pronouns. Possessive Pronouns Possessive pronouns are placed before the word they refer to: mo = my do = your a = his a = her With the possessive pronouns [i]mo[/i] and [i]do[/i], if the word begins with a vowel, it becomes [i]m'[/i] and [i]d'[/i]: m'athair = my father d'iníon = your daughter Lenition occurs with possessive pronouns, with a few exceptions. To distinguish between [i]a[/i], used as [i]his[/i] or [i]her[/i], there is a simple rule. [i]His[/i] lenites, and [i]her[/i] does not lenite. Example: mo chara = my friend do charr = your car a phaidreacha = his prayers a pingin = her penny Another exception are words that begin with [i]l[/i], [i]n[/i], [i]r[/i], or [i]h[/i] are not affected by lenition: mo leabhar do rothar a hata a seoladh If the words begin with a vowel, and you are using [i]a[/i], to say [i]her[/i], an [i]h[/i] is placed before the word: a aimn = his name a hainm = her name Eclipses An eclipse refers to the mutation of a word caused by a consonant being overtaken by another consonant, and the sound of the word becomes nasalized. Eclipse is also known as a mutation, nasalization, or urú. This occurs with both consonants and vowels. The 7 consonants that eclipse are: p, t, c, f, b, d, g Mutations that occur if the word begins with a consonant: b --> mb c --> gc d --> nd f --> bhf g --> ng p --> bp t --> dt Eclipses occur for consonants and vowels. Mutations that occur when there is a vowel at the beginning of the word: a --> n-a e --> n-e i --> n-i o --> n-o u --> n-u An example of an eclipse that occurs with vowels is by adding a "t-" to words beginning with vowels. If the vowel is a capital letter at the beginning of the word, the hyphen is dropped. Also, if the word begins with an [i]s[/i], you add a t before it: t-a --> tA t-e --> tE t-i --> tI t-o --> tO t-u --> tU ts Eclipses are caused by certain words and phrases, such as the genitive form, the article "an", and adjectives. I hope this helps to explain a little more in depth about lenition and eclipses. These are the main reasons for changes in pronunciation. Make sure you review IRISH 00, Ceacht 0, for pronunciation of lenition and eclipsed words. P.S. Tá mé ag foglaim fós, so feel free to correct me or add to this... | |
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