An Irish Dialogue Reference for the historical novel…

“The Bohannon Brothers”

Edited by Aogán Ó Muircheartaigh Published by Amerivista Books

Irish Dialogue Reference and Pronunciation Guide It has been said that each language has its own innate musical quality. This is certainly true of the Irish language. It has a highly expressive rhythm and musicality that makes for a uniquely beautiful and poetic language. We sincerely hope that you, the reader, can feel some of that magical quality! Here, we provide a brief and very simplified guide on the Irish language and dialect used in this novel. At the end, there is a pronunciation sample from Chapter 2, with 10 dialogue parts spoken in Irish. For a more indepth understanding, please use the resources given below. In particular, you can use a special feature on the “www.abair.tcd.ie” site to get a quick audio representation of any of this novel’s Irish dialogue parts. More information on that is given below.

Background Information The Irish language was spoken widely throughout Ireland during the period in which the Bohannon and Connor families lived there. The disaster of the Great Famine, along with the mass emigration which followed (as well as other factors), hastened the contraction of the language so that, today, there remain just a few concentrated areas where it is predominant. However, Irish speakers can be found throughout Ireland and there is an increasing cultural interest in it. What evolved over time are the three distinct dialects of the language we now have. There are many similarities between them but also some subtle differences. These dialects are the western dialect (primarily in Connacht but also an area within Co. Meath), the northern dialect in Ulster, and the southern dialect in Munster.

The Irish Dialect used in “The Bohannon Brothers” All of the Irish dialogue in this book is “period-based” Connacht. That is, it is an authentic version of what would have been spoken by many people in the west of Ireland, and specifically within the Connemara region of County Galway during the nineteenth century.

Basic Resources o

The “Abair.ie” Website: Visit “http://www.abair.tcd.ie/” if you wish to hear a good indication of how our Irish dialogue might sound today. This site has an excellent text-to-speech conversion program that enables you to “hear” the speaking parts by simply entering text (and then pressing a conversion button). It works amazingly well and can give one an immediate “feel” for the dialogue. Note that text entries must be exact, including all accents (e.g., Tá sé sách garbh anseo). However, the site provides a special facility for entering these accented characters. Also, if you requested the PDF script from the publisher, you could then copy and paste the Irish dialogue from the PDF directly into their text conversion program. The “abair.ie” site is hosted by Dublin’s Trinity College. The unique text-to-speech translator works with the western Connacht dialect (including Connemara) and the northern Ulster dialect; support is also intended for the southern Munster dialect as well.

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Foclóir Póca Dictionary: An excellent English-Irish/Irish-English pocket dictionary first published in 1986.

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The “www.daltai.com” Site: A site dedicated to promoting and teaching Irish.

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The “Logainm.ie” Site: An excellent Irish place-name resource is found at the “www.logainm.ie” website.

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The “Focal.ie” Site: An Irish terminology resource is found at the “www.focal.ie” website.

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Beginner’s Irish Language Tutorials: We list two here, from among a number of good sources: 1) Colloquial Irish (by Thomas Ihde, Máire Ní Neachtain, Roslyn Blyn-LaDrew, and John Gillen); 2) Basic Irish (by Nancy Stenson). Both of these are based on the Connacht dialect and should be easy to find with some online searches.

Irish Guide for “The Bohannon Brothers.” Amerivista Books, copyright 2012. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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Phonetic Representation and Pronunciation Guide A dialogue pronunciation sample from Chapter 2 (“The Baltimore Hope”) is provided at the end of this reference. Please remember that, in this sample—and throughout the novel—we have endeavored to show how the Irish of the Galway-Mayo region would have been spoken in the nineteenth century. That said, the technical information here is based primarily on the system given in the Foclóir Póca dictionary and other resources, mentioned above.

About Vowels and Consonants Here, we present the basic system of vowels and consonants. Vowels: There are 5 long vowels and 5 corresponding short vowels, along with a neutral vowel (represented by the schwa symbol, “ə”). The “neutral” sound is very short and unarticulated. Along with these vowel sounds, there are 4 main diphthongs (ai, au, iə, uə). The long ‘sound’ of the vowel is similar to the short, but it sounds out for a little longer. In the written language, long vowels are often indicated with an acute accent (á, é, ó). In Irish this is known as síneadh fada (where “fada” means long). Please note that not all words use the acute-accent to indicate that a certain vowel is long. It is usually represented that way (i.e., accented), but not always. Vowels are also classified as being either broad or slender depending on how they are used with consonants. The “broad” vowels are a, o, and u. The slender ones, i and e. (Note that this is not the same as long and short.) Consonants: Each consonant has two distinct representations—a broad sound and a slender one. The is important because it can indicate differences in both meaning and sound. The rule is generally that consonants adjacent to a broad vowel—a, o, u, or the combination of ae—are broad, and consonants adjacent to the slender vowels (i and e) are slender. Written Irish uses most of the same consonants as those in use for English, although j, q, v, w, x, y and z are extremely rare. The exception is the few “loan-words,” most of which are taken from or based on English: e.g. jab for job, veidhlín for violin, yóyó for yoyo and zú for zoo. In Irish, the consonant ‘c’ represents the ‘k’ sound. The letter k is not used at all. The name of “Kerry” (for County Kerry) is an English version of the Irish word, “Ciarraí.” Phonetic Reference: All of the examples provided here are based on the Connacht dialect of the Irish language. For example, in cases where the Connacht dialect might sound out like the English word “eye” (i.e., the long “I” sound, in English), the same vowel usage in one of the other dialects might sound similar to a long “a” (e.g., like the “a” sound in “straight” or “bait”). Further, our particular dialogue is tuned, as best we can, to the 19th century. Conventions: Please note that in our usage tables (below), we place a colon symbol (:) after long vowel examples (as opposed to accenting them). Slender consonants are indicated as such with a slanted-accent mark after the letter (e.g., bʹ).

Irish Guide for “The Bohannon Brothers.” Amerivista Books, copyright 2012. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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Vowels Usage Table Note that, in the first and third columns, we use the colon (:) to indicate long vowels. Slender consonants (third column) are indicated as such with an accent mark after the letter (e.g., bʹ).

Vowels

Text Example

Pronunciation

English Sounds

a

tagtha fada tá slán beidh saol muid sin tír seo seol mór dubh cúrsa go

taka fadə ta: sla:n bʹe se:l midʹ s´in´ ti:rʹ sʹo sʹo:l mo:r duv ku:rsə gə

that

short & long

a: e e: i i: o o: u u: ə (neutral)

thaw let sail, hay bin shin tier, beer, fear son, pun shoal, more book, took two, too, boo about, around

About Neutral Vowels: For those who may not be familiar, neutral vowels are characterized as being very short, unarticulated sounds: e.g., calling someone by name, such as “a Sheáin” or “a Mhary,” where the “a” preceding the name is neutral. In the chapter pronunciation sample, given at the end of this reference, many of the words include neutral vowels. The “schwa” symbol (ə) then is used to indicate those sounds. Examples are also given directly below, in the “diphthong” table.

Diphthongs Vowels Text Example ai aghaidh

Pronunciation ai:g

English Sounds eye (ai:g = ig, with long “i” sound)

au iə

cabhair scian

uə

uair uainn

kaurʹ skʹiən (Eng. “skee-un”) uərʹ uənʹ

now, fowl Pianist fluent

(“Uair” and “uainn” have short and neutral vowels, along with slender consonants. This results in very short sounding words.)

Irish Guide for “The Bohannon Brothers.” Amerivista Books, copyright 2012. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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Consonants Usage Table Note that, in the third column, we use an accent mark after the consonant to indicate that it is a slender consonant. Slender consonants are usually next to slender vowels (i and e) and broad consonants next to broad vowels (a, o, u). The accent-mark is added to slender consonants as a visual aid, so that they stand out from the broad version of the same consonant: e.g., b and b´ are the broad and slender versions of the letter “b.” Broad Usage b c (“k” sound) d f g h j l m n p r s t v w x (ch) ŋ (ng) ɣ

As in English

(or as indicated)

ball come Similar to initial d in dance, but with tongue pressed against back of teeth instead of palate. fat bog hat James hull mother nobody public row but very broad, not rolled boss Similar to t in town, but tongue pressed against back of teeth instead of palate. (same as d). volume want loch (softer, throaty “k” sound) long a gutteral sound from back of throat like Spanish word, agua

Slender Usage bʹ cʹ

As in English

(or as indicated)

dʹ

bee Kerry (County Kerry taken from Ciarraí) dinner

fʹ gʹ

feel big

lʹ mʹ nʹ pʹ rʹ sʹ (sh) tʹ

liver me night peace ride sheer tears but somewhat similar to cheers

vʹ

verse

xʹ

Ich (a throaty sound, as in the German language) sing yes

ŋ´ ɣʹ

Irish Guide for “The Bohannon Brothers.” Amerivista Books, copyright 2012. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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Dialogue Pronunciation Sample (from Chapter-2) The example given below “sounds-out” the Irish-language dialogue from Chapter 2 (“The Baltimore Hope”). There are some obvious difficulties in transcribing spoken parts to sounds, and that is where an Irish-language text-to-speech facility, such as the one at the “www.abair.ie” site, can be so valuable. Our intention here is simply to provide one literal pronunciation example from the book itself, in order to assist the reader with at least some sense of it. The characters speaking the Irish parts in this example are James and Mary Connor. Guide Symbol Definitions: In the “Pronunciation Guide” column, we use vertical accent marks (ꞌ) before certain syllables to indicate that the stress is on that syllable. Also, in the “Pronunciation” column, the colon (:) is used once again to indicate long vowel sounds (example – a:), as well as a slanted-accent after consonants that are slender (example – sʹ). In the Irish-language dialogue section (the second column), we simply use the correct literal representation that occurs throughout the novel. In the dialogue sample below, most long vowels are accented (e.g., Tá and cúrsa). o

As mentioned earlier in this guide, there are some subtle and distinct differences between the western, southern, and northern dialects (of Connacht, Munster, and Ulster). Here, we provide one small example— between Connacht and Munster—that illustrates this difference: In our Connacht dialogue, the words 'ár gceann' (a:r g´a:n) in line 5, and 'ball' (ba:l) in line 10, both use the long vowel version of ‘a’ (where a: = the long ‘a’ vowel). However, these same words have the diphthong 'au' in the Munster dialect, and would be pronounced a:r g´aun and baul.

Dialect Stress: In the Connacht dialect, the stress is on the first syllable of the words; there are some exceptions—one such being the common word ‘anseo’ (see below). It is also important to note again that there are differences in stress between Connacht (this version) and the other main dialects

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Speaker Irish-Language Dialogue James Tá na seolta á stríocadh don uair dheireanach. Tá muid tagtha slán sábháilte go ceann cúrsa. 2 James Beidh grá go síoraí againn do thír ár mbreithe ach cuirfidh muid fréamha nua i dtalamh anseo. 3 Mary Tá sé sách garbh anseo, a James. Is cinnte go mbraithfidh muid uainn suaimhneas na hÉireann. 4 James Is fada fairsing an tír í seo! Níl feicthe againn ach beagán di ach tiocfaidh muid ar áit éicint ina gcuirfidh muid ár bhfréamha. 5 James Seo é ár gceann scríbe. An bhfuil tú sásta, a Mhary? 6 Mary Ó, a James, is pálás de theach é! Iarrfaidh mé ar an sagart é a bheannú dúinn. 7 James Faoi mar is áil leatsa, a ghrá mo chroí istigh. 8 Mary A Daniel! Dúirt mé leat gan léim ón áit sin! 9 James Fan socair anseo istigh, a Daniel! Seo leat agus nigh d’éadan, tá an sagart ar an mbealach. 10 Mary Labhair leis, a James. Mínigh an scéal dó ar ball inár seanteanga féin.

Pronunciation Guide ta: nə ꞌ sʹo:ltə a: ꞌ sʹtʹrʹi:kə dən uərʹ ꞌ ɣʹerʹənəx ta: midʹ ꞌ takə sla:n ꞌ sa:va:lʹtʹə gə kʹa:n ꞌ ku:rsə bʹe gra: gə ꞌ sʹi:ri: ꞌ aganʹ də hi:rʹ a:r ꞌ mʹrʹehə ax ꞌ kirʹhə midʹ ꞌ fre:və nuə i ꞌ dalə ənʹ ꞌ sʹo ta: sʹe: sax ꞌ garu: ənʹ ꞌ sʹo ə je:ms is ꞌ ki:nʹtʹə gə ꞌ mrahə midʹ uənʹ ꞌ suanʹəs nə ꞌ he:rʹən is ꞌ fadə ꞌ farsʹiŋʹ ən tʹi:rʹ i: sʹo nʹi:lʹ ꞌ fekʹə ꞌ agənʹ ax ꞌ bega:n dʹi ax ꞌ tʹikə midʹ erʹ a:tʹ e:ꞌ ki:nʹtʹ ꞌ inə ꞌ gorʹ hə midʹ a:r ꞌ vʹrʹe:və sʹo e: a:r gʹa:n ꞌ sʹkʹrʹi:bʹə ə wilʹ tu: ꞌ sa:stə ə ꞌ veri: o: ə ꞌ je:ms: is ꞌ pa:la:s dʹə hax e: ꞌ i:rhi me: erʹ ə ꞌ sagərt e: ꞌ vʹanu: du:nʹ fi: mar is a:lʹ ꞌ lʹatsə ə ɣra: mə xri: sʹtʹi ə ꞌdʹanʹelʹ du:rʹtʹ mə lʹat gən lʹe:mʹ o:n a:tʹ sʹinʹ fan ꞌ səkirʹ ənʹ ꞌ sʹo sʹtʹi ə ꞌ dʹanʹelʹ sʹo lʹat ꞌ əgəs nʹi ꞌ tʹe:dən ta:n ꞌ sagərt erʹ ə ꞌ mʹaləx laurʹ lʹesʹ ə je:ms ꞌ mi:nʹi n sʹkʹe:l do: erʹ ba:l na:r ꞌ sʹanꞌtʹaŋgə fe:nʹ

Irish Guide for “The Bohannon Brothers.” Amerivista Books, copyright 2012. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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