Page:Aids to the Pronunciation of Irish - Christian Brothers.djvu/36



24. Initial broad and  broad are formed by pressing the tongue against the inside of the upper teeth and sending a current of voiced air through the nose.

In Munster broad when final has not quite such a broad sound as that indicated in the previous paragraph. The sound is produced by placing the point of the tongue on the “hard rim” nearer to the teeth than for the English “n” in “no,” yet without touching them.

(a) Initial slender and  slender have the sound of the “n” in “Newry,” “new,” “news”—the front of the tongue presses against the “hard rim.”

The incipient spirant is very marked after slender when initial.

In Munster, generally, slender when medial is pronounced as slender, but when final it often gets the sound of slender  elsewhere.

Single between vowels, or at the end of words, is usually pronounced like the English “n.”

After, single is usually pronounced like the “n” in “Newry”—e.g.,.

The in  is pronounced (and now usually written).

25. is a simple consonantal sound, and all writers on phonetics assert that it should be represented by a single character. may be regarded as a nasalized just as  is a nasalized, and  a nasalized. In the production of the tongue is not pressed so