Random language thread 6

[linguoboy]

Acmhainn den scoth atánn innte sin, a Chaoimhín!

I really appreciate how comprehensively it covers dialect pronunciations. There are a few questionable statements from my POV (such as the generalisation that the conjugated forms of <ó> are pronounced irregularly in all dialects) but these might just be the product of taking Kerry as standing for all Munster.

[kevin]

I feel like things get a bit shaky whenever it tries to go into specific dialects. I think everything it mentions exists in some dialect, but you probably can't consistently get the right rules for any specific dialect from it. (Or maybe there is some dialect the authors know well and it actually works consistently for that one?)

As an example that isn't from Munster, in several places it lists words with -abha- /o:/ as exceptions in Ulster with expected /au/. This doesn't make sense to me, I would consider /o:/ the regular pronunciation in Ulster.

[linguoboy]

I feel like things get a bit shaky whenever it tries to go into specific dialects. I think everything it mentions exists in some dialect, but you probably can't consistently get the right rules for any specific dialect from it. (Or maybe there is some dialect the authors know well and it actually works consistently for that one?)

There isn't.

Most of Ó Siadhail's Modern Irish is dedicated to deriving surface forms in the various dialects from underlying representations and he has to adduce a large number of "minor rules" to account for the inconsistencies one sees in a particular Gaeltacht. (West Cork even has examples like bonn and fonn, which have two distinct pronunciations based on which meaning is intended.)