Feilidh-Mhor pronunciation

[Mikilt]

Rabble,

After being around here for a few years, I have read the names of the Great Kilt (Feilidh-Mhor) and the little kilt (Philabeg) many times. How are these words pronounced?


Thanks!

~M

[neloon]

Correct spellings are "feileadh mor" pronounced "fell-ugh more" and
"feileadh beg" pronounced "fell-ugh beck".
The "gh" sound doesn't exist in English - it's a bit like "ch" as in "loch" but not so breathy. Maybe a bit like gargling!
Alan

[robbiethepiper]

fèileadh mòr pronounced fail yug more. fèileadh beag pronounced fail yug bek. The accents are critical as they lengthen the sound of the vowel and can change the

meaning of some words. All Gàidhlig nouns have gender. Mhòr would change the gender of 'kilt' from masculine to feminine!!!

Robbie

[OC Richard]

Yes the "o" in Gaelic is very tricky to a non-speaker like myself!

MacLennan's Gaelic Dictionary gives six different "o" sounds.

We have to be wary because many Americans pronounce "o" as a dipthong, rounding to "u' at the end. We have to avoid doing this when pronouncing Gaelic, and have a pure "o" like many Canadians say.

And not the dipthongised "o" as in English "more" as pronounced by most Americans, "oh-uhr".

(An interesting test is to carefully examine how yourself an others pronounce pairs like bore/Boer, more/mower, etc.)

[figheadair]

All Gàidhlig nouns have gender. Mhòr would change the gender of 'kilt' from masculine to feminine!!!Robbie

Would it not be more correct to say that mhor, as a qualifiying adjective, signifies/agrees with a feminine noun. The gender of Gaelic nouns is, I believe, related the the word structure; hence, a word like feusag (a beard) is feminine and so the adjective would have to agree - feusag mhor.

[robbiethepiper]

Yes. The point being that fèileadh mhòr implies that fèileadh is feminine, because mòr lenites to mhòr following a feminine noun, which is not the case here.

Gender can sometimes be inferred from the spelling of a word, particularly its' ending, but there are too many exceptions to formulate a set of 'rules'.

Those of us not fortunate enough to be native speakers just have to try to remember! - Robbie

[OC Richard]

"feilleadh beg" pronounced "fell-ugh beck".

Alan, the "L" being slender, I would expect a "Y" offglide. No?

My teacher back in college was careful that I pronounce eile (other, another, next) with that y-offglide, anyhow, more or less like 'ail-yuh'.

[neloon]

Richard, I don't know of any dialect where this happens - eile is just 'ale-uh'.
Alan

[robbiethepiper]

Quite right OC Richard, and if you go to the pronouncing dictionary at www.learngàidhlig.net/dictionary the pronunciation is confirmed. However, as Neloon

points out eile is always, these days, pronounced ell-uh, showing once again that the 'rules' are less than perfect!

[neloon]

Richard,
As Robbie hints, Gaelic pronunciation and orthography are riddled with inconsistencies and dialect variations. For example, how could we have had so ('here') for a word pronounced 'shaw'? The Scottish Qualifications Authority has now ordained that so is wrong and must be replaced by seo. Likewise, de should(?) be pronounced 'jay' but the majority Lewis pronunciation i.e. 'day' has become the usual. Amendments to the orthography haven't yet come at anything like perfect conventions. That's without beginning to think about borrowed words; is the plural of 'computer' na coimpiutairean or (majority view) na coimpiutairs?!!

Alan