Gaelic pronunciation help

**Iain Ruaidh** · 25th July 22, 11:39 AM

Oh Yes
In Lewis Gaelic that R sounds more like “th” to my English ear! But the tongue goes slightly back from the th placing. Very hard to do right.

**OC Richard** · 25th July 22, 07:33 PM

Originally Posted by Iain Ruaidh

Oh Yes
In Lewis Gaelic that R sounds more like “th” to my English ear! But the tongue goes slightly back from the th placing. Very hard to do right.

Yes exactly in monosyllabic words like "muir" from what I've heard can sound to English ears like "mooth".

**figheadair** · 25th July 22, 11:43 PM

Originally Posted by Iain Ruaidh

Oh Yes
In Lewis Gaelic that R sounds more like “th” to my English ear! But the tongue goes slightly back from the th placing. Very hard to do right.

Which highlights the point that in Gaelic, like English or any other language, there is no such thing as standard pronunciation. I recall a native speaker from Harris who referred to Lewis Gaelic as New Gaelic.

**DCampbell16B** · 26th July 22, 02:56 AM

Originally Posted by figheadair

Which highlights the point that in Gaelic, like English or any other language, there is no such thing as standard pronunciation. I recall a native speaker from Harris who referred to Lewis Gaelic as New Gaelic.

And in Lewis, everytime I came up with a word from what I had learned beforehand, they said that was Right Gaelic.

(Please don't think that happened a lot. I was/am not fluent, and never had a huge vocabulary)