Sorry to bother but do you have any online resources you would recommend for learning Irish? My partner and I are struggling because as far as I managed to find, there are several dialects that pronounce things differently and we can't seem to entirely figure out the phonetics (how is "maith" pronounced? when are letters silent and how do we know?)
hi!! :) you're not bothering me at all, I love getting questions about Irish. and it's so nice you're learning together <3
for a list of online resources, I made this post.
as far as dialects go, I recommend beginning with the standardised form of the language, an CaighdeĂĄn [on kai-dawn, literally means 'the Standard']. all of the textbooks and resources you'll find will be teaching the standard dialact; the majority of written Irish in the news and media uses it, etc. there is some variation allowed within the standardised form, but the grammatical differences are small. if you tune into Irish-language radio, they usually do the main headlines first (with the presenter using whichever dialect they have), and then switch to three segments of regional news, where the presenters deliver the news using more 'local' Irish.
you can of course decide to focus on one area in terms of accent - in which case, choose whichever area you like, and stick with it as best you can: everyone understands each other :)
for pronunciation, good news: Irish-language pronunciation is very consistent and the written form of the language corresponds extremely closely to what is written, even taking dialects and accents into account.
for an example of how that works: mh is consistently pronounced as a v in Munster and consistently pronounced as a w (or uu, depending on position in the word) in Ulster; so: at the end of a verb like "déanamh" [to do, doing], a Munster speaker will always say dayn-uv and a Ulster speaker will always say dyen-uu.
the rules for how pronunciation corresponds to the written word can seem big and complex, because we have a lot of phonemes (44) to represent using 18 or so letters - but they have put a lot of work into modernising and rationalising the orthographic system, and it is very consistent. it will seem like a lot at first, but once you get the hang of it, the amount of dh and bh and mh and eacht-y stuff going on will make perfect sense (promise).
ways to get exposure and practice with pronunciation:
teanglann.ie have a tab specifically for audio recordings of every word, given in each of the three dialects (labelled 'foghraĂocht' here, but you can change the site to English as well, and find it under 'pronunciation':
you will notice that the vast majority of the words are pronounced the same throughout the island, e.g. farraige [sea], but there are some with different pronunciations, e.g. mnĂĄ [women] - I pronounce it with an n, because I'm from Munster, but Connaught and Ulster speakers have an r sound in there.
there is another site I came across recently, Fuaimeanna na Gaeilge / Sounds of Irish - it's probably especially useful if you know IPA (which I don't!) but they have lots of recordings broken down by phoneme and dialect, recorded by broadcasters (note - because they had an individual person for each set of recordings, the dialects are labelled more specifically, Munster -> Corca Dhuibhne, Connaught -> An CheathrĂș Rua, Ulster -> Gaoth Dobhair)
if there's a name or placename or a specific term you need, and you don't find it on teanglann, then you can try Forvo/GA too. there won't be specific information about which accent the contributor has, but it can be useful nevertheless; I did a bit of clicking around and it seems contributors are sticking to a very clear 'standard' accent.
actual / immediate phonetic advice:
the accent (ĂĄĂ©ĂĂłĂș) in Irish is called a sĂneadh fada (or more conversationally, just a fada), which means 'long [mark]'. vowels with a fada on them will be longer, but it isn't always exactly the same vowel sound as the shorter form of the letter. to get you started, here are the pronunciations for the single vowels:
here's the pronunciation guide from Bitesize Irish where they go through every rule regarding broad vs slender, long vs. short, every letter's and combination of letter's pronunciation.
c is always a hard c, i.e. a k sound (Ceilteach, Celtic -> kel-tukh) unless before u / ui (cuile, every -> qui-leh)
ch makes a h sound at the beginning and middle of the word (fiche, twenty -> fih-heh), and a kh sound at the end (teach, house -> tyokh)
s becomes sh when it's before slender vowels (i, e, Ă, Ă©)
g becomes gw when it's before broad vowels (goile, stomach -> gwih-leh)
bh + mh are pronounced as v in Munster and Connaught (cuimhin, remember -> quiv-in) and silent in Ulster (cuimhin -> quiin)
bhf is pronounced as v (Munster) or w (Ulster and Connaught) -- e.g. an bhfaca tĂș Ă©? -> on voh-keh tuu ey? / on wa-keh tuu ey?)
NB :) when you see two consonants coming together at the start of the word because of eclipsis (i.e. the first letter is not normally in the word at all), you do not pronounce the second one; grĂĄ = love ; i ngrĂĄ = in love, and you pronounce it [ih] [nraw]. no g!
when are letters silent and how do you know:
maith is pronounced "mah" (Munster and Connaught) and "mai" (Ulster) â a th is always silent at the end of a word in Irish. at the start of the word, it is pronounced as an aspiration e.g. thiar [westwards, backwards] -> heer
another silent combination: fh, e.g. an-fhuar, very cold -> ona-oor
dh is silent at the end of a word (deireadh, end -> deh-reh), except in strong Ulster accents, where it can become uu
gh at the end of a word is silent in Connaught and Ulster, and pronounced /g/ in Munster, e.g. imigh, leave -> imih OR imig
I hope the above can be useful to you as reference. I know it seems like there are a lot of rules (there are!) but once you know them you can apply them to any word and be able to pronounce it confidently. don't worry if you make mistakes with it, everyone does (and given the amount of contact between different dialects these days, don't worry if you use a varying pronunciation by accident - everyone will understand you!)
Let me know if I can help with anything, or clarify anything I said above :)
Go n-Ă©irĂ an bĂłthar libh leis an nGaeilge -> guh ny-rii on bow-her liv lesh on nwayl-geh [may you both have every success with Irish] !
