There are three major dialects of Modern Irish: Munster, spoken in Counties Cork, Kerry, and Waterford; Connacht, spoken in Counties Galway and Mayo; and Ulster, spoken in County Donegal. In addition, a committee at the Institiúid Teangeolaíochta Éireann has devised a standardized pronunciation known as the Lárchanúint ('Central Dialect'), which is based closely on the standard spelling of Irish. Although the Lárchanúint is an artificial dialect, every aspect of it corresponds to some spoken dialect. So nothing in the Lárchanúint is completely made up. A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος, dialektos) is a variety of a language used by people from a particular geographic area. ... For other places with the same or similar names, and other uses of the word, see Munster (disambiguation). ... County Cork (Contae Chorcaí in Irish) is the most southwesterly and the largest of the modern counties of Ireland. ... County Kerry (Irish: Ciarraí) is a county in the southwest of Ireland, in the Munster province of the Republic of Ireland, informally referred to as The Kingdom. ... County Waterford (Port Láirge in Irish) is a county in the province of Munster on the south coast of Ireland. ... Connaught redirects here. ... County Galway (Contae na Gaillimhe in Irish) is located on the west coast of Ireland. ... County Mayo (Irish: Maigh Eo, the plain of the yews) is a county on the west coast of Ireland. ... Ulster (Irish: Cúige Uladh, IPA: ) is one of the four provinces of Ireland. ... For other uses, see Donegal (disambiguation) Donegal (Irish: Dún na nGall) is a county in the northwest of Ireland. ... A standard language (also standard dialect or standardized dialect) is a particular variety of a language that has been given either legal or quasi-legal status. ...

Lexical variation

One of the ways the dialects vary from each other is in their lexicon. Some examples of lexemes that vary across the dialects of Irish are shown in the chart below, where U = Ulster, C = Connacht, M = Munster, N = Ulster and northern Connacht, S = Munster and southern Connacht. Forms marked with * are not recognized in the standard language. A lexicon is a list of words together with additional word-specific information, i. ... Definition A lexeme is a unit of linguistic analysis. ...

Phonological variation

The phonemic inventories and surface realizations of the spoken dialects differ from the general pattern discussed on the page Irish phonology in the following ways: In oral language, a phoneme is the theoretical basic unit of sound that can be used to distinguish words; in sign language, it is a similarly basic unit of hand shape, motion, position, or facial expression. ... The phonology of the Irish language varies from dialect to dialect. ...

Munster

• The fricative [v] is found in syllable-onset position.
• Some, but not all, varieties have a phoneme /hʲ/ distinct from /h/.
• There are the additional diphthongs /əi/, /ou/, and /ia/.
• Word-internal clusters of obstruent + sonorant, [m] + [n/r], and stop + fricative are broken up by an epenthetic [ə], except that stop + liquid remains in the onset of a stressed syllable.
• Orthographic short a is diphthongized (rather than lengthened) before word-final m and the Old Irish tense sonorants /N L Nʲ Lʲ m mʲ/ (e.g. ceann [kʲaun] 'head').
• Word-final /j/ is realized as [gʲ].
• Stress is attracted to noninitial heavy syllables: [kərˈkaːn] 'pot', [mʲaləˈvoːg] 'satchel'. Stress is also attracted to [ax] in the second syllable: [kəˈlʲax] 'rooster', [bʲəˈnaxt] 'blessing', [bəˈkaxə] 'lame' (pl.).
• Unstressed /a/ surfaces as [a], rather than [ə], when the following syllable is stressed and contains a high vowel: [kaˈlʲiːnʲ] 'girl'; [kʲarˈtuː] 'correct' (v.n.).
• In some varieties, long /aː/ is rounded.

Fricative consonants are produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together (e. ... In phonetics and phonology, a syllable onset is the part of a syllable that precedes the syllable nucleus. ... In phonetics, a diphthong (Greek δίφθογγος, diphthongos, literally with two sounds) is a vowel combination usually involving a quick but smooth movement from one vowel to another, often interpreted by listeners as a single vowel sound or phoneme. ... In phonetics, an obstruent is a consonant sound formed by obstructing the airway. ... In phonetics and phonology, a sonorant is a member of a class of speech sounds that are continuants produced without turbulent airflow in the vocal tract. ... A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract. ... Liquid consonants, or liquids, are approximant consonants that are not classified as semivowels (glides) because they do not correspond phonetically to specific vowels (in the way that, for example, the initial in English yes corresponds to ). The class of liquids can be divided into lateral liquids and rhotics. ... In linguistics, stress is the emphasis given to some syllables (often no more than one in each word, but in many languages, long words have a secondary stress a few syllables away from the primary stress, as in the words cóunterfòil or còunterintélligence. ... A syllable (ancient Greek: συλλαβή) is a unit of speech that is made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with one or more optional phones (single sounds or phonetic segments). Syllables are often considered the phonological building blocks of words. ... Old Irish is the name given to the oldest form of the Irish language which can be more or less fully reconstructed from extant sources. ... Tenseness is a term used in phonology to describe a particular vowel quality that is phonemically contrastive in many languages, including English. ... In linguistics, syllable weight is the concept that syllables pattern together according to the number and/or duration of segments in the rime. ... A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. ...

Connacht

• There is vowel lengthening before word-internal clusters of voiced stop + liquid.
• Some varieties have maintained some or all of the Old Irish tense sonorants /N L Nʲ Lʲ/ (but not /R Rʲ/), often without lengthening of orthographic short vowels before them.
• In the variety spoken in Cois Fhairrge, underlying short /a/ is realized as a long front [aː] while underlying long /aː/ is realized as a back [ɑː].
• /n/ is realized as [r] (or is replaced by /r/) after consonants other than [s]. This happens in Ulster as well.

In linguistics, vowel length is the duration of a vowel sound. ...

Ulster

• The glide [w] is found for /v/ in all positions.
• Some or all of Old Irish /N L Nʲ Lʲ/ (but not /R Rʲ/) have been retained.
• Orthographic short vowels remain short before ll, m, nn.
• There is an additional long vowel, the mid-open back rounded /ɔː/ (cf. the vowel of British English thought). This corresponds to the /oː/ of other dialects. The Ulster /oː/ corresponds to the /au/ of other dialects.
• The short mid vowel phoneme has three [+back] allophones: [o] adjacent to labials, [ɞ] before a voiced stop, a nasal or /L/, and [ɔ] elsewhere.
• The short high vowel phoneme has two [+back] allophones: [u] before word-final /w/ and /h/; [ɞ] elsewhere.
• Long vowels are shortened when in unstressed syllables.
• /n/ is realized as [r] (or is replaced by /r/) after consonants other than [s]. This happens in Connacht as well.
• Long /aː/ surfaces as a low front [æː].
• Orthographic -adh in unstressed syllables is always [u] (this includes verb forms).
• Unstressed orthographic -ach is pronounced [ax], [ah], or [a].

Morphological variation

Initial mutations

In Donegal there is lenition instead of eclipsis of a dative singular noun after the definite article: Irish, like all modern Celtic languages, is characterized by its initial consonant mutations. ... Lenition is a kind of consonant mutation that appears in many languages. ... Irish, like all modern Celtic languages, is characterized by its initial consonant mutations. ... The dative case is a grammatical case generally used to indicate the noun to whom something is given. ... A noun, or noun substantive, is a word or phrase that refers to a person, place, thing, event, substance or quality. ... Definite Article is the title of British comedian Eddie Izzards 1996 performance released on video and CD. The video/DVD and CD performances were both recorded on different nights at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London, England. ...

Nominal system

Many nouns have dialectal plurals different from those of the standard language:

In some dialects of Connacht the plural endings -anna and -acha are always replaced by -annaí and -achaí. It is also common in Connacht that all 2nd declension nouns end in slender consonants in the nominative singular. Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ... Palatalization means pronouncing a sound nearer to the hard palate, making it more like a palatal consonant; this is towards the front of the mouth for a velar or uvular consonant, but towards the back of the mouth for a front (e. ... The nominative case is a grammatical case for a noun. ...

Connacht

Verbal system

In Munster synthetic forms (those with personal endings) are more often used than in the standard language, where analytic forms (those with a general ending + personal pronoun) are more common. A synthetic language, in linguistic typology, is a language with a high morpheme-to-word ratio. ... An analytic language (or isolating language) is a language in which the vast majority of morphemes are free morphemes and considered to be full-fledged words. By contrast, in a synthetic language, a word is composed of agglutinated or fused morphemes that denote its syntactic meanings. ...

In Connacht the nonstandard synthetic forms are used, if at all, only in responses. (Irish has no words for 'yes' and 'no'; rather, the verb of the question is repeated.)

Connacht

In Ulster and North Connacht the analytic forms are even more common than in the standard language.

The 2nd conjugation future stem suffix in Ulster is -óch- [ah] rather than -ó-.

Some irregular verbs have different forms in the dialects from those in the standard language.

'to do, make' in the present:

Ulster independent ním, níonn tú/sé/sí/muid/sibh/siad

Ulster dependent ní dhéanaim, ní dhean(ann) tú/sé/sí/muid/sibh/siad

Connacht déanaim, déanaimid, déanann tú/sé/sí/sibh/siad

Munster deinim, deinir, deinimid, deinid, deineann sé/sé/sibh

'to do, make' in the past, independent forms:

Ulster rinn mé/tú/sé/sí/muid/sibh/siad

Munster dheineas, dheinis, dhein sé/sí, dheineamar, dheineabhair,deaineadar

(The dependent forms in all dialects are very similar to the standard.)

'to see' in the present:

Ulster independent tchím, tchí(onn) tú/sé/sí/muid/sibh/siad [tʲsʲiː(m)]

Munster independent chím, chímid, chíonn tú/sé/sí/sibh/siad

(The dependent forms in all dialects are very similar to the standard.)

'to give' in the present:

Ulster independent bheirim, bheir(eann) tú/sé/sí/muid/sibh/siad

Ulster dependent ní thabhraim or ní thugaim, ní thabhrann or ní thugann

Munster independent bheirim, bheirir, bheirimid, bheirid, bheireann sé/sí/sibh

Munster dependent ní thugaim, ní thugair etc.; an dtugaim, an dtugair etc.

'to give' in the future:

Ulster independent bhéarfaidh mé/tú/sé/sí/muid/sibh/siad

Ulster dependent ní thabharfaidh; an dtabharfaidh

Connacht tiúraidh mé/tú/sé/sí/sibh/siad, tiúraimid

Munster independent bhéarfad, bhéarfair, bhéarfaimid, bhéarfaid, bhéarfaidh sé/sí/sibh

Munster dependent ní thabharfad, ní thabharfair etc.; and tabharfad etc.

Particles

In Ulster cha(n) instead of ní and char instead of níor are sometimes used.

In Munster ná is used instead of nach.

In Munster the particle do is sometimes used in the past.

Syntactic variation

In Munster go (gur) is used instead of a (ar) as the indirect relative particle

All other important dialectal differences in the syntax relate to the use of the copula. The word copula originates from the Latin noun for a link or tie that connects two different things. ...

Ulster

In Ulster all present forms of the copula besides is and chan (= standard ní) end in b; furthermore it is very frequently the case that only the pronoun é is used after the copula, regardless of whether it refers to a masculine or feminine noun in the singular or plural.

Also in Ulster the pronouns é, í, iad may be absent between an indefinite noun in the predicate and the subject.

In the standard language a pronoun may optionally be repeated at the end of a sentence after a definite predicate. Both possibilities are recognized by the standard language, but in practice the pronoun is there in Connacht and Munster, and is absent in Ulster.

Connacht/Ulster

In the standard language there are two ways of forming a sentence like "I am a scholar": Is scoláire mé and Tá mé i mo scoláire. These sentences have slightly different shades of meaning: Is scoláire mé is more permanent (individual-level predicate), Tá mé i mo scoláire more temporary (stage-level predicate). In Connacht and Ulster there is a third construction, which corresponds to both meanings. The predicate is topicalized and the sentence ends with "which is in me" etc. In linguistics, the topic (or theme) is the part of the proposition that is being talked about (predicated). ...

'I am a scholar' (= Standard Is scoláire mé/Tá mé i mo scoláire)

'It is a pollock' (= Standard Is mangach é)

'She is Irish.' (= Standard Is Éireannach í/Tá sí ina hÉireannach)

This construction is only possible when the logical subject is a pronoun. It cannot be used with nouns.

(17) * Is scoláire atá i m'athair.

(18) * Is Éireannach atá i mBríd.

South Connacht

In South Connacht the past tense form ba is not fused with a preceding particle, but remains an individual word.

ní ba, an mba, nach mba, go mba for standard níor(bh), ar(bh),nár(bh), gur(bh)

Munster

In Munster, when an indefinite noun, an adjective, or a prepositional phrase forms the predicate of the copula, it is normal for the predicate to come at the beginning of the sentence; next comes is ea ('it is'), and the subject comes at the end.

Predicate + is ea (ab ea in the past) + subject

See also

• Irish initial mutations
• Irish language
• Irish morphology
• Irish orthography
• Irish phonology
• Irish syntax
• Newfoundland Irish