Glides in Irish Phonology
Glides are a feature of Irish pronunciation that can really help give your Irish a more native-like feel. These are slight vowels added in when switching between broad and slender sounds and are also a feature found in languages such as Russian or Lithuanian.
What is a glide?
A glide is a slide ‘w’ sound added when we have a broad consonant followed by a slender vowel sound (é, í but also their variants such as ae, uí, aoi, etc.). This often gets mistaken for a ‘w’ sound by English speakers but it is far more subtle and less rounded that in English.
A commonly heard mistake in Irish phonology is pronouncing the word Gaeilge with this strong English w sound, when in reality a glide is less pronounced that an a full on w.
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The word is pronounced:
Gaeilge
/ˈɡeːlʲɟɪ/
and not pronounced …
Gaeilge
/ˈgweɪl.gə/