A super common misconception about Irish phonetics is that L, N and R cannot be lenited and while that may be true in writing, in practice, there is a slight difference between the pronunciation of these letters when they should be lenited.

This article is a bit of a technical one, but we’re going to break it all down with plenty of examples!

lá

/l̪ˠɑː/

nós

/n̪ˠuːsˠ/

The broad pronunciation of the letters L and N are velar and pronounced right at the ridge of the teeth:

The pronunciation of the L in particular is sometimes called the 'dark L’ and is found in American varieties of English after a vowel (compare the ‘light L’ in look, love, lose to the ‘dark L’ in call, patrol, always). Only the light L tends to present in Hiberno-English.