http://www.akerbeltz.org/index.php?title=S%C3%B2nraichte:NewPages&feed=atom&hideredirs=1&limit=50&offset=&namespace=0&username=&tagfilter=Goireasan Akerbeltz - Duilleagan ùra [gd]2024-03-29T07:13:00ZO Goireasan AkerbeltzMediaWiki 1.35.11http://www.akerbeltz.org/index.php?title=Accent_bereavement_or_how_to_live_without_%C3%A9_and_%C3%B3Accent bereavement or how to live without é and ó2023-11-02T13:25:20Z<p>Akerbeltz: </p>
<hr />
<div>Since it came up the other day again, I've finally made time to explain how one can work around the loss of <span style="color: #008000;">é</span> and <span style="color: #008000;">ó</span> in GOC. It's actually not that hard and my guess is, while nobody bothered explaining that on any page of any of the ultra-thin GOC publications, that was probably their gut reasoning for ditching it.<br />
<br />
So to begin with, in Old and Middle Irish, long /eː/ and /ɛː/ and long /oː/ and /ɔː/ most likely already co-existed as sounds. But only the acute accent (´) - though it often looked more like a macron (e.g. ē) was used to mark length.<br />
<br />
Fast forward to Scottish Gaelic, so some time between the arrival of the Dal Riada and the 12th centruy onwards, because the difference between /eː/ and /ɛː/ and long /oː/ and /ɔː/ is now very clearly there, some writers start differentiating them in writing, continuing to use the acute for /eː/ <span style="color: #008000;">é</span> and /oː/ <span style="color: #008000;">ó</span> but innovating the use of the grave for /ɛː/ <span style="color: #008000;">è</span> and /ɔː/ <span style="color: #008000;">ò</span>. Which, incidentally, eventually also became the norm for the other long vowel letters ì à ù too.<br />
<br />
Fast forward again to 20th century and GOC decides to drop the acute. Stepping around whether that was a good idea or not, I want to focus instead on how to work around that. Because however you spell them, clearly Gaelic still has all four sounds, /eː/ vs /ɛː/ and /oː/ vs /ɔː/. Of course native speakers know which word has which sound, but what do you do as a learner, now the acute is largely dead in Scotland?<br />
<br />
Fortunately the answer is relatively simple: by a process of elimination. There are relatively few words in Gaelic which have /ɛː/ and /oː/, which means that if you learn which two dozen or so words have /ɛː/ and /oː/, you then know that any other word is almost guaranteed to have /eː/ and /ɔː/.<br />
<br />
{| style="width: 70%;" border="0"<br />
! scope="col" width="15%" |<br />
! scope="col" width="85%" |<br />
|-<br />
| words with /ɛː/ || <span style="color: #008000;">bèicear, e, gnè, mè(ilich), mèinn, mèirleach, sèimh, sgèimh, snèip, stèisean</span><br />
|-<br />
| words with /oː/ || <span style="color: #008000;">bò, cò, còig, Eòghann, fòn, leòbag, mò, mòr, ò, òbh òbh, Tòmas</span> and <span style="color: #008000;">-obhl/òbhl-, -oghn/òghn-</span> clusters e.g. <span style="color: #008000;">gòbhlach, fòghnaidh, ròghnadh</span><br />
|- <br />
|}<br />
<br />
Note that this applies to inflected forms too, so <span style="color: #008000;">bèicear, bhèicear, bèiceir</span> etc. I didn't list those because it would just make the table messy.<br />
<br />
There is some variation between dialects but by and large that's it, learn those few words and you'll never be confused again by the lack of an acute!<br />
<br />
Incidentally, because this comes up now and then, the reason the [https://www.faclair.com <span style="color: #008000;">Faclair Beag</span>] retains the acutes is not because we're on some mission to resurrect the acute BUT we know a lot of learners use the dictionary and using the acute just makes it easier for them to quickly identify whether it's one or the other.<br />
<br />
<br /><br />
<br /><br />
{{BeaganGramair}}</div>Akerbeltz