Broad and Slender Consonants in Irish

In English, pin and bin are different words, and the only difference between them is whatever difference there is between p and b. The same goes for pan and ban, or nip and nib. There's a similar contrast between tin and din, between coat and goat, between fat and vat. Thus, there are two series of consonants in English, ones like p or t or k or f, with no voicing, and ones like b or d or g or v, that are just like the first ones, but with voicing. (If you put your fingers on your Adam's Apple while saying first p and then b, you'll be able to feel a little vibration with b. It's your vocal cords vibrating that make the voicing.) In Arabic, by contrast, there is no such distinction between p and b. An Arab who wanted to learn English would have to learn to hear the difference, and to produce it consistently.

Irish has the same distinction as English between voiced and unvoiced consonants. But it has another distinction as well. Where English uses only one kind of p, Irish uses two, and so on for the other consonants. These series are called in Irish caol "slender" and leathan "broad". Just as there are words in English with no other difference between them than p vs. b (pin and bin) or t vs. d (tin and din), there are words in Irish with no other difference between them than broad b vs. slender b, or broad p vs. slender p, and so on. There are also lots of forms only distinguished by broad vs. slender. For instance, bád with a broad d means "a boat," whereas báid with a slender d means "boats," and there is no other difference between them.

In linguists' terms, the slender consonants are palatalised, the broad ones are labio-velarised (impress your mother with those words). Roughly speaking, this means that the slender consonants sound like they have a y-glide after them, and the broad ones like they have a w-glide. More precisely, the slender consonants are pronounced further forward in the mouth, with the mouth closed down, the tongue flattened and pressed up close to the roof of the mouth, the lips pulled back at the corners and pressed against the teeth. The broad ones are pronounced further back in the mouth, with the mouth opened up, the tongue bunched up down on the floor of the mouth, but with the tip curled up, and the lips rounded and puffed out from the teeth. Of course, written descriptions are no substitute for hearing the sounds, but luckily we're on the web, and you can download sound files to hear them for yourself -- just click on the word.

1. For sounds made with the lips (b, f, m, p), the broad versions are pronounced with the lips rounded and puffed out, while the slender ones are pronounced with the corners of the mouth drawn back and the lips tight against the teeth. (Note that Irish f is pronounced with the two lips, not with the lips and teeth, as in English.)
 

Letter	Broad		Slender
b	bó	a cow	beo	alive
	buí	yellow	bí	be
f	fáth	reason	feá	fathom
m	má	if	meá	scales
	maoin	wealth	mín	smooth
p	poc	a he-goat	pioc	a little bit

2. For dental sounds (d and t), the broad versions are pronounced with the tongue against the teeth, as in French, while the slender ones are closer to English, and sometimes closer to English ch- or j-.
 

Letter	Broad		Slender
d	docht	tight	deoch	a drink
	ag dó	burning	go deo	forever
t	tuí	straw, thatch	tí	of a house (genitive)
	tacht	choke	teacht	come

3.The broad and slender varieties of the velar sounds (c and g) are a little more difficult for English speakers. Try feeling the difference between the two g's in goose and geese. When you say goose, the point of contact your tongue makes is pretty far back in your mouth; when you say geese, it's further forward. A broad g is like the one in goose, only more so, while a slender g is like the one in geese. The same principle applies to the c-sound (which is always a k-sound, by the way, never an s- or a ch-sound).
 

Letter	Broad		Slender
c	cad	what is...	cead	permission
	coill	woods	cill	monastery
g	gal	steam	geal	bright
	gabhar	a goat	geamhar	shoots, sprigs

4. For l and n, the broad versions are made with the tongue bunched up in the floor of the mouth and its tip curled upwards, while the slender ones are made with the tongue flattened out and pressed up against the palate. Broad n is often even dental, like broad d or t.
 

Letter	Broad		Slender
l	luí	lying down	lí	hue, colour
	labhair	speak	leabhair	books
n	naí	a baby	ní	a thing
	nach	that (is) not	neach	one, a person

5. Broad s is much like English s, but with the tip of the tongue curled up, as for l. Slender s sounds like English sh before a vowel, but before a consonant, it sounds more like the sound in English sea, with the tongue flattened up against the palate, but the tip drooping below the bottom teeth.
 

Letter	Broad		Slender
s	suí	sitting down	sí	she, her
	só	comfort, fun	seó	show
	scála	scale	scéala	news
	spalla	small stone	speal	scythe

6. In English, the h-sound takes on various characters depending on the vowel that follows it, and there's really nothing more to broad and slender h than that. The broad version has the mouth fairly open and the lips slightly rounded, while the slender version has the mouth fairly closed and the lips unrounded. (Note that th- is pronounced h-.)
 

Letter	Broad		Slender
h	thacht	choked	theith	fled

7. There are no words in modern Irish beginning with slender r, and so the examples here have r at the end or in the middle instead. Broad r is trilled, as in Spanish or Italian. Slender r is the most difficult sound in Irish for non-native speakers, no matter what their own language. It's a trilled r, like the broad one, but with the tongue flattened against the palate.
 

Letter	Broad		Slender
r	lár	middle	láir	mare
	aer	air	Éire	Ireland
	leabhar	a book	leabhair	books

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