#treoir fuaimnithe

[ultradoux]

Why is “Dia duit” pronounced like that?

We on Gaelblr really love (and for good reason) to moan and gripe whenever those awful “Haha Irish is FAKE wtf is this spelling” posts pop up again and again. After all, we all know that once you figure how séimhiú/urú and caol le caol, leathan le leathan work, the language is very phonetic, much more so than English or French. 

And then you look at Dia duit/Dia daoibh. 

Now, caveat, I’m not Irish, and I’m far from an expert on the language (anyone who wants to chip in with useful info is welcome!) For all I know this is an issue covered very early in the Irish schools, and I’m over here trying to reinvent the wheel. But for those of us learning on our own, the fact that “Dia duit” is not lenited in writing yet is pronounced as if it were can throw us for a loop. Are the assholes who refuse to learn how to say Siobhán and who have made Saoirse Ronan’s life hell on every chat show since 2007 actually right? Are the rules arbitrary? Is Irish unpronounceable?? 

Obviously not. Yet again, it’s all about the dialects. 

Basically, each dialect has its own way of pronouncing the “d” in the declensions of “do” (if you’re just beginning in Irish 1) Congratulations!! Amazing!! and 2) prepositions like “do” (meaning “to/for” in English) are declined based on the person they apply to, i.e. “duit” = “do” + “tú”, “to/for you”, etc. It’s less complicated than it sounds but is also off topic!). In Ulster Irish, the declensions are not lenited, and would be pronounced as “D”s (is this why everyone studies Ulster Irish?). In Connacht, however, it’s the opposite -- these words are always lenited, meaning that “duit” and “daoibh” are pronounced with the back of the throat sound that usually comes out as “gwitch” for learners (believe me, I’ve been there). This is why the phrase is sometimes written “Dia dhuit”/”Dia dhaoibh”, by the way. And then there’s Munster Irish, which dances around a bit, not leniting in some cases but then doing it in others, including after vowels -- meaning that it’s “Dia dhuit” in Munster, too. When forced to choose between the variants, the creators of the Caighdeán Oifigiúil decided to opt for the non-lenited “duit/daoibh” -- yet, due to the strong presence of the other two dialects, especially in the Republic, everyone lenites it anyways. Got a headache yet? 

So what does this mean for you and your Irish? Is it Dia duit or Dia dhuit -- and what about pronouncing “duit” outside of this expression? It seems that pronouncing it as “Dia dhuit” is the go-to choice across the board (I’ve been told that “Dia duit” is not commonly used as a greeting in Ulster Irish -- is this confirmed?), so we might as well all hop on that train as learners. As for the declensions of “do” in other contexts, however -- well, it depends on your preferred dialect! Within the Gaeltachts, the rules will follow what I’ve written before (although obviously with much more detail/linguistic structure -- I’m just trying to fill my Tuesday morning between work assignments here, guys). If you’re just trying to get a grasp on the language, though, keeping the non-lenited “d” sound will work just fine, too. 

Hope that helps someone out there -- it’s taken me years to figure out why it works like this! Slán go fóill!

#irish language #gaeilge #pronunciation #irish language tips #i hope this is all accurate i will be crushed if not #treoir fuaimnithe