Ulster Irish Question

[Murchadh]

According to “Gaeilge Theilinn”, page 126 § 357, the last syllable of 2nd conj. verbs that form their verbal nouns with -ó(dh), e.g. éalódh, iompódh, fastódh etc., is pronounced /É™i/, (spelt by the author -oigh: éaloigh, fastoigh etc.).

How widespread is this in Ulster Irish?

(The author mentions that schoolchildren tend to no longer distinguish them from other 2nd conj. verbs, pronouncing the termination /i:/, so perhaps the question should be how widespread was it?)

[Lughaidh]

Normally the -ò of the verbal nouns of these verbs is pronounced /-a:/, and the end of the “root form” should be spelt with -òigh and is pronounced as Wagner said or /-aj/.
How widespread it is? What I can say is that it exists in Teileann and in Rann na Feirste and in Gaoth Dobhair. I wouldn’t be surprised if it were so in whole Ulster…

[Murchadh]

That’s very interesting, thanks for the response.
I’m glad to hear it hasn’t died out.

Yes, the root probably would be better spelt with o – to indicate both the Ulster pronunciation and those verbs which generally (I’m aware there is dialect variation) form their verbal noun with -ó(dh).
(Perhaps ⟨éaloigh⟩ > ⟨éalogh⟩ ? – simple broadening of the final consonant)

[Lughaidh]

Yes but don’t forget to use the sìneadh fada, because if it were “èaloigh” it would be pronounced /e:loj/ and if it were èalodh it would be pronounced /e:lo/, while it is èalòigh /e:laj/ and èalò(dh) /e:la/, so it should be spelt with ò (unstressed ò is pronounced /a/ in Ulster, normally).

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