I’ve been trying to learn how to pronounce Irish properly, or as properly as I can. As I have mentioned in other threads, I’m fascinated by the distinction between palatalized and velarized consonants in Irish.
I’ve worked out some of them, but others are difficult. Are there resources that delve into this topic that would help me get it right?
Now, I know from Johanna that in Irish itself, some of the phonemes have drifted, so that the realizations aren’t “truly” or literally the velarized and palatalized consonants, but I want to learn how to do velarization and palatalization accurately, and not take the “easy” way out, such as substituting /ʃ/ for /sʲ/. I’m not just trying to learn Irish pronunciation, but to strengthen my understanding of how these sounds work.
So, here are the ones I think I’ve more or less mastered:
velarized T - [/t̪ˠ/]
palatalized T - [/tʲ/] (usually taught as /t͡ʃ/)
velarized D - /d̪ˠ/]/ (usually taught as /d/)
palatalized D - /dʲ/ (usually taught as /d͡ʒ/)
velarized, lenited D - /ɣ/
velarized, lenited C /x/
palatalized, lenited C - /ç/
velarized, lenited G - /ɣ/
velarized, lenited M - /w/
palatalized, lenited M - /βʲ/ (usually taught as /v/)
Ones that I think I’m starting to get, but not quite sure. I often have trouble moving between sounds, especially from one type of consonant to another type:
velarized P - [/pˠ/]
palatalized P - [/pʲ/]
velarized, lenited P - [/ɸˠ/] (usually taught as /f/)
palatalized, lenited P - /ɸʲ/ (usually taught as /f/)
velarized B - [/bˠ/]
palatalized B - [/bʲ/]
velarized, lenited B - [/wˠ/] (usually taught as /w/)
palatalized, lenited B - /βʲ/ (usually taught as /v/)
palatalized, lenited D - /ʝ/
velarized C - /kˠ/
palatalized C - /kʲ/
velarized G - /gˠ/
palatalized G - /gʲ/
palatalized, lenited G - /ʝ/
velarized F - /ɸˠ/ (usually taught as /f/)
palatalized F - /ɸʲ/ (usually taught as /f/)
velarized S - /sˠ/ (usually taught as /s/)
velarized N - /n̪ˠ/
palatalized N - /nʲ/
velarized L - /lˠ/ or /ɫ/?
palatalized L - /lʲ/ (usually taught as /l/)
Ones I’m still having a lot of trouble with. Differing combinations of having trouble figuring out the mouth positioning, having trouble distinguishing the sounds:
velarized M - /mˠ/
palatalized M - /mʲ/