As far as I know, ʁ (i.e. the
r sound as it is pronounced in most dialects of French) has never been a common allophone for the
r sound in Irish. On this thread (
viewtopic.php?f=28&t=5516&p=43580&hilit=%CA%81#p43580), Labhrás said, however:
Quote:
A uvular trill [ʀ] or (more guttural) a voiced uvular fricative/ [ʁ]?
In "The Dialects of Irish" (by R. Hickey) a uvular r as a broad r is mentioned for Carna /kɑ:ʁnə/ in Conamara and Baile Riabhach /bal´ə ʀi:əx/ in Corca Dhuibhne.
BTW: This is the only way I can produce a rolled r
(so, phonetic notations above by me, as I pronounce these names)
In French "fromage" it is rather a voiceless uvular fricative [χ], /fχɔma:ʒ/, because of voiceless /f/.
Can anyone talk further to this, i.e. was this allophone commonly used in these areas or just among some speakers, or was it more common at one point in time then began to die out? I'm especially interested since it was said that an area of Dingle used this phoneme. On another thread (
viewtopic.php?f=28&t=2740&p=25342&hilit=%CA%81#p25342), An Lon Dubh said that this variation was used in Cavan. I couldn't find a full pdf copy of Hickey's book referenced by Labhrás above, but I would love any more information. Thanks!
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