'l', 'n', and 'r' are a little different from the other consonants. How they are pronounced depends on being 1) a) broad or b) slender 2) a) single ('n') or b) double ('nn') (only a factor in medial or final position) 3) a) initial ('n-') or b) medial ('-n[n]-') or c) final ('-n[n]') [these refer to location within the word] 4) a) unlenited b) lenited (not shown in spelling, only a factor in initial position) This could make for a lot of different sounds, but luckily most dialects confine themselves to only three each (with some dialects having only 1 or 2 for 'r'). Again, keep in mind this is simplified and does not apply to all dialects. I'm going to organize this by sound, rather than spelling. For 'l', we have three sounds: 1) /l/ voiced alveolar lateral approximate, found: a) broad single initial lenited ('mo làmh') b) slender single initial lenited ('mo leabhar') c) slender single medial ('baile') d) slender single final ('mil') 2) /L/ voiced velarized dental lateral approximate, found: a) broad single initial unlenited ('làmh') b) broad single medial ('balach') c) broad single final ('càl') d) broad double medial ('balla') e) broad double final ('dall') 3) /L'/ voiced palatal lateral approximate, found: a) slender single initial unlenited ('leabhar') b) slender double medial ('cailleach') c) slender double final ('till') For 'n', we have three sounds: 1) /n/ voiced alveolar nasal, found: a) slender single initial lenited ('mo neart') b) broad single initial lenited ('mo nàbaidh') c) broad single medial ('manach') d) broad single final ('ròn') 2) /N/ voiced velarized dental nasal, found: a) broad single initial unlenited ('nàbaidh') b) broad double medial ('beannachd') c) broad double final ('donn') 3) /N'/ voiced palatal nasal, found: a) slender single initial unlenited ('neart') b) slender single medial ('teine') c) slender single final ('min') d) slender double medial ('bainne') e) slender double final ('beinn') For 'r', there are a ton of different realizations, depending on dialect. I learned using a single alveolar tap for all 'r's except slender single medial/final, for which I use a voiced dental fricative. I'm not even sure if this maps to a real dialect -- it could be a hybrid! Anyway, the upshot of this is I'm not even going to try to write out an 'r' scheme, because we haven't gotten as far as matching 'r' phonemes to spelling in the linguistics class, and I can't work it out on my own for a real dialect ;-) Sharon Krossa 1996-12-04 skrossa@svpal.org (permanent) -or- s.krossa@abdn.ac.uk (until Dec 1997)