Fòram na Gàidhlig

After finishing Part 2 of Blas na Gàidhlig I thought I would have the most trouble with /r?/. However, the hardest thing for me seem to be /L N R/. They're easy enough on their own or when a word begins with them, but I often find it difficult to put the tongue where it should be when they follow some other consonants (or a schwa); and always when two of them follow each other (often even when separated by a short vowel). Is this common in a beginning learner (which in regard to proper Gaelic pronunciation I obviously am) - is there reasonable hope it'll go away with time and practice? Or is it a sign that I'm probably making something wrong?

A few examples: /Ru.?/ - a piece of cake. /f?L??/ - tolerably easy. /sas?N?x, tuLex/ - so-so. /N?L?g?, kuNaR?d/ - by now I have at least got to /N?.L?g?, kuNa.R?d/. But /k?a?RNag, d?:RL?x, fj?NL??, saL?N, baR?L/ &c - unpronounceable, I can't even get to a hiatus, it's simply /k?a?R Nag, d?:R L?x, fj?N L??, saL? N, baR? L/.

Now p 286 of am Blas is naturally absolutely fascinating for me with the /N/ getting nasalized away and dropped before l so that /?N La:v/ becomes /? La:v/ and so forth. But it seems it only happens in connection with nasalization and lenition, so - how bad is it when I can only pronounce /k?a?RN/ as /k?a?Rn/ or /k?a?N/, /baR?L/ as /baR?l/ and so on?

In RN/RL clusters, you introduce an element of retroflexing to both consonants. Your tongue is still fairly close to your teeth, even touching, but it's definitely curling back for both. That's why, I forget the page, RN clusters in some areas are reduced to a retroflex N etc.

I agonised quite a bit over whether to put this in or not and decided against it as most people seem to do that anyway. There's a string philosophy of "don't explain things if people will do it right anyway" in the book which I deliberately don't talk about much. Perhaps I should?

So, curl your tongue for both, key is the lowering of the back here, the dental feature gets a bit lost in the tongue-curling, which is fine.

saL?N, baR?L

I don't quite see the problem with these?

Found it, it's p 231. I've spent a couple of hours "observing my tongue" and perhaps I've found the problem with /R/. Apparently after leaving the alveolar ridge my tongue automatically uncurls and I have to curl it again for the following /N/ or /L/- I was so fixed on where the tip of the tongue was that I ignored what's happening to the tongue's shape. Tried to focus more on keeping it curled than on touching the ridge then the teeth and it can be done, although I'll have to get used to it. (Initially I wondered whether there might be some connection with my inability to "trill" (my /r/ is as good as any Czech's or Scot's, but for the life of me I can't do /rrrrrr/) for which I have no explanation either, which led to a wrong direction.)

And I've tried comparing what makes /sal?n/ different from /saL?N/ for me so I could describe it and ohmigod.

When I say /l/ the tip of my tongue goes backwards for the /?/, but when I say /L/ it goes in front of the teeth, as if it "plucked" them like a string, if you see what I mean. So it takes some time for the tongue to get into the correct position again for the /N/ as it has to make a kind of a round in the mouth. I've no idea why I began doing this in the first place, certainly nothing in the book points that way. Maybe touching the upper teeth suggested the forward direction under the influence of /t/, /d/ or /ð/ to me. Or, as with the /R/, the tongue wants to uncurl as quickly as it can.

I don't know. Maybe the curled shape feels so unusual to my mouth that it subconsciously tries to "get rid of it" as soon as possible. Anyway, at last I'm finding myself able to pronounce the words I mentioned*, if somewhat clumsily for the time being, the rest is practice, so thanks a lot!

* and /N?L?g?/ is so much easier now that it has come early this year for me, so to say!