Fòram na Gàidhlig

Please forgive my use of English for this query -- my Gaelic is too primitive. I would be grateful for any guidance on the pronunciation of the 'r' in words such as fuireach, which sounds more like an English voiced 'th' or 'd' on the CDs for the Complete Gaelic course The pronunciation guides say there's no English equivalent.
Moran taing, Alan

I've moved this from the 'Games' to the 'Grammar' section.

I'm sure Akerbeltz , our resident pronunciation guru, will be able to supply more 'technical' information.

The 'th' version of the slender 'r' (or [rj] ) is mainly a Hebridean pheneomenon, and I certainly have heard variations in how much 'th' is there.

I personally find a very delicate one, with the tongue moving forward from a 'r' to a 'th' sound in combinations with i / e is very pleasing.

air eagal
àireamh
fuirich

(Actually it reminds me of the 'posh' Castillean lisp )

Disclaimer: I'm a learner.

First of all, say thhhhhhh and start thinking about where your tongue is. What you're probably doing is pointing your tongue towards the tip of your teeth. There's a little bit of space around the tongue, so your breath's hissing out round the edge.

Try to maintain a hiss while moving the tip of your tongue upperwards -- the sound will change a bit. Then try to move the tip of your tongue slightly backwards, towards the place you say R in English.

What you'll get is something that seems like a mix of TH, H, SH, and R.

That's the sound I use, but as I said, I'm a learner, and as GunChleoc said, it varies with dialect, so this is not the only option.

But the basic point is, you're not mistaken in what you heard. Na gabh dragh.

Actually, faoileag said

I think linguist speak for the sound is "dental tap" or "dental flap". Might help you as a search keyword.

Tapadh leibh airson na freagairtean. Tha iad a-rithist cuideachail. Ach Faoileag, 2 a.m.?! A bheil sibh cinnteach gu bheil 'Faoileag' ceart? Cha 'Olcadan'?

Sorry for the silence, been busy!

You have two options, you can go for the mainland option of [rʲ] or you can cheat and go for [ð]. [ð] is exactly the same as English voiced th in words like the, this, them... People won't throw you funny looks if you use that on the mainland, there are traditional pockets of [ð] on the mainland and with speaker mobility, you can get it anywhere really these days.

[rʲ] I tend to explain as a lisped r. Squeeze the blade (as in, the front bit of your tongue but not the tip, just the bit behind the tip) against your alveolar ridge (that boney thing behind your upper teeth), if it helps, lightly touch the edge of your upper incisors with the tip of your tongue and try to say [d] (yes, aim for [d], not any form of [r]). That should get you a rather unusual (from the English POV) sound. The reason you shouldn't go from [r] is because I have no idea what your [r] sounds like and that varies massively in English dialects.

If you want some sound files for either, download 079-159 from http://www.akerbeltz.eu/booksg.html#

Hope that helps