Fòram na Gàidhlig

Anyone know any good ways of remembering words - especially how they are pronounced? I have a photographic memory but can't remember sounds, which kind of makes learning Gaidhlig difficult.
tapadh leibh!

just learn the spelling rules and you'll be fine. photo-memorise the pronunciation rules, and try to listen to spoken gaelic as much as possible.

an litir-bheag or something would be perfect because you get a script of it too.


do you really have a photographic memory? do you speak any other languages? you should be able to get fluent in almost any language in just a couple of months.

Try to learn the sounds <i>before</i> the spelling, because you associate the written letters with English sounds, which means when you read it you hear it wrong.

I don't think there's any harm in learning the sounds at the same time as looking at the letters initially.

Doesn't mean you'll remember every combination, but at the same time as you do that, listening to the sounds from other sources and repeating regularly will familiarise yourself with them.

There is no easy, light method - it's just simple listening and repetition all the time. The more exposure you have, as you gradually become aware of the sounds you've missed (which is inevitable), you can learn to adjust how you say them over time.

Once you become aware that you are pronouncing a word wrong, then that's the point where you can try and re-learn the pronunciation of that word.

If you're such a visual person you might consider noting down the pronunciation in the IPA. Check out the Akerbeltz page for the rules and symbols.

An Gobaire wrote:I don't think there's any harm in learning the sounds at the same time as looking at the letters initially.

No, and I'm not saying there is -- in fact, I did this myself. I would "sound out" the word very consciously, consciously working my way through the pronunciation word so that I would know (more or less) how it sounded. But then I would remember it as sound, not as spelling, because if you remember the spelling then you either have to sound it out every time... or pronounce it wrong. It's easier to do the latter, so I try to avoid thinking about spelling after initially learning it.

There is no easy, light method - it's just simple listening and repetition all the time. The more exposure you have, as you gradually become aware of the sounds you've missed (which is inevitable), you can learn to adjust how you say them over time.

Once you become aware that you are pronouncing a word wrong, then that's the point where you can try and re-learn the pronunciation of that word.

In general terms this is true, but if you let two different sounds merge in your head, it can be very difficult to separate them later (for example B and P, or BH and MH)

I would "sound out" the word very consciously, consciously working my way through the pronunciation word so that I would know (more or less) how it sounded. But then I would remember it as sound, not as spelling, because if you remember the spelling then you either have to sound it out every time... or pronounce it wrong. It's easier to do the latter, so I try to avoid thinking about spelling after initially learning it.

Well, yeah, I agree, but if you read the language outloud and in your head, then there comes a point where you have to remember which letter combination goes with which sound. Otherwise you can't read it - obviously.

Since when were bh and mh two different sounds? Sometimes they're the same, sometimes they're not, it depends on the word.

An Gobaire wrote:Well, yeah, I agree, but if you read the language outloud and in your head, then there comes a point where you have to remember which letter combination goes with which sound. Otherwise you can't read it - obviously.

Yes, but once you've learnt the sound, you can then learn to associate the written form with the spoken form.

I know this sounds contorted, but what I did was:

1) Study the word by sounding out the written form
2) Learn the word by using it in its spoken form
3) Learn to read/write by associating the by-then-learnt spoken form with the written form.

Even though it doesn't always seem that way, reading and sounding out are two very different things... initially at least. Now that I've got a reasonably good internal understanding of the orthography I can sort-of read new words, so that's cool.

i just learnt how to pronounce the written language because it is so regular and simple.

I would put an emphasis on listening, learning how words sound over how they are spelled. You want to be able to say, "oh, that's how that word is spelled" instead of "oh, that's how that word sounds."

Litir and litir bheag are perfect for this because you have the text because typically there are many more hours available to you in a day to listen to Gàidhlig than reading Gàidhlig, but when you do get a chance to read, you can check up on what you've been listening to all day long.

The problem of working off of a table of pronunciation rules is that no matter how hard you try, you'll still get the pronunciation wrong, some of it will still be pronounced à la Beurla without you realizing it. Rather use the pronunciation rules as a helpful guide, a reference.

A Ròs a' Gheamhraidh (no Chuillein, 's dòcha...),

There is no substitute for practice. Dyfal donc a dyrr y garreg, as they say in Wales. If ye hae a recording - and specially if ye can record yourself - keep at it till it sounds right. Failing that, ye could ae phone a Gaelic speaker up... Must apologise - I've already started on Burns suppers and it's getting tae me...

Seonaidh wrote:Failing that, ye could ae phone a Gaelic speaker up...

"ye cuid ay"... "ae" is the indefinite article (a reduced form of "ane")

A Nèill,
Cha do dh'ionnsich mi Albais, m.e., anns an sgoil no dhe mo phàrantan tha mi duilich ma tha Mh. staoigean innte! Ach tha mi air "ae" fhaicinn airson "a' chaoidh" ann an clò! (Òrain: "Generations of Change", mura dhiochuimhnich mi)

Nam biodh tuilleadh fiosrachaidh a dhìth oirbh...