Ro-ràdh
Vowels
Consonants
Fricatives
Slenderisation
Lenition
Pre-aspiration
Diphthongs
Helping Vowel
Hiatus
L, N, R
Rt& Rd
Vowels before
rr, ll, nn
Unstressed Vowels

Fuaimreagan - Vowels

Gaelic uses the five symbols a, o, u, i, e to represent a large number of Gaelic vowel sounds.  This is achieved by using accents and by combining the five basic vowles in various ways.  In Gaelic there are both short and long vowles.  Long vowels are indicated by means of accents.  There are two accents used in Scottish Gaelic:

     the acute ( ´ ) found only on the letters e and o
     the grave ( ` ) found on a, o, u, i, e

The difference in pronounciation between a, o, u, i, e and à, ò, ù, ì, è respectively is one of pure length.  The difference on the other hand between è, ò and é, ó respectively is one of quality.  Listen to the difference between è and é and ò and ó:

 Download fuaimreag01

Consider now the difference of length between a, o, u, i, e and à, ò, ó, ù, ì, è, é.

You may have noticed that there is a slight difference between the two short e sounds and the two short o sounds.  These differences are not indicated in the spelling.  Listen to them again:

Notice the difference between the two e, and the two o sounds.

Here are some more words to practice your pronounciation of Scottish Gaelic vowels.

 Download fuaimreag02

 Download fuaimreag03

 Download fuaimreag04

 Download fuaimreag05

 Download fuaimreag06

 Download fuaimreag07

 Download fuaimreag08

 Download fuaimreag09