Why can some Irish folk now pronounce 'Th' properly

NIMAN

Can they say 'thighs' or 'thump' if they really want to?

Kojak

No.

DOC09UNAM

Tis is a therrible tread.

kiffer

... What are you talking about?
Dis dat dese and dose, dats da way da 't' 'h' gowes.
'Thighs' and 'thump' are exceptions that prove the rule.

policarp

Dey saw de queen.
Dats how...

Cathaoirleach

Because there is no 'th' sound in Irish Gaelic, where our accents come from.

NIMAN

I know plenty of Irish who can pronounce their 'Th' ok.

Esoteric_

I've always pronounced them properly Then again, I did acting for 18 years, kinda had to speak correctly in that field.

ballsymchugh

i suppose it'd be a bit of an accent then, would it?

Luxie

You know something I've never understood ? How Irish people fail to pronounce 'th' where they should but manage to pronounce a word like 'right' as 'righth'.

willow tree

i think its endearing.. my friend was in new zealand.. he was getting drink so they asked for id.. when she saw his age her eyes lit up and she called the other cashiers over.. they were all dying to hear him say... tirty tree:D he was asked to say it a few times,cute

chughes

willow tree wrote: »

i think its endearing.. my friend was in new zealand.. he was getting drink so they asked for id.. when she saw his age her eyes lit up and she called the other cashiers over.. they were all dying to hear him say... tirty tree:D he was asked to say it a few times,cute

I worked in Scotland for a while back in the mid 1990's and my work colleagues used to love my Dublin pronounciation of thirty three and a third. Mind you, the Scottish girls loved the accent

Back on topic, it grates when I hear RTE news people pronouncing Taoiseach as Thaoiseach.

Joe10000

I have always pronounced th's, everyone I know does. To say that is the proper pronounciation is subjective.

The purpose of language is to allow us to communicate and I've always said (last few weeks anyway) that once you get your message across then how you say it is irrelevant.

Cathaoirleach

chughes wrote: »

Back on topic, it grates when I hear RTE news people pronouncing Taoiseach as Thaoiseach.

That's how you pronounce a word starting with 't' in Irish, depending on what dialect you speak. It's more like a soft 'ts' sound.

TEE-SHOCK is how English-speakers pronounce it, whereas I would say Tsoyee-Shough.

Forest Master

OP - confusing thread title - you're saying they're now able to pronounce it correctly - but they couldn't before?

It's the Irish flat "T" - most people omit the "h".

ball

An English guy pointed this out to me before.
Apparently you're supposed to make an "f" sound.

Eve_Dublin

I can't pronounce them and i teach English to forginers. Oh they have a right laugh at my expense most days. There's an Irish bar here in Madrid called the "33", which I think is gas.

ball

Eve_Dublin wrote: »

I can't pronounce them and i teach English to forginers. Oh they have a right laugh at my expense most days. There's an Irish bar here in Madrid called the "33", which I think is gas.

You teach English to forginers?

Eve_Dublin

ball wrote: »

You teach English to forginers?

Making fun of my Dub accent :rolleyes:

orourkeda

NIMAN wrote: »

Can they say 'thighs' or 'thump' if they really want to?

No. They say fighs and fump.

orourkeda

ball wrote: »

An English guy pointed this out to me before.
Apparently you're supposed to make an "f" sound.

Thats what f is for. TH has its own pronunciation.

ball

orourkeda wrote: »

Thats what f is for. TH has its own pronunciation.

Yeah, that's what I fought

orourkeda

Cathaoirleach wrote: »

That's how you pronounce a word starting with 't' in Irish, depending on what dialect you speak. It's more like a soft 'ts' sound.

TEE-SHOCK is how English-speakers pronounce it, whereas I would say Tsoyee-Shough.

Is it just me or have some broadcasters started to pronounce it as fee-shock

orourkeda

ball wrote: »

Yeah, that's what I fought

Thuckin' 'ell

Latchy

chughes wrote: »

I worked in Scotland for a while back in the mid 1990's and my work colleagues used to love my Dublin pronounciation of thirty three and a third. Mind you, the Scottish girls loved the accent

Back on topic, it grates when I hear RTE news people pronouncing Taoiseach as Thaoiseach.

Or 'Turty Three and a Turd ' and sometimes you''ll hear Taoiseach pronounced as ' Taeshock ' .

Dare's ... There's a pub in Liverpool called 'Durty Nellys' to .Right on wih the Irish accent ,tis popular with the Anglo Saxons .

Wibbs

Cathaoirleach wrote: »

Because there is no 'th' sound in Irish Gaelic, where our accents come from.

Good theory, however...

Cathaoirleach wrote: »

That's how you pronounce a word starting with 't' in Irish, depending on what dialect you speak. It's more like a soft 'ts' sound.

so there is a sort of soft 'th' sound in Irish. It's certainly not a hard 'T' as in "turty tree and turd" or 'Taeshock', so it appears there's something else going on above and beyond the Irish influence. I'd reckon it's just a tendency in English speakers with "lazy" accents to drop aitches. There are lots of examples of it with no other language background.

Latchy

A bit like the northern English were instead of saying ' Hermans Hermits ' will say 'Earmans Ermits ' The Ouse (house ) Orse ( horse ) Hoover ( oover )

Thomas828

An accent like that is ideal for introducing George W. Bush, "the farty-turd president of the USA."

L'prof

God I hate the pronunciation/grammar police. I'm 27 years old, I'm terribly sorry if they way I pronounce certain words or arrange them together to make a sentence annoys you, but I'm not gonna fucking change now! Teachers are the worst for it, especially primary school...you know who you are!!!

iamwhoiam

Dont know about th but what is really bugging me is all the TV3 reporters over pronouncing the t at the end of words

Thattt is how ittt is spoken and ittt is beginging to gettt on my goattt now

stovelid

AH: home of all the burning issues of the day.

flyaway.

Well, when from the day you're born, the people around you don't pronounce their THs, of course you're going to grow up not doing so instinctively. I try to do it but sometimes I slip up. I don't see the big deal.

cocoshovel

Its no' jus' the Th's is also just the T's

Heor! Pass us the bu''er will ya! I'm from Wa'erford~

Latchy

Or as they might say in Drogheda '' I'm off down the white hoss (horse) inn to find the cute hoor (hu-ah ) who owes me a few bob '' .

Regional slang is awesome .:cool:

Xivilai

To be honest, I sound alot more natural when i'm not making an effort to pronounce th's.

Turpentine

orourkeda wrote: »

Thats what f is for. TH has its own pronunciation.

And also "ph".

"Th" is a completely different pronunciation. Not everyone wants to sound like Jamie "thucking" Oliver.