Primary stress (placed before the stressed syllable); usually the first syllable except in Munster
ˌ
Secondary stress (usually found only in compounds)
Comparison to other phonetic transcription schemes
Materials published elsewhere use somewhat different conventions from those used at Wikipedia. For example, it is a longstanding tradition to leave velarized ("broad") consonants unmarked and mark palatalized ("slender") consonants with the prime, although this is not standard IPA usage.
This section compares the IPA system used at Wikipedia (which is based on that used by Ailbhe Ní Chasaide in her description of Irish in the Handbook of the International Phonetic Association, ISBN 0-521-63751-1) with the system used in some other works.
↑Irish makes contrasts between velarized ("broad") and palatalized ("slender") consonants. Velarized consonants, denoted in the IPA by a superscript ‹ˠ›, are pronounced with the back of the tongue raised toward the velum, which happens to the /l/ in English pill in some accents, like RP and General American, but not in Hiberno-English. In Irish orthography, broad consonants are surrounded by the letters ‹a›, ‹o›, ‹u›.
↑"Slender" (palatalized) consonants, denoted in the IPA by a superscript ‹ʲ›, are pronounced with the body of the tongue raised toward the hard palate, in a manner similar to the articulation of the ‹y› sound in yes. In Irish orthography, slender consonants are surrounded by the letters ‹e›, ‹i›.
↑ 4.04.14.24.3Few if any modern dialects of Irish distinguish all four types of "l" sound. Most dialects have merged /l̪ˠ/ and /lˠ/ as /l̪ˠ/, and some have also merged /l̠ʲ/ and /lʲ/ as /lʲ/. Still others have merged /lˠ/ and /lʲ/ as /l/.
↑ 5.05.15.25.3Few if any modern dialects of Irish distinguish all four types of "n" sound. Most dialects have merged /n̪ˠ/ and /nˠ/ as [n̪ˠ], and some have also merged /n̠ʲ/ and /nʲ/ as [nʲ]. Still others have merged /nˠ/ and /nʲ/ as [n]. In parts of Munster, /n̠ʲ/ has merged with /ɲ/ in non-initial position.
