Gaelic guide for learners

Adapting sounds

In Gaelic the initial sound of a word often depends on the previous word, writes Janni Diez. In previous pieces, we looked at lenition and what causes it, today we will examine nasal assimilation and why we say ann an Glaschu ,but ann am Pàislig.

The sounds of two words are assimilated for ease of speech, a phenomenon that happens not just in Gaelic, but in other languages as well. For example ann an ‘in’ or ‘in a’ (ann an Glaschu ‘in Glasgow’, ann an Comar nan Allt ‘in Cumbernauld’, ann an taigh ‘in a house’) becomes ann am if the following noun begins with a labial sound, a sound which is produced by the lips, like b, f, m,p( ann am Pàislig ‘in Paisley’, ann am Fìobha, ‘in Fife’, ann am baga ‘in a bag’).

The same happens with the article of masculine nouns: an doras ‘the door’, an caraid ‘the friend’, an taigh ‘the house’; but the article an changes to am before nouns starting with a labial sound: am balach ‘the boy’, am fear ‘the man’, am post ‘the post’, am màl ‘the rent’. lsabhal Mòr Ostaig offers Gaelic learning opportunities at the College and by distancelearning www.smo.uhi.ac.uk