Orthography

The modern Scottish Gaelic alphabet has 18 letters:

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, T, U

The letter h, now mostly used to indicate lenition of a consonant, was not used in the oldest orthography, as lenition was instead indicated with a dot over the lenited consonant. Letters of the alphabet were traditionally named after trees: ailm (elm), beith (birch), coll (hazel), dair (oak), and so on, but this custom is no longer followed.

The quality of consonants is partially indicated by the vowels surrounding them. The vowels are classified as caol ("slender", that is e and i) or leathann ("broad", that is a, o and u). The spelling rule is caol ri caol is leathann ri leathann (slender to slender and broad to broad). Slender consonants are palatalised while broad consonants are velarised.

Because of the spelling rule, an internal consonant group must be surrounded by vowels of the same quality to indicate its pronunciation unambiguously, since some consonants change their pronunciation depending on whether they are surrounded by broad or slender vowels: for example, compare the t in slàinte (/slaːntʃə/) with the t in bàta (/paːtə/).

The rule has no effect on the pronunciation of vowels. For example, plurals in Gaelic are often formed with the suffix -an, for example, bròg /proːk/ (shoe)/brògan /proːkən/ (shoes). But because of the spelling rule, the suffix is spelled -ean (but pronounced the same) after a slender consonant, as in taigh /tʰɤj/ (house)/taighean /tʰɤjən/ (houses).

In changes promoted by the Scottish Examination Board from 1976 onwards, certain modifications were made to this rule. For example, the suffix of the past participle is always spelled -te, even after a broad consonant, as in togte 'raised' (rather than the traditional togta).

Using the spelling rule, it is sometimes unclear whether a vowel has been introduced for its own pronunciation or for its effect upon a consonant.

Unstressed vowels omitted in speech can be omitted in informal writing. For example:

Tha mi an dòchas (I hope) > Tha mi 'n dòchas

Once Gaelic orthographic rules have been learned, the pronunciation of the written language can be seen to be quite predictable. However learners must be careful not to try to apply English spelling rules to written Gaelic, otherwise mispronunciations will result. Gaelic personal names such as Seònaid /ˈʃɔːnɛtʃ/ are especially likely to be mispronounced when they are used by English speakers.

Pronunciation

Most letters are pronounced similarly to other European languages. The broad consonants t and d and often n have a dental articulation (as in Irish and the Romance and Slavic languages) in contrast to the alveolar articulation common in English and other Germanic languages). Non-palatal r is an alveolar trill (like Italian r or Spanish rr.)

The "voiced" stops b, d, g are not voiced at all in Gaelic, but are rather voiceless unaspirated. The "voiceless" stops p, t, c are voiceless and strongly aspirated (postaspirated in initial position, preaspirated in medial/final position). Gaelic shares this property with Icelandic. In some Gaelic dialects, stops at the beginning of a stressed syllable become voiced when they follow a nasal consonant, for example: taigh 'a house' is /tʰɤi/ but an taigh 'the house' is /ən dʰɤi/; cf. also tombaca 'tobacco' /tʰomˈbaxkə/.

The lenited consonants have special pronunciations: bh and mh are /v/; ch is /x/ or /ç/; dh, gh is /ʝ/ or /ɣ/; th is /h/, /ʔ/, or silent; ph is /f/. Lenition of l n r is not shown in writing.

fh is almost always silent, with only the following three exceptions: fhèin, fhathast, and fhuair, where it is pronounced as /h/.

There are a few general features worth noting.

• Stress is usually on the first syllable: for example drochaid 'a bridge' (/ˈtroxatʃ/).

(Knowledge of this fact alone would help avoid many a mispronunciation of Highland placenames, for example Mallaig is /ˈmaɫɛkʲ/. Note, though, that when a placename consists of more than one word in Gaelic, that the Anglicised form can have stress elsewhere: Tyndrum (/tʌinˈdrʌm/) < Taigh an Droma (/tʰɤin ˈdromə/).

• A distinctive characteristic of Gaelic pronunciation (which has influenced the Scottish accent – cf. girl /gʌrəl/ and film /fɪləm/) is the insertion of epenthetic vowels between certain adjacent consonants, specifically, between sonorants (l or r) and certain following consonants:

tarbh (bull) — /tʰarav/

Alba (Scotland) — /alapa/.

• Schwa (/ə/) at the end of a word is dropped when followed by a word beginning with a vowel. For example:

duine (a man) — /ˈtɯnʲə/

an duine agad (your man) — /ən ˈdɯnʲ akət/

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