Blas na Gaidhlig: The Practical Guide to Scottish Gaelic Pronunciation

by Michael Bauer

Overview

This book tackles the thorny issue of Scottish Gaelic pronunciation in an engaging and clear manner without loosing track of the bigger picture and the fine detail. It was written with three main reader groups in mind:

• Adult learners of Gaelic (from total beginner up to highly advanced learners who want to improve their pronunciation and comprehension skills)

• Teachers and tutors of Gaelic who wish to become more effective in teaching pronunciation to adult learners of the language

• Native speakers of the language who wish to gain a better understanding of how their language works.

It assumes no prior knowledge and takes the reader on a complete journey through the marvels of the Gaelic sound system. It comes with over 120 sets of exercises, numerous sound files that can be accessed via the publisher's website, both technical and entertaining illustrations and a recipe for some Christmas baking.

No single solution will ever exist which will solve all the problems facing the learners of Gaelic when it comes to pronunciation but, without doubt, this book will help learners and teachers of the language take a large step forwards.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781907165009
Publisher:	Akerbeltz
Publication date:	03/31/2011
Pages:	592
Sales rank:	464,360
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.60(d)

Table of Contents

I Foreword
II Structure of the book
III Learning a language
IV Why is pronunciation more important for Gaelic learners?
V The Gaelic Granny Syndrome
VI Dialect or standard?
VII Style? What style?
VIII The transcription system
IX Letter or sound?
X Still 'all sound same'?
XI Unit structure
XII Time to loosen up!
1 The vowels or Tongue Twisters Part 1
2 The consonants
3 More exercises
4 Phonology or how to put all these sounds together
5 The Gaelic writing system
6 The last word
I Appendix I - The Wordlist
II Appendix II - Conversion charts
III Appendix III - Key to the exercises
IV Appendix IV - The Guide to Reading Gaelic
V Bibliography
VI About the author

Editorial Reviews

A truly brilliant book on what - until now - has been a difficult topic for learners and teachers alike. Michael Bauer has taken what is a very complex subject - the pronunciation of Scottish Gaelic - and presented it in a lively, witty and informative way. With this authoritative book, even those with little or no knowledge of concepts such as the Phonetic Alphabet will discover exactly why the sounds work the way they do. It will help learners unlock that elusive door to understanding and speaking the language well. And it will be invaluable for Gaelic teachers who have become accustomed to a feeling of dread in response to that inevitable question regarding some matter of pronunciation - "But why?"

Ishbel Murray, Gaelic Immersion Course Teacher, Stow College Glasgow

From the Publisher