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A guide to pronunciation of

Gaelic place-names in Gairloch

(Careful reference to this is essential for reasonably accurate pronunciation. This system has been tested with a variety of British speakers of English but cannot be guaranteed to work with other speakers!)

Vowels

a = a in 'cat'; A = ay in 'say'; ao = ea in 'earn'; E = ee in 'see'; O = o in 'comb'; ow = ow in 'cow';

u = e in 'butter' (symbol generally used, an inverted 'e', does not display correctly in browsers)

long vowels are shown with the addition of a colon

Consonants

ch = ch in 'loch'; gh = equivalent of ch with a 'g'; tj = tch in 'catch'; y = y in 'yes'; n (i.e. italic n) = n in 'onion'

Other

, is used to separate vowel sounds where necessary; bold is used to show where stress falls

Most likely errors

1. y must not be read as 'ee'; 2. ao is not common in English but the vowel sound of 'earn' is close to that required

This is a selection from the full system used by the author on a series of maps produced to aid pronunciation of place names on Ordnance Survey maps (see www.Apamapa.co.uk).

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