UKC

How would one say "Aonach Sgoilte"? (Its one of the ridges of Ladhar Bheinn in Knoydart, and means "split ridge" apparently.)

'A-on-ach' I think, but 'Sgoilte'?

In reply to fimm:

The sounds are quite hard to write phonetically in English.

The "ao" in Aonach is like a dipthong, i.e. the a and o are pronounced together. My best effort to write this phonetically would be "oonach", but it's not a broad "oo", more like a cross between that and the German "ue", (as in ueber).

Sgoilte should be something like "skoil-tchye".

Saor Alba's your man to confirm though.

In reply to fimm:
no idea but a lovely way up after you get the initial slog out of the way...

In reply to fimm:
The basic rule from what I can make out is to pronounce all the consonants that aren't there and none of the ones that are!

In reply to fimm:

You can hear the "aon" sound here (aon is Gaelic for "one", or "a" (the indefinite article); click on the word in bold): http://www.bbc.co.uk/alba/foghlam/beag_air_bheag/units/unit_08/

In reply to fimm:

Sorley MacLean pronouncing Aonach (Eagach) from the Munro Show https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aE4Z3_Q0N0&feature=player_embedded

In reply to Douglas Griffin:

this is bang on.

In reply to Douglas Griffin:

Thank you very much.
I'll follow up the link to Aonach, which I thought I knew how to say...

"skoil-tchye" - the "ch" in the second syllable must be as in loch, not as in church?

In reply to fimm:

You're welcome!

The "ch" in the second syllable as in church.

In reply to fimm:

Please put a soundfile request in here and I will record one for you.

http://www.cnag.org/en/mountain-names

In reply to Saor Alba:

Done.
I'd not come across that service before - but I have not been on UKC/UKH very much recently.
Thank you to all

In reply to Saor Alba:

Wow, great resource.

In reply to fimm:

http://www.cnag.org/en/mountain-names

I've put up a few sounds files this morning including the one you requested.

In reply to Saor Alba:

Thank you very much.

In reply to Saor Alba:

What a brilliant service you are providing.

In reply to Douglas Griffin: I always thought a diphthong was where two vowel sounds merged into each other: as in "oil", but not as in "bear", where there is only one vowel sound.

Scots and Yorkshire pronunciation has few diphthongs. Both tend to use pure vowel sounds (Yorkshire being even purer than Scots, I hate to admit) - also called monophthongs. Although few vowel sounds are totally pure.

Received English pronunciation and, say, London dialect are full of diphthongs. E.g. "oh no" in a mock upper class accent would have very distinct multiple vowel sounds, perhaps even more than 2! Or, in London, "south" can sound more like "sa-iff".

German has generally pure vowel sounds, not diphthongs. "Ueber" in particular is a monophthong. It's a pure sound. Unlike "neu", which sounds like "boy" and is a diphthong.

But, I notice from looking round t'Internet, that opinions tend to be divided on this! Wikipedia, if you trust it, is clear that a diphthong is a "gliding vowel sound", where you move from one vowel to another.