Imralu wrote:But wait ... is ae really followed by a broad consonant?
Yes, it is.
Gael is pronounced [ɡeːlˠ]. If you palatalise the final consonant, it's the plural,
Gaeil.
E is used to indicate a preceding consonant is slender, but before a slender consonant, it's always
ei, e.g.
teideal /tʹedʹəl/.
Imralu wrote:Cool, but where can I find the rules for the pronunciation of digraphs?
Thing is, they vary by dialect.
Ao, for example, is only /iː/ in Ulster and Connacht. In Munster, it's /eː/.
Aoi is /iː/ everywhere, but there are some words spelled with
aoi in the standard but which in Munster are pronounced as if
ao or even
é (e.g.
naoi /nʹeː/).
That said, here's a guide to a sort of idealised pseudo-Connacht pronounciation (the so-called
Lárchanúint):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_ort ... _trigraphs. Note, for instance, how they give the rule that
oi is [ɔ] before
s, which leads right to the bogus pronunciation of
anois I mentioned earlier.
If you know what dialect you're studying, I recommend investing in a description of that dialect. If you want a pandialectal overview, you need a copy of Ó Siadhail's
Modern Irish. (I'd argue any serious student of Irish needs a copy anyway, but I realise it doesn't come cheap. Worth its weight in Waterford crystal, though.)
Imralu wrote:For example, "Ó Siadhail"
Okay, the thing about names is that--as with other languages--they often represent pre-reform spellings. Such is the case here. The
dh is basically there for no reason; thus a post-reform spelling would be
Ó Siail, but I don't know anyone who spells it like this. As you can see
from this article, the conventional pronunciation is (broadly) transcribed [oːˈʃiːəlʲ] and the name is anglicised
Sheel or even
Shields.