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I have two dictionaries which variously give the pronunciation of the Old Irish word lough as læk or lō.

How is it actually pronounced in Ireland?

Graham Charles
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  • Please give the references, with links and attributions if they are on-line. Note that online dictionaries such as AHD, Collins, M-W tend to be much more up-to-date and based.on more reliable data. – Edwin Ashworth Dec 11 '19 at 17:16
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    You mention Old Irish, ask about current pronunciation, and tag "hiberno-english", can you be clearer about which language you actually want, and when? In the present day, Irish-language pronunciation of "lough" varies according to the dialect: I link a site with 3 examples that you can listen to: Connacht and Munster have a fricative at the end, while in Ulster Irish it's silent, more like /lɔ:/. I don't think anyone other than an monolingual English-speaker would pronounce the final consonant as /k/. https://www.focloir.ie/en/dictionary/ei/lough – Stuart F Dec 11 '19 at 17:47
  • @StuartF - Why would a monolingual English speaker use a /k/? I would think they'd either pattern after "though" or "rough" I can't think of anything that would lead them to a /k/. – Jim Dec 11 '19 at 17:57
  • Hearing a local say /x/ might lead them to /k/. Multiple English dictionaries give a final /k/ in the pronunciation of "lough" in English; some also give /x/ as an alternative, others not. Scots "loch" is similar, /k/ to the English and /x/ to the Scottish (even when speaking Standard Scottish English). I assume /k/ is the closest they can get to /x/ or /ɣ/. https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/lough https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lough https://www.dictionary.com/browse/lough – Stuart F Dec 11 '19 at 18:00
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    Feel free to re-tag! (Interestingly, I had tagged it as "irish-english" -- I guess hiberno-english was a retag or synonym.) Anyway, I really am looking for "how it is actually pronounced in Ireland." – Graham Charles Dec 12 '19 at 17:41
  • Edwin, I'm not clear why you need cites, but here you go: Merriam-Webster gives the hard K ending. American Heritage gives that as a second choice. I don't do a lot of online dictionaries, but dictionary.com seems to have it as "lock." None of the three reference the "Ulster" version Stuart gave. – Graham Charles Dec 12 '19 at 17:51
  • Jim, to explain, I was thinking "k" because I've heard names ("Coughlin") where the middle "kh" sound sorta became a "k" sound when Americanized. – Graham Charles Dec 12 '19 at 17:53
  • And finally, Stuart, if you'll write that as an answer rather than a comment, I can accept it as "correct." Thanks to all for your help. – Graham Charles Dec 12 '19 at 17:53

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