Guides
How to say it
We explain a sound by rhyming it with an English word you already know, tell you what English speakers usually do instead, and give you a hand-hold for the sounds English does not have. Respelling comes second. Each song page links only to the guides it needs, and every guide links back to the songs that use it.
| Guide | What it holds | Songs | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scottish Gaelic | Lenition (the h), ch and loch, bh = v, broad and slender, stress, long vowels, ao, running words together, Lewis notes, a word list with audio. | Màiri Bhàn (Mairi's Wedding) Later: Fear a' Bhàta, Chì mi na mòrbheanna | Live |
| Irish | Séimhiú and urú, broad and slender, the three dialects (Ulster, Connacht, Munster), bh/mh = v or w, stress by dialect. | Planned: Óró 'sé do bheatha abhaile, Siúil a Rún, Mo Ghile Mear | Coming |
| Welsh | The one-sound-per-letter alphabet, ll, ch, dd = “th” as in “the”, f and ff, w and y as vowels, stress on the next-to-last syllable. | Planned: Ar Lan y Môr, Calon Lân, Myfanwy | Coming |
| Breton | c’h, zh, nasal vowels, stress on the next-to-last syllable, the French-but-not-French sounds. | Planned: Tri Martolod, Son ar Chistr | Coming |
| Scots | Doric, Central, Border, Orkney and Shetland; the ch in loch and nicht, the rolled r, “ou” = “oo”, a glossary for the Kincardine, Twa Sisters and Loch Lomond sheets. | Planned: Kincardine, Twa Sisters, Loch Lomond | Coming |
| English: Scottish regional | Glasgow, Edinburgh, Highland, Hebridean and Aberdeen English, and how a Scots singer's vowels land for an American ear. | Coming | |
| English: Newfoundland | Irish- and West-Country-rooted sounds, “th” stopping, the “after” perfect, h-dropping and adding. | Planned: Banks of Newfoundland | Coming |
| English: Maritime | Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, PEI and New Brunswick: Gaelic and Acadian colouring, Canadian raising. | Coming | |
| English: Appalachian North | Pennsylvania, West Virginia and the Ohio valley: the pin/pen edge, retained r, a-prefixing in older singers. | Coming | |
| English: Appalachian South | Kentucky, Tennessee and the Carolinas: monophthong “i”, “fixin' to”, drawl length, shape-note and ballad diction. | Planned: the Child ballads in the repertoire | Coming |
Every guide uses one template: the two worked examples first, a table of letter groups with rhyme anchors (naming the dialect), what English speakers do instead, a word list with audio and licence badges, the songs that use it, and sources with dates and tiers. Every rendering is a draft until a native speaker has listened to it.