Recording the pronunciation of minor placenames

Facilities were added to Meitheal Logainm.ie at the beginning of 2018 that enable users to create audio recordings and store them in our database. This is a valuable development as it will aid in preserving the pronunciation of minor placenames in addition to the textual information associated with them. You will find general instructions as to how to make audio recordings on our how to use this website page. Technical information and practical advice that will help you to make the best use of these facilities is available below.

Supported devices for recording audio

It should be possible to record audio on any modern web browser — including Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge and Apple Safari — on both desktop and laptop computers, provided a microphone is available. Most laptops come with a built-in internal microphone. You may be required to connect an external microphone to your desktop machine. It is not possible to make audio recordings in any version of Microsoft Internet Explorer.

As regards mobile devices, almost all Android devices and browsers support recording audio on both smartphone and tablet devices. This is not the case for Apple iOS devices (iPhone, iPad etc.), however, you must have at least iOS 11, released in December 2017, installed on your device in order to record audio via websites such as Meitheal Logainm.ie.

Guidelines for recording audio

These guidelines will assist you in obtaining the best results from your audio recordings. The major advantage of mobile devices, of course, is that they can be used in various settings and we appreciate that it will not be practical to follow every one of these guidelines in all situations.

We recommend that you:

  • record audio in a quiet internal room when possible;
  • attempt to remove or reduce possible sources of background noise such as televisions, computers or other electrical devices;
  • avoid recording in a windy area when possible;
  • place the computer/phone/recording device directly in front of you when making a recording;
  • try not to move or handle the recording device, insofar as this is practical, while recording is in progress, and;
  • listen back to the recording to ensure that the placename can be heard clearly.