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Sunday, April 03, 2005
A New Irish Language Spelling System
One of the nice things about the Irish language is that its spelling is very regular. However for non-Irish speakers some of the pronunciation rules can be confusing.This is particularly true of some of the lengthened consonants which in the modern spelling are indicated by adding an “h”:
| “th” and ”sh” | (pronounced /h/) |
| “bh” and ”mh” | (pronounced /w/ or /v/ depending on context) |
| dh” and ”gh” | (pronounced /y/ or a /g/, /h/ mixture depending on context) |
| “fh” | (silent) |
I propose that we adopt a new spelling system that is more accessible to non-Irish speakers.
| Consonant | Lengthened, In Standard Spelling | Lengthened, In New Spelling | Example |
| p | p | f̃ | Gaiṽ mo f̃ardún. |
| t | t | ĥ | Go raiṽ maiĥ agat. |
| c | c | k̃ | Óik̃e w̃aiĥ. |
| b (+aou) | b | ŵa ŵo ŵu | An laŵarann tú ...? |
| b (+ei) | b | ṽe ṽi | Sa ṽliain 2005 ... |
| d (+aou) | d | ĥa ĥo ĥu | Dia ĥuit. |
| d (+ei) | d | ŷe ŷi | rud a ŷéanfaí |
| g (+aou) | g | ĥa ĥo ĥu | Cuireaĥ ĥá ~oclóir |
| g (+ei) | g | ỹe ỹi | k̃uir an taiỹde seo |
| m (+aou) | m | w̃a w̃o w̃u | Tá fáilte row̃at. |
| m (+ei) | m | ṽe ṽi | teanga a ṽíniú |
| s | s | ĥ | míle bliain ó ĥin |
| f | f | ~ | K̃un treorak̃a a ~áil |
posted by Eamonn |
9:36 PM
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
1 Comments:
Sure, but I think a bigger difficulty with Irish spelling for learners is the fact that most of them have never heard of broad and slender consonants, and so (a) can't pronounce the difference at all and (b) have no idea what all those vowels are doing in the spelling. That's a somewhat trickier one to solve...
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