grammar of irish.pdf - Cryptm.org

8 ORTHOGRAPHY. [PART I.CHAPTER II.LETTER CHANGES.I. ASPIRATION-.1. The term "aspiration" is used to express acertain change of sound suffered by some of theIrish consonants under certain grammatical conditions.2. It is impossible to give a definition of aspiration thatwill correctly describe all the cases, inasmuch as the changesof sound vary in kind with the several consonants. In mostcases the change caused by aspiration is one from an exftlosiveto a continuous sound.3. There are nine consonants -which can beaspirated, namely, b, c, b, p, 5, in, p, p, c; theseare called mutable or aspirable consonants ;theothers are called immutable. The aspiration isdenoted either by placing a point over the consonant,as c; or by placing h after it, as ch.4. The following are the sounds of the aspiratedconsonants so far as they can be represented byEnglish letters.5. bh or b is sounded sometimes like v and sometimeslike to, and it often has a sound somethingbetween both; as a bean, his wife, pronounceda van ; gabal, a fork, pronounced gowal.6. Ch broad has a guttural sound which is notrepresented in English but it is heard in the pronunciationof the word lough, Irish loc, a lake.;Ch slender (i.e. joined with a slender vowel) hasa less guttural sound than c broad; as mi 61 all,folly, in which the c sound is only a little moreguttural than h in mee-heel.7. "Oh and 5 have the same sound. "When slender,they are sounded Hke initial y in English as;a Sean, his love, pronounced a yan. T)h and 5