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§ 9. Hereunder the symbols of the historical orthography will be taken in order and an attempt made to set forth the sounds they represent. The vowel-sigus whether representing yowels, diphthongs, (real or merely timbre digraphs) or umlauted sounds will be treated in some detail. This has been considered necessary for the reading of an assonantal system of verse, particularly as the sounds intended to be conveyed cannot in many cases be even divined from the common orthography. The consonant signs will receive shorter treatment because their value is mostly sufficiently evident. Special regard then will be had only for those cases when the symbols no longer represent the sound, for example in occurrences of assimilation and combination of vowels with remains of affected consonants to contraction or diphthongization. For a treatment of the liquids I refer to the minute and exhaustive discussion in Dr Pedersen’s work Aspirationen i Irsk, Leipzig 1897.
Of the Vowels.
1. Short vowels.
§ 10,1. a. Usually = ȧ. cad ᴋȧᴅ, cara ᴋȧrə (pl. ᴋǡr′də, lengthening from r in position) ca bhfios duit? ᴋȧviꜱ ᴅot, or ᴅet, *can fiss duit, ca shoin when? ᴋȧ′ᴄṇ and ᴋȧ′ᴄ’in, also[1]) ᴋǡᴄṇ. ca’l se? ᴋȧl sē and ᴋǡl sē, talamh ᴛȧlᴜᴠ, gen. talmhan ᴛȧlŪɴ, mac ᴍȧᴋ, and so for nearly all the occurrences. It is labial or guttural umlaut from a.
2. In some words however a in accented syllable in a) anlaut or b) preceded by a consonant that is neither a labial nor a guttural (including guttural ʟ) = a. a) anfa aɴəhə, admháil aᴅəᴡǡl, (followed by n, m = ȧ; anam, an, ‘stay’, amus, but an- ‘very’ aɴə-, anfa a great blowing,) arm arᴍ′,
- ↑ Here we have broad sh < C by some change process obscure to me. The parallel charge of slender sh < c, through hy as explained by Pedersen is quite common and may even be heard in English as Spoken in Ireland, E. g. human ᴄuᴍn′.
