AN GAODHAL.
765
SECOND BOOK — Continued
THE GAELIC ALPHABET.
Irish.
Roman.
Sound.
Irish.
Roman.
Sound.
a
a
aw
m
m
emm
b
b
bay
n
n
enn
c
c
kay
o
o
oh
d
d
dhay
p
p
pay
e
e
ay
r
r
arr
f
f
eff
s
s
ess
g
g
gay
t
t
thay
i
i
ee
u
u
oo
l
l
ell
Eclipsis
To explain Eclipsis in a few words. -
Euphony requires that, on occasions,
certain initial letters change their
sounds. To obviate changing such
sound, another letter, having the desi¬
red sound, is placed before the word,
with hyphen between them. When the
word is then uttered the sound of the
annexed letter alone is heard and the
sound of the said initial letter omitted
as if it were not there at all.
Thus bárd, a bard, when eclipsed
by m, as; ar m-bard, is pronounced
"mard,” the sound of the b being alto¬
gether dropt for the time. If attention
be paid to this idea of merely substi¬
tutting the sound of one letter for ano¬
ther, eclipsis will become easy. Who
has not heard of the famous Slieve-
na-man? This is an Anglicised form
of Sliabh na m-ban, the eclipsed b being
omitted in the Anglicised, corrupted
form; yet, in its Anglicised form, it
illustrates to perfection the effect of
the eclipsing letter. Sliabh na m-ban
means, “the mountain of the women."
ban being the genitive plural of bean,
a woman, mná, nominative plural.
The letters which are employed to
eclipse others are b, d, g m, n, t, and
the aspirated bh.
Table of Eclipsing and Eclipsed Letters
m eclipses b, as ar m-bád, our boat,
pronounced as if ar mád.
g eclipses c, as ar g-ceart, our right,
pronounced ar geart.
n eclipses d. as bhur n doras, your
door, pronounced bhur norus.
b eclipses p, as bhur b-páiste, your
child, pronounced bhur báisde-
d eclipses t, as a d-tír, their coun¬
try, pronounced a dír.
bh eclipses f, as a bh-fuil, their blood,
pronounced a bhuil.
n eclipses g, as a ngabhar, their goat,
pronounced a ngabhar.
t eclipses s, as an t-slat, the rod.
pronounced as if, an tlat.
In the case of ng no hyphen is used,
the two sounds blending into one and
producing something like the first half
of the sound of the letters ng in the
word gong.
RULE I.
Eclipses takes place after the poss¬
essive pronouns ar, our; bhur, your; a
their.
Exercise I.
briste, broken; carraig, a rock; dóchas
hope
1 ar d-talamh, 2 bhí a n-dóchas láid¬
ir, 3 tá bhur b-páiste tinn. 4 ní fhuil
bhur g-cara ann so. 5 tá a bh-fearann
glas. 6 bhí a ngeall cinnte. 7 tá ar
m-buadhairt trom. 8 tá ar sláinte
maith. 9 tá ar m-bád briste le carraig.
10 a d-tír agus a muintir.
1 Our land. 2 Their hope was strong.
3 Your child is sick. 4 Your friend is
not here. 5 Their field is green. 6
Their promise was sure. 7 Our trouble
is heavy. 8 Our health is good. 9
Our boat is broken by a rock. 10 Their
country and their people.
i s is an exception unless preceded
by the article.
It is the duty of every Irishman to try to scatter
Gaelic literature. Hence every reader of the GAEL
should try to circulate it. There are hundreds of
people who would willingly help the movement if
they knew of the existence of the GAEL. A certain
gentleman in Pennsylvania is getting the GAEL
since its foundation yet his second door neighbor
wrote the other day for a sample copy. Hence,
the Gaelic reader should take care that none of his
neighbors should be ignorant of its existence. Every
great movement is brought about by the dessimin¬
ation of advertisements.
