AN GAODHAL.
85
LESSONS IN GAELIC.
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
XII. LESSON. — Continued
Translation of Exercise 1.
An Sean Fhear agus an Bás.
Bhí Sean Fhear a shiúbhal bealach fada
le gabhail mhór mhaideadh cho tuirseach &
gur caith sé síos é, & d' iar sé air an
m-Bhás a theacht agus é fhuasgladh ó n-a
bheatha chruadhálach. Do thainic an Bás
air an b-puinte aig a chuireadh, agus d'
fhiafruidh dhe cad do bhí teastáil uaidh
"Athchuingním ort, a shaoi mhaith," ar sé,
"gar a dheunadh dham agus congnamh do
thabhairt dam mo eireadh do thógbháil a¬
rís."
Ní h-ionnan glaodhach air an m-bás
agus é fheicsint a teacht.
LESSON XIII.
Taking the five vowels from the se¬
venteen Irish letters, there remain
twelve consonants. Of the consonants
three, viz., l. n, r, never change their
primitive or radical sound; the rem¬
aining nine do change their radical
sound into one of a kindred nature,
which is formed by a like opening of
the mouth,
This change in the nine mutable
consonants is caused either by the na¬
tural sound of the word in which the
mutable enters, requiring it, by their
position in a word or sentence; by their
relation, or connection with other words
that have an influence on their sounds.
Thus t at the end of the word cath (a
battle), must be aspirated, as the natu¬
ral sound of the word requires it, in
order to distinguish it from the word
cat, a cat; b in bean, a woman, a wife
is pronounced with all the native force
that the Roman or English b has in
the English word 'ban,' or the Latin
'bannum'; but if any of the possessive
pronouns mo, my; do, thy; a, his, and
some of the simple prepositins go be¬
fore it, b immediately assumes the shar¬
per or flatter sound of y or w; of v if
b be followed by the vowels e or i; of
w, if followed by any of the broad vow¬
els a o, u; Ex, mo bhean, ; pronounced
"mo vann; mo bhárd, my bard, is pron¬
ounced “ma wardh.
Excluding then l, n, r, from the
twelve consonants, we have b, c, d, f,
g, m, p, s, t, subject to this change in
their primitive sound.
This change, arising from an 'aspir¬
ate' or rough breathing after the vow¬
el sound, is at present correctly called
'aspiration', incorrectly 'mortification';
for the change does not destroy, it on¬
ly modifies the sound of the consonant.
Besides, it rests on the same principle,
and is regulated precisely by the same
rules as those to which 'aspiration' in
Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Spanish, Ger¬
man, or English is subject.
The consonants p, f, b, m, are called
'labials' or lip-letters, because one can¬
not sound them without compressing
the lips. If their primitive sounds are
cognate, is it not natural that when
penetrated by the aspiration, the
sounds of these same kindred letters
should, on philosophic principles, rem¬
ain cognate, or of the same organ ?
This is what exactly takes place.
c and g, palatals, have their aspirate
form perfectly cognate, both partaking,
when affected by the rough breathing,
of the guttural sound.
From this principle of similarity of
sound in letters of the same organ, and
of their retaining still a similarity in
their aspirated forms, a table of the
aspirable consonants, and of their asp¬
irate sounds, as represented by Roman
letters, can be formed.
(This table should be referred to until
