Page:Aids to the Pronunciation of Irish - Christian Brothers.djvu/102

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sáṁṫaċ (=sáfaċ).	fágfad[1] (=fácad).
creidfead (= creitead).	scríoḃfad (= scríofad).
scríoḃṫa (=scríofa).

137. In such words as trí, troiġ, sleas, &c. the liquids are voiced; but they are not voiced in a trí, a ṫroiġ, a ṡleas, aiṫriġe, &c.

138. A peculiar feature of Desmond Irish is that the letters which get the sound of h suppress the slender vowels beside them, provided the slender vowel is part of a digraph or trigraph—e.g., maiṫ pronounced maṫ, and consequently the plural form maiṫe is pronounced maṫa, caiṫ = caṫ, flaiṫ = flaṫ, flaiṫeas = flaṫas, droiċead = droṫad, doiċeall = doṫall, díċeall = dítol,^[2] dá ḟiċead^[3] = daṫad.

Aṫair is pronounced aiṫir.

These words ought not to be spelled as they are pronounced in Desmond, because the Desmond pronunciation of these words is very different from that of the rest of the country.

Eclipsis.

139. Eclipsis is the term used in Irish Grammar to denote the suppression of the sound of certain Irish consonants (when initial) by prefixing others; both, consonants are written, but only the first—i.e., the

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1. It is only when the f is sounded as h that it unvoices the preceding consonant.
2. The sound of h is independent of the law Caol le caol. See § 49.
3. The literary spelling is dá ḟiċid—i.e., slender d; but the d is broad in both Munster and Ulster.