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“a” in barr is short when a termination beginning with a vowel is added—e.g., barraiḃ, barra, showing that the “a” is not naturally long in barr.
A still stronger reason for not writing a síneaḋ on a vowel that is long by position is that this vowel may not be pronounced long in other parts of the country. For example: urlár is pronounced úrlár in Munster, but the “u” is not long in Connaught or Ulster; hence Munster writers ought not to mark the “u” long. It may be well to remark here that the spelling of some of the words given in the preceding lists is slightly different from the way in which the words are usually spelled at present. For example: it is now a common practice to omit one of the n’s sainnt, cainnt, muinntir, muinntearḋa, cionntaċ, cionntuiġ, ionntaoiḃ, conntaḃairt, ionnta, &c. This practice ought not to be followed, because “t” does not protect single “n”—e.g. cluintear, cantain, geinte, greanta, &c. The first syllable in cionnta, cionntaċ, muinntir, ionnta, conntaḃairt, &c, is pronounced short in some places, but this should not furnish writers with an excuse for omitting one of the n’s, since the nn is the correct spelling, and moreover the words are pronounced long in other places.
If every writer is to spell his words in accordance with the pronunciation of his own little district, the inevitable result will be that in a few years instead of having a modern literature we shall have a few hundred parochial scrips and scraps that will be read by no one outside the writer’s own parish.
