be of the same class, that is, either both broad or both narrow. To quote the old couplet as given by Armstrong:—
- 'Leathan ri leathan is caol ri caol
Leughar na sgriobhar gach facal 'san t-saoghal'
'Broad to broad and small (vowel) to small, you may read or write every word in the world.'
Then there are the aspirated sounds of both the broad and the slender consonants. These are marked, except in the case of the liquids, by writing h after the consonant, a method which both indicates the change of sound and preserves the identity of the consonant.
In the case of some consonants the distinction of broad and slender, of course, is not, at least usually, recognised, and aspirated sounds that might be looked for and that did exist, no doubt, in the language at one time, are not now to be found, and have had their place taken by others. Thus dh gets the sound of gh both broad and slender, and sh, fh, and even in a few instances ch, get the same sound as th.
The liquids l, n, r
The four different pronunciations are recognised in the case of each of the liquids l, n, and r, also in the orthography. That is without taking into account difference of length. There are broad and slender sounds, as in the case of the other consonants, and they are distinguished in the same way by means of the flanking vowels. Both the broad and the slender sounds here also have their respective changes of sound, which correspond in their occurrence to the aspirations of other consonants, and are therefore commonly called their 'aspirated' sounds. The plain or 'unaspirated' sound of a liquid is represented, except at the beginning of a word, by writing the liquid double and the 'aspirated' sound by writing it single. This method of representation is in agreement with the law of aspiration, that a single consonant standing between two vowels in the primitive Gaelic speech became aspirated.
