Page:Aids to the Pronunciation of Irish - Christian Brothers.djvu/51



in, &c.

(a) (broad) when final is pronounced in Desi;, &c, &c. In the genitive case, however, the is retained—e.g.,  (Henebry).

41. We now come to the much abused, but little understood, law of Irish Phonetics, commonly called, We have already learned that in Irish there exist two sets of consonants—the broad and the slender, formed in very different, and easily distinguishable, positions. We shall show in this chapter that it is in most cases impossible to pass from a broad consonant to a slender vowel, or from a slender consonant to a broad vowel, or vice versa without the aid of a “glide.” These glides are organic necessities, and exist, to a greater or less extent, in all languages that possess front and back vowels and consonants. The law for Irish pronunciation and spelling may be stated as follows:—

42. Whenever a single consonant (except ) or two consonants that easily blend (i.e., formed in the same position) come between two vowels, in the same word, both the vowels must be slender or both must be broad.