Page:Aids to the Pronunciation of Irish - Christian Brothers.djvu/54

 “coo—el.” The “e” which we have written must not be confounded with the sound of “e” in the word “cruel” In this latter word both the “u” and the “e” are distinct vowels—viz., the long, high, back vowel, and the short mid front vowel; whilst the “e” in “coo—el” is a mere glide.

45. Thus we see that glides do, and must, exist in English as well as in Irish, but the important point which we wish to emphasise is, that it is not necessary to write the glides in English (nor is it done), but it is absolutely necessary to write them in Irish. This arises from the fact that in Irish we have two distinct sets of consonants—the and the. In English there are not two sets of consonants. There are only three consonants which have both broad and slender sounds—viz., “k,” “g,” and “ng”—e.g., “king,” “call,” “give,” “go,” “longing,” “gong.” Observe that the English broad consonants are always beside a back or broad vowel, whilst the three slender ones are used with the slender or front vowels. In Irish a broad consonant may be used with a slender vowel, or a slender consonant with a broad vowel. In this case we must write a glide, not to help pronunciation, for the glide must exist, but to show that the consonant is broad or slender as the case may be.

46. The real function of glides, then, in Irish writing is to indicate the broadness or slenderness of the adjacent consonant.

Take for example the word There is, and