Page:An Irish-English dictionary, being a thesaurus of words, phrases and idioms of the modern Irish language, with explanations in English.djvu/12

viii the same observation, while Peter O'Connell (1826), whose work is most laborious, systematic, and comprehensive, writes in, every case. Of the living authorities who were consulted on this question opinion was divided. I may mention that Dr. Standish Hayes O'Grady, Professor Strachan, and Dr. Joyce, approved of the exclusive use of, while Father Peter O'Leary, Mr. Bergin, Mr. Lloyd, and others, favoured. There can be no question, of course, that is far more common in modern manuscripts, and up to a recent date at least was more common in books. As regards the sound of the language used at the present day opinion also differs, some maintaining that the sound after is, and others that it is. I think that the sound is in many cases, and in most other cases approaches nearer to than to. It seems to me that in words like, , , where is followed by a slender vowel, the  is more affected than the , the s becomes  rather than. This sound of, I believe, makes many think that a -sound and not a -sound is heard. In words like, to my ear at least, the sound is. With regard to plural forms like, which some now write , and , which they write , only the longer form is given in these pages. That form is given as being the best established, though it is undoubtedly cumbrous and awkward to a degree. Both forms would have been given except that it seemed a needless waste of space to do so, and hence the exclusion of the shorter form is not to be regarded as prejudicing its claims. There can be no doubt that the tendency will always be in the direction of retrenching unsounded letters, and making the spelling square with the pronunciation. But the