Page:Irish Made Easy - Shán Ó Cuív.pdf/33

 generally pronounced in Ireland as if it were the Irish word dó (two). By writing English words in the new alphabet we shall avoid many of the disadvantages of attempting to give the pronunciation of Irish words with a phonetic key, as in Father O’Growney’s books, or with the “imitated pronunciation” of Hugos books. In this case the student will not throw away the alphabet as soon as he has mastered the pronunciation of the key words; he will continue to use the alphabet for reading and writing Irish.

The following table prepared by Dr. Bergin and Dr. O’Daly gives first in the ordinary spelling certain English words as they are pronounced in Ireland, and immediately following, the same words spelled with the letters of the Irish alphabet. The object is to teach students that they already have the sounds for many Irish words and also to familiarise them with the practice of representing sounds by the use of the Irish letters.