Page:Mion-Chaint - Ua Laoghaire (1899).djvu/10

8 other, and was sounded like the present. I have myself distinctly heard pronounced.

In the following pages, as a step towards the simplification of our spelling, the use of double consonants is omitted when possible. Such an omission is of course impossible in such words as (scarce),  (weak), etc.,. because the effect of the omission would be to produce other words with both a different sound and a different meaning.

The reader is to take it for granted that the sound represented by “” is quite different from that represented by “.”

With regard to “,” it has been found necessary to avoid it altogether. It is always equivalent either to “” or to “.” Hence “” or “” have been substituted for it in the following pages.

The chief purpose of this First Part is to teach the syntax which regulates the use of the two link-words “” and “.”

A Second Part is to follow, which will illustrate in copious detail the forms and uses of the Irish verb. Also a Third Part; which will deal with the syntax of those words which express relation.

The learner may rest assured that not a single word or phrase has been invented. They are all, without exception, actual living speech. There is not an Irish-speaking old person in Munster who would not understand every word and every phrase at once. Still the learner will find the syntax throughout most perfect., and most rigidly adhered to, in such a manner that he cannot fail to be astounded when he remembers that this wonderfully symmetrical phraseology