Irish orthography

Irish orthography has evolved over many centuries, since Old Irish was first written down in the Latin alphabet in about the sixth century AD. Prior to that, Primitive Irish was written in Ogham. Irish spelling is mainly based on etymological considerations, although a spelling reform in the mid-20th century simplified the relationship between spelling and pronunciation somewhat.

There are three dialects of spoken Irish: Ulster (now predominantly in County Donegal), Connacht (Counties Mayo and Galway), and Munster (Counties Kerry, Cork, and Waterford). Some spelling conventions are common to all the dialects, while others vary from dialect to dialect. In addition, individual words may have in any given dialect a pronunciation that is not reflected by the spelling.

Alphabet

A sample of Gaelic type.

Prior to the middle of the 20th century Irish was usually written using the Gaelic typefaces. This alphabet, together with letter name pronunciations and lenited letters is shown below.

Use of Gaelic type is today almost entirely restricted to decorative and/or self-consciously traditional contexts. The dot above the lenited letter is usually substituted with a following h in the standard Roman alphabet. The only other use of h in Irish is for vowel-initial words after certain proclitics (e.g. go hÉirinn, "to Ireland") and for words of foreign derivation such as hata "hat".

The alphabet now used for writing the Irish language consists of the following letters of the Latin alphabet, whether written in Roman type or Gaelic type:

a á b c d e é f g h i í l m n o ó p r s t u ú;

Modern loanwords also make use of j k q v w x y z. Of these, j and v are the most common. The letter v also occurs in a small number of words of native origin in the language such as vácarnach, vác and vrác, all of which are onomatopoeic. It also occurs in a number of alternative colloquial forms such as víog instead of bíog and vís instead of bís as cited in Niall Ó Dónaill's Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla. The letters q, w, x, y and z are used primarily in scientific terminology, although the phoneme /z/ does exist naturally in at least one dialect, that of West Muskerry, Co. Cork, as the eclipsis of s. k is the only letter not to be listed by Ó Dónaill. h when not prefixed to an initial vowel as an aspirate in certain grammatical functions, occurs primarily in loanwords as an initial consonant. The letters' names are spelt out thus:

á bé cé dé é eif gé héis í eil eim ein ó pé ear eas té ú

along with jé cá cú vé wae eacs yé zae.

Tree names were once popularly used to name the letters. Tradition taught that they all derived from the names of the Ogham letters, though it is now known that only some of the earliest Ogham letters were named after trees.

ailm (white fir), beith (birch), coll (hazel), dair (oak), edad/eabhadh (poplar), fern/fearn (alder), gath/gort (ivy), uath (hawthorn), idad/iodhadh (yew), luis (rowan), muin (vine), nin/nion (ash), onn (gorse), peith (dwarf alder), ruis (elder), sail (willow), tinne/teithne (holly), úr (heather)

Although the Gaelic script remained common until the mid-20th century, efforts to introduce Roman characters began much earlier. Theobald Stapleton's 1639 catechism was printed in a Roman type alphabet, and also introduced simplified spellings such as suí for suidhe and uafás for uathbhás, though these did not become standard for another 300 years.

Consonants

The consonant letters generally correspond to the consonant phonemes as shown in this table. See Irish phonology for an explanation of the symbols used and Irish initial mutations for an explanation of eclipsis. In most cases, consonants are "broad" (velarised) when the nearest vowel letter is one of a, o, u and "slender" (palatalised) when the nearest vowel letter is one of e, i.

Vowels

The following chart indicates how written vowels are generally pronounced. Each dialect has certain divergences from this general scheme.

Observations

• When e, é, i, or í come after or before a consonant, they make the consonant slender.
• Between a consonant and a vowel, or vice-versa, e and i are usually silent, and just indicate that the adjacent consonants are slender. However, they may be pronounced in the digraphs ei, ia, io, oi, ui.
• The accented letters é and í are always pronounced.
• In digraphs and trigraphs containing a vowel with an acute accent (known in Irish as a fada or síneadh fada), only the accented vowel is normally pronounced.

Epenthetic vowel

In a sequence of short vowel + /l, r, n/ + labial or velar consonant an unwritten /ə/ gets pronounced between the /l, r, n/ and the following consonant:

• gorm /ˈɡɔɾˠəmˠ/ "blue"
• dearg /ˈdʲaɾˠəɡ/ "red"
• dorcha /ˈd̪ˠɔɾˠəxə/ "dark"
• ainm /ˈanʲəmʲ/ "name"
• seanchaí /ˈʃan̪ˠəxiː/ "storyteller"
• leanbh /ˈlʲan̪ˠəw/ "child"
• colm /ˈkɔl̪ˠəm/ "dove"

There is no epenthesis before voiceless stops or after long vowels and diphthongs:

• corp /kɔɾˠpˠ/ "body"
• olc /ɔl̪ˠk/ "bad"
• téarma /tʲeːɾˠmˠə/ "term"
• dualgas /ˈd̪ˠuəl̪ˠɡəsˠ/ "duty"

Special pronunciations in verb forms

In verb forms some letters and letter combinations are pronounced differently from elsewhere.

In the imperfect, conditional, and imperative, -dh is pronounced /tʲ/ before a pronoun beginning with s-:

• mholadh sé /ˈwɔl̪ˠətʲ ʃeː/ "he used to praise"
• bheannódh sibh /ˈvʲan̪ˠoːtʲ ʃɪvʲ/ "you (pl.) would bless"
• osclaíodh sí /ˈɔsˠkl̪ˠiːtʲ ʃiː/ "let her open"

Otherwise it is pronounced /x/:

• mholadh an buachaill /ˈwɔl̪ˠəx ə ˈbˠuəxəlʲ/ "the boy used to praise"
• bheannódh na cailíní /ˈvʲanoːx n̪ˠə ˈkalʲiːnʲiː/ "the girls would bless"
• osclaíodh Siobhán /ˈɔsˠkl̪ˠiːx ˈʃʊwaːn̪ˠ/ "let Siobhán open"

In the preterite impersonal, -dh is pronounced /w/:

• moladh é /ˈmˠɔl̪ˠəw eː/ "he was praised"
• beannaíodh na cailíní /ˈbʲan̪iːw nə ˈkalʲiːnʲiː/ "the girls were blessed"

-(a)idh and -(a)igh are pronounced /ə/ before a pronoun, otherwise /iː/:

• molfaidh mé /ˈmˠɔl̪ˠhə mʲeː/ "I will praise"
• molfaidh Seán /ˈmˠɔl̪ˠhiː ʃaːn/ "Seán will praise"
• bheannaigh mé /ˈvʲan̪ˠə mʲeː/ "I blessed"
• bheannaigh Seán /ˈvʲan̪ˠiː ʃaːn/ "Seán blessed"

In the future and conditional, f (broad or slender) has the following effects:

1. After vowels and sonorants (/l̪ˠ lʲ mˠ mʲ n̪ˠ nʲ ɾˠ ɾʲ/) it is pronounced /h/:
   • molfaidh /ˈmˠɔl̪ˠhiː/ "will praise"
   • dhófadh /ˈɣoːhəx/ "would burn"
   • déarfaidh /ˈdʲeːɾˠhiː/ "will say"
2. It makes a voiced obstruent (/bˠ bʲ vʲ d̪ˠ ɡ/) or /w/ voiceless:
   • scuabfadh /ˈsˠkuəpəx/ "would sweep"
   • goidfidh /ˈɡɛtʲiː/ "will steal"
   • leagfadh /ˈlʲakəx/ "would lay"
   • scríobhfaidh /ˈʃcɾʲiːfˠiː/ "will write"
   • shnámhfadh /ˈhn̪ˠaːfˠəx/ "would swim"
3. It is silent after a voicless obstruent (/k c x ç pˠ pʲ sˠ ʃ t̪ˠ tʲ/)
   • brisfidh /ˈbʲɾʲɪʃiː/ "will break"
   • ghlacfadh /ˈɣl̪ˠakəx/ "would accept"
4. But in the future and conditional impersonal f is often /fˠ, fʲ/
   • molfar /ˈmˠɔl̪ˠfˠəɾˠ/ "one will praise"
   • dhófaí /ˈɣoːfˠiː/ "one would burn"
   • scuabfar /ˈsˠkuəbˠfˠəɾˠ/ "one will sweep"
   • brisfear /ˈbʲɾʲɪʃfʲəɾˠ/ "one will break"
5. In the past participle th (also t after d) is silent but makes a voiced obstruent voiceless:
   • scuabtha /ˈsˠkuəpˠə/ "swept"
   • troidte /ˈt̪ˠɾˠɛtʲə/ "fought"
   • ruaigthe /ˈɾˠuəcə/ "chased"

Diacritics

Irish spelling makes use today of only one diacritic, and formerly used a second. The acute accent (Irish: síneadh fada "long sign") is used to indicate a long vowel, as in bád /bˠaːd̪ˠ/ "boat". However, there are some circumstances under which a long vowel is not indicated by an acute accent, namely:

• before rd, rl, rn, rr, for example ard /aːɾˠd̪ˠ/ "high", eirleach /ˈeːɾˠlʲəx/ "destruction", dorn /d̪ˠoːɾˠn̪ˠ/ "fist"
• in the groups ae, ao, eo, for example aerach /ˈeːɾˠəx/ "gay", maol /mˠiːl̪ˠ/ "bare", ceol /coːl̪ˠ/ "music"
• in the groups omh(a) and umh(a), for example comharsa /ˈkoːɾˠsˠə/, Mumhain /mˠuːnʲ/ "Munster"
• long /iː/ and /uː/ before /aː/ or /oː/, e.g. fiáin /ˈfʲiːaːnʲ/ "wild", ruóg /ˈɾˠuːoːɡ/ "twine"

Road sign in the Donegal Gaeltacht: Note Comhaırle, obaır, maoınıú, Roınn, Oıdhreachta and Oıleán with dotless lowercase i's.

The overdot (Irish: ponc séimhithe "dot of lenition", buailte "struck", or simply séimhiú, "lenition") was formerly used, especially in Gaelic script, to indicate the lenited version of a consonant; currently a following letter h is used for this purpose. Thus the letters ḃ ċ ḋ ḟ ġ ṁ ṗ ṡ ṫ are equivalent to bh ch dh fh gh mh ph st th. In Old Irish orthography, the dot was used only for ḟ ṡ, while the following h was used for ch ph th; lenition of other letters was not indicated. Later the two systems spread to the entire set of lenitable consonants and competed with each other. Eventually the standard practice was to use the dot when writing in Gaelic script and the following h when writing in Roman letters.

As with most European languages such as French^[1], Spanish or German, Irish diacritics must be preserved in uppercase forms. If diacritics are unavailable (for example, on a computer using ASCII), there is no generally accepted standard for replacing it (unlike some languages like German, where the umlaut is replaced by a following "e" and ß is replaced by "ss"), and so it is generally just omitted entirely.

The tittle over the lower-case "i" is generally omitted in signage in Ireland, and in Gaelic script, lower-case "i" has no tittle. However, the tittle is generally included in printed material like books and newspapers and in electronic media like the Internet and CD-ROMs. Irish makes no graphemic distinction between dotted i and dotless ı (ie. they are not different letters), as languages like Turkish and Azeri do.

Punctuation

A pay and display sign in Dublin with the Tironian et for agus ("and").

In general, punctuation marks are used in Irish much as they are in English. One punctuation mark worth noting is the Tironian et ⁊ which is generally used to abbreviate the word agus "and", much as the ampersand is generally used to abbreviate the word and in English.

The hyphen (Irish: fleiscín) is used in Irish after the letters t and n when these are attached to a vowel-initial word through the rules of the initial mutations, as in an t-arán "the bread", a n-iníon "their daughter". However, the hyphen is not used when the vowel is capitalised, as in an tAlbanach "the Scotsman", Ár nAthair "Our Father". No hyphen is used with the h that is attached to a vowel-initial word: a hiníon "her daughter".

The hyphen is also used in compound words under certain circumstances:

• between two vowels, e.g. mí-ádh "misfortune"
• between two similar consonants, e.g. droch-chaint "bad language", grod-díol "prompt payment"
• in a three-part compound, e.g. buan-chomhchoiste "permanent joint committee"
• after the prefixes do-, fo-, so- before a word beginning with bha, bhla, bhra, dha, gha, ghla, ghra, mha, e.g. do-bhlasta "bad tasting", fo-ghlac "subsume", so-mharfacht "mortality"
• in capitalised titles, e.g. An Príomh-Bhreitheamh "the Chief Justice"
• after an- "very" and dea- "good", e.g. an-mhór "very big", dea-mhéin "goodwill"

The apostrophe (Irish: uaschama) is used to indicate an omitted vowel in the following cases:

• the prepositions de "from" and do "to" both become d’ before a vowel (or fh + vowel, since fh is silent), as in Thit sí d'each "She fell from a horse" and Tabhair d'fhear an tí é "Give it to the landlord"
• the possessive pronouns mo "my" and do "your (singular)" become m’ and d’ before a vowel or fh + vowel, as in m'óige "my youth", d'fhiacail "your tooth"
• the preverbal particle do becomes d’ before a vowel or fh + vowel, as in d'ardaigh mé "I raised", d'fhanfadh sé "he would wait"
• the copular particle ba becomes b’ before a vowel or fh + vowel, as in B'ait liom é sin "I would like that" and b'fhéidir "maybe". However, ba retains its vowel before the pronouns é, í, iad, as in Ba iad na ginearáil a choinnigh an chumhacht "It was the generals who kept the power"

Capitalisation

Bilingual sign in Ireland. The eclipsis of P to bP uses lowercase in an otherwise all-caps text

Capitalisation rules are similar to English. However, a prefix letter remains in lowercase when the base initial is capitalised (an tSín "China"). For text written in all caps, the prefix letter is often kept in lowercase, or small caps (STAIR NA HÉIREANN "THE HISTORY OF IRELAND").^[2] An initial capital is used for:^[3]

• The first word of a sentence
• Personal names and placenames, though not the words an, na, de^[4] (Micheál Ó Murchú "Michael Murphy"; Máire Mhac an tSaoi "Mary McEntee" de Búrca "Burke"; Sliabh na mBan "Slievenamon")
• Adjectives from personal names and placenames; though not for adjectives uses in extended senses (bia Iodálach "Italian food", but cló iodálach "italic type")
• Names of months, feast-days, and languages (Meán Fómhair "September"; Oíche Nollag "Christmas Eve"; Fraincis "French")
• Names of days of the week (an Luan "Monday"), as well as Dé (Dé Luain "on Monday")
• Definite titles^[5]
• Names of God; though not pronouns referring to God^[6]

Abbreviations

Irish has a number of abbreviations, most of which, like lch. for leathanach ("p."/"page") and m.sh. for mar shampla ("e.g."/"for example") are straightforward. Two that may require explanation are .i. (which begins and ends with a full stop) for eadhon ("i.e."/"that is") and ⁊rl. or srl. for agus araile ("etc."/"and so forth").

See also

• Gaelic type
• Roman type
• Scottish Gaelic alphabet

Notes

1. ^ It is a common misconception that French rules are to remove diacritics from capital letters. In fact, Académie Française prescription requires letters to maintain their diacritics regardless of case. However, due to difficulties in doing so with early typewriters and printers, a tradition of omission developed. This continues, but is also contributed to by the inability of standard French keyboards to input certain diacritics with capital letters. See French orthography: Diacritics.
2. ^ (in Irish) Graiméar Gaeilge na mBráithre Críostaí. Dublin: An Gúm. 1999. pp. §3.2. ISBN 1-85791-327-2. 
3. ^ Graiméar Gaeilge na mBráithre Críostaí, §3.1
4. ^ Graiméar Gaeilge na mBráithre Críostaí, §§ 3.1, 7.6, 10.2-10.3
5. ^ Graiméar Gaeilge na mBráithre Críostaí, §§ 3.1, 3.4
6. ^ Graiméar Gaeilge na mBráithre Críostaí, §3.5

References

• Gramadach na Gaeilge agus Litriú na Gaeilge: An Caighdeán Oifigiúil. Dublin: Oifig an tSoláthair. 1994. 
• Mac Eoin, Gearóid (1993). "Irish". in Martin J. Ball and James Fife (eds.). The Celtic Languages. London: Routledge. pp. 101–44. ISBN 0-415-01035-7. 
• Ó Baoill, Dónall P. (1986) (in Irish). Lárchanúint don Ghaeilge. Dublin: The Linguistics Institute of Ireland. ISBN 0-946452-06-7. 
• Ó Siadhail, Mícheál (1988). Learning Irish (2nd edn. ed.). New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-04224-8.