Instead of bf, the ancients frequently wrote ff; as, ar ffearran, our land; cc, instead of ge; as, ar cceart, our right; and tt, instead of dt; as, ar tteine, our fire; and these words are pronounced in the same manner, as if written ar bfearran, ar gceart, and ar dteine. ACCENT. An accent is placed over such vowels and diphthongs, as are naturally either long or short, when they are to be pronounced long; as, mac, a son, short; bàs, death, long; fios, knowledge, short; cíos, rent, long. Monosyllables ending in a, e, i, u, being commonly long, require no accent over them; as, la, a day, tu, thou. In words of two or more syllables, the accent commonly falls on the first syllable; as, déigionaċ, last, múčaim, to extinguish. In reading Irish, every letter, except f and s before or must be sounded, But some of the aspirated consonants are so slightly expressed as to be almost imperceptible; the reason of which is as follows. According to the principle of the language, no number of vowels, meeting in a word, forms more than one syllable. . The poets, however, frequently wanting to lengthen words, by multiplying their syllables, devised the method of throwing in an adventitious consonant, generally d or g, to divide two vowels into two syllables; thus, tiarna, a lord, which consists of only two syllables, is divided into tigearna, of three syllables. Now, as this manner of spelling was unknown in carlier ages, the primitive pronunciation is still so far retained, that the adventitious letters are passed over, with an almost imperceptible flexion of the voice. In like manner d and g, which, always in the beginning of words, and frequently in the middle, have a clear and strong sound, are very commonly used at the end, merely to give a fuller vowel cadence to the termination, as, neartuġad, to strengthen, rig, a king. ORTHOGRAPHICAL TABLES. mo bàs, my death tuaid, north ro beag, very small an bean, the woman mo beul, my mouth mo bonn, my sole mo meall, my knob mo mian, my desire mo biad, my meat an mias, the dish cnáim, a bone sliab, a mountain naom, a saint 'neam, heaven' dub, black deilb, a form sgéim, beauty uaim, a grave tarb, a bull dam, an ov cnum, a worm cnob, a maggot mo dia, my God mo corp, my body fáid, a prophet *** lact, milk mead, Meath c, g, m, and t before n. | déirc, alms cuing, a yoke súist, a flail stóir, a store slinn, a slate do mnaoi, to a woman builg, bellows mi, a month lar, middle ban, white gorm, blue an tsúil, the eye a llam, her hand druim, the back na gcos, of the feet a cosg, to restrain gul, weeping truag, pity fuirm, form dúil, expectation gual, a coal Túb, a link scuab, a broom fiad, venison luc, a mouse lus, an herb ainm, a name beid me, I will be lorg, a trace glás, green sin, that suas, up léig, |