does not occur in Irish, therefore the letter “s” cannot be eclipsed.[1] We likewise stated in the Grammar that “g” is eclipsed by “ng,” although “n” is the letter used in writing (both letters then getting the sound of “ng). A glance at the Table drawn up on phonetic principles shews that g is eclipsed by ng, not by n.
Syncope.
143. One of the characteristics of spoken Irish is the shortness of the words, Words of more than four or five syllables are seldom met with. The two methods employed in Irish for keeping the words short are Syncope and Metathesis.
Syncope may be described as the telescoping of a word, whenever a grammatical inflection or a suffix commencing with a vowel is added. A short vowel or digraph in the last syllable of a word of more than one syllable is usually elided and the consonants brought together whenever the word is lengthened. The bringing together of the consonants frequently results in one of them becoming silent (§ 128), or else a short helping vowel may develop.
| maidin | gen sing. | = | maidne (pr. mainne) |
| caṫair | „ | = | caṫraċ (pr. caṫaraċ) |
| olann | „ | = | olna (pr. olla) |
| obair | „ | = | oibre (pr. oibire) |
| colann | „ | = | colna (pr. colla) |
- ↑ The sound of s is sometimes suppressed and t is prefixed but t cannot be the eclipsing letter of s, and moreover, this replacing of the sound of s does not follow the rules for Eclipsis (Irish Grammer § 26).
