Irish spelling. Let a student once thoroughly grasp the rules for “caol le caol, &c,” “aspiration,” “eclipsis,” “attenuation,” and “syncope,” and immediately all difficulty vanishes.
Derivatives are formed of simple words and particles. The most important of the latter have been already given under the headings “Prefixes” and “Affixes.” We will here give some examples of derivative nouns, a careful study of which will enable the student to split up the longest words into their component parts, and thus arrive at their meanings.
462. trom means heavy; tromas, i.e., trom+as (the abstract termination) means heaviness or weight; éadtrom, light, from trom, and the negative particle éa, which eclipses c and t, hence the d; éadtromas, lightness, from éa, not; trom, heavy; as, ness; coṁṫrom, impartial, fair, or just; from coṁ, equal, and trom, heavy; coṁṫromas, impartiality, fairness, &c.; éagcoṁṫrom, partial, unjust; from éa+coṁ+trom; éagcoṁṫromas, partiality, injustice; from éa+coṁ+trom+as. Spealadóir, a reaper; from speal, a scythe, and dóir, an affix denoting an agent; the a is put in between the l and d to assist pronunciation: cáirde, friends; cáirdeas, friendliness, friendship; eugcáirdeas, unfriendliness, hostility: fearaṁlaċt, manliness; from fear + aṁail + aċt: neiṁ-ġeanaṁlaċt, unamiability; from neiṁ, not + gean, affection + aṁail + aċt: ríoġaċt, a
