Rules for Aspirations.
21. We give here only the principal rules. Others will be given as occasion will require.
(a). The possessive adjectives mo, my; do, thy; and a, his, aspirate the first consonant of the following word, as mo ḃó, my cow; do ṁáṫair, thy mother; a ċapall, his horse.
(b) The article aspirates a noun in the nominative and accusative feminine singular, and also in the genitive masculine singular unless the noun begins with d, t, or s; an ḃean, the woman; tá an ḟeoil guirt, the meat is salt; mac an ḟir, (the) son of the man.
(c) In compound words the initial consonant of the second word is aspirated, except when the second word begins with d or t, and the first ends in one of the letters d, n, t, l, s. These five letters will be easily remembered, as they are the consonants of the word "dentals"; sean-ṁáṫair, a grandmother; cáṫ-ḃárr, a helmet; leiṫ-ṗinginn, a halfpenny; but sean-duine, an old person; sean-teaċ, an old house.
(d) The interjection a, the sign of the vocative case, causes aspiration in nouns of both genders and both numbers: a ḟir, O man; a ṁná, O women; a Ṡeumais, O James.
(e) An adjective is aspirated when it agrees with a feminine noun in the nominative or accusative sin-
