Lessons for Learners.
This section is intended for those who have not yet tried to learn Irish, and who are not expected to know even the letters heretofore employed in writing Irish. It will prevent misunderstanding to state at the outset that the only absolutely safe guide to pronunciation is to hear and see the words pronounced by an Irish speaker. By hearing and seeing the words pronounced we get assistance towards proper pronunciation which can never be obtained from a representation of the sound on paper. Every student is, therefore, advised—if the opportunity presents itself—to get an Irish speaker to give him a drilling in the foregoing alphabet. There must be numbers of students, however, who will not have an opportunity of consulting an Irish speaker at once, and for those students the system employed in our exercises ought to be of the greatest assistance. This system is to take certain English words as they are pronounced in Ireland and write them in the new spelling so as to indicate the value of the new letters. Most people in this country in speaking English employ sounds which belong to the Irish language, and this fact, which is being availed of in these exercises, makes the learning of Irish comparatively easy. The English word “though,” for instance, is
