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broad vowels may be either long or short; they are long when marked, as á, ó, ú; they are short when unmarked, as a, o, u. In the same way, the slender vowels may be long, é, í; or short, e, i.
THE CONSONANTS.
§ 8. A consonant is said to be BROAD when the vowel next it, in the same word, is BROAD; and SLENDER when the vowel next it is SLENDER. Thus, s in sona, as, mias, is BROAD; s in sí, siar, mise, is SLENDER.
§ 9. Consonants, in addition to their ordinary natural sounds, have, in modern Irish, softened sounds. These will be treated in a special chapter.
PRONUNCIATION OF IRISH.
§ 10. Although it is true that no one can learn, from books alone, the perfect pronunciation of any language like Irish, still it is possible to give a very fair approximation to every sound in the language except, perhaps, two (γ and r). Of these two, one (r) is not absolutely essential.
The plan of these lessons is the following:—We give in each exercise a number of simple sentences in Irish to be translated into English, and other short sentences in English to be translated into Irish. At the head of these exercises are given the words which the student must know. After each word we give two things, its pronunciation and its meaning. Thus, the entry, “sál (saul), a heel,” will convey to the student that the Irish word sál is pronounced “saul,” and means a “heel.”
