Irish orthography

Template:Short description Template:Use Hiberno-English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Side box Irish orthography is the set of conventions used to write the Irish language. A spelling reform in the mid-20th century led to , the modern standard written form used by the Government of Ireland, which regulates both spelling and grammar. The reform removed inter-dialectal silent letters, simplified some letter sequences, and modernised archaic spellings to reflect modern pronunciation, but it also removed letters pronounced in some dialects but not in others.

Irish spelling represents all Irish dialects to a high degree despite their considerable phonological variation, e.g. ("tree") is read in Mayo and Ulster, in Galway, or in Munster. Some words may have dialectal pronunciations not reflected by their standard spelling, and they sometimes have distinct dialectal spellings to reflect this.

Alphabet

File:Uncial alphabet.svg

Gaelic type with Roman type equivalents and the additional lenited letters.

Latin script has been the writing system used to write Irish since the 5th century, when it replaced Ogham, which was used to write Primitive Irish and Old Irish. Prior to the mid-20th century, Gaelic type () was the main typeface used to write Irish; now, it is usually replaced by Roman type (). The use of Ogham and Gaelic type today is restricted to decorative or self-consciously traditional contexts. The dot above a lenited letter in Gaelic type is usually replaced by a following Template:Vr in Roman type (e.g. Template:Vr → Template:Vr).

Letters and letter names

File:Gaelic alphabet.jpg

The traditional Irish alphabet carved in Gaelic type on a building in Dublin, with each type of diacritic ( and ) as well as the .

The traditional Irish alphabet () consists of 18 letters: Template:Vr. It does not contain Template:Vr, although they are used in scientific terminology and modern loanwords. Template:Vr occurs in a small number of (mainly onomatopoeic) native words (e.g. "to quack" and "caw") and colloquialisms (e.g. for "chirp" and for "screw"). Template:Vr, when not prefixed to a word initial vowel or after a consonant to show lenition, primarily occurs word initially in loanwords, e.g. "hat". Template:Vr is the only letter not listed by Ó Dónaill.

Vowels may be accented with an acute accent (Template:Vr; see below). Accented letters are considered variants of their unaccented equivalent, and they follow their unaccented equivalents in dictionaries (i.e. , , , ...).

English letter names are generally used in both colloquial and formal speech but there are modern Irish letter names (based on the original Latin names), similar to other languages that use a Latin script alphabet. Tree names were historically used to name the letters. Tradition taught that they all derived from the names of Ogham letters, though it is now known that only some of the earliest were named after trees.

Letter	Name	Name (IPA)	Tree Name ()	Ogham equivalent	Notes
Aa	a		(pine)	ᚐ
Bb			(birch)	ᚁ
Cc			(hazel)	ᚉ
Dd			(oak)	ᚇ
Ee	a		(poplar)	ᚓ
Ff			(alder)	ᚃ
Gg			(ivy)	ᚌ
Hh			(hawthorn)	ᚆ
Ii	a		(yew)	ᚔ
Jj					Occurs in relatively new loanwords, such as , , and . Typically represents , a non-native phoneme (see Irish phonology) and is substituted with in words like .
Kk					Mainly used in foreign proper names (it is usually replaced by Template:Angbr in loanwords).
Ll			(rowan)	ᚂ
Mm			(vine)	ᚋ
Nn			(ash)	ᚅ
Oo	a		(gorse)	ᚑ
Pp			(gooseberry or thorn)	ᚘ	See .
			(dwarf alder)	ᚚ
Qq				ᚊ	Occurs in unestablished loanwords, such as , but there is often an alternative where Template:Angbr has been replaced with Template:Angbr (). Typically represents . Template:Vr is also used to transliterate (apple).
Rr			(elder)	ᚏ
Ss			(willow)	ᚄ
Tt			(holly)	ᚈ
Uu	a		(heather)	ᚒ
Vv
Ww
Xx
Yy
Zz				ᚎ	Template:Vr is used to transliterate (blackthorn); is a foreign sound.

Grapheme to phoneme correspondence

In grapheme to phoneme correspondence tables on this page:

• "U" stands for Mayo and Ulster Irish, "C" for southern Connacht Irish, and "M" for Munster Irish.
• Initially and finally mean word initial or final unless stated otherwise.
• means silent, i.e. that the letter(s) are not pronounced.
• The IPA transcriptions of examples on this page are in Connacht Irish.

See Irish phonology for an explanation of the symbols used and Irish initial mutations for an explanation of eclipsis and lenition.

Consonants

Consonants are generally "broad" (velarised) when beside Template:Vr and "slender" (palatalised) when beside Template:Vr. Irish orthography does not allow consonant letters or digraphs to be doubled (except in Template:Vr); in compound words which would result in doubled consonants, they are broken up by a hyphen (see below).

Letter(s)				Phoneme(s)			Example(s)
				U	C	M
b	broad						"take" (imper.), "broom"
	slender						"mouth", "hemp"
bh	broad						"took", "material", "blacken" (imper.), "side", "black"
	slender						"mouth" (lenited), "common table", "rivers", "you" (pl.)
	See below for Template:Vr
bhf (eclipsis of Template:Vr)	broad						"window" (eclipsed)
	slender						"wine" (eclipsed)
bp (eclipsis of Template:Vr)	broad						"hole" (eclipsed)
	slender						"prison" (eclipsed)
c	broad						"cheese", "son"
	slender						"question", "sons"
ch	broad						"cheese" (lenited), "chieftain, Prime Minister of Ireland"
	slender	before Template:Vr					"poorer"
		usually					"question" (lenited), "ten", "night"
d	broad						"fist", "nest"
	slender						"red", "part"
dh	broad	initially					"fist" (lenited)
		elsewhere					"luck"
	slender	usually					"red" (lenited), "prophet"
		finally
	See below for Template:Vr. See Exceptions for -Template:Vr at the end of verbs endings.
dt	broad	eclipsis of Template:Vr					"treasure" (eclipsed)
		elsewhere					"beaten"
	slender	eclipsis of Template:Vr					"country" (eclipsed)
		elsewhere					"stolen"
f	broad						"still", "graph"
	slender						"wine", "stuff"
	See Exceptions in verb forms for -Template:Vr- in future and conditional personal verb endings.
fh							"window" (lenited), "wine" (lenited)
g	broad						"boy", "soft"
	slender						"gate", "rock"
gc (eclipsis of Template:Vr)	broad						"cheese" (eclipsed)
	slender						"question" (eclipsed)
gh	broad	initially					"boy" (lenited)
		elsewhere					(male name)
	slender	usually					"gate" (lenited), "way, manner"
		finally
	See below for Template:Vr. See Exceptions for Template:Vr at the end of verbs.
h							"hat", "the fish" (plural)
j (loan consonant)							"job", "jeep"
l	broad	initially	usually				"lying (down)"
			lenited				"blade" (lenited)
		elsewhere		or			"mouth"
	slender	initially	usually				"lazy"
			lenited				"baby" (lenited)
		elsewhere		or			"walk"
ll	broad						poll "hole"
	slender						coill "woods"
m	broad						"big", "time"
	slender						"sweet", "butter"
mb (eclipsis of Template:Vr)	broad						"takes" (eclipsed)
	slender						"mouth" (eclipsed)
mh	broad						"big" (lenited), "hands", "reading"
	slender						"sweet" (lenited), "number", "poison"
	See below for Template:Vr.
n	broad	initially	usually				"nine"
			lenited				"notes" (lenited)
		after non Template:Vr initial cons.					"women", "press"
		usually		or			"woman"
	slender	initially	usually				"strength"
			lenited				"strength" (lenited)
		after non Template:Vr initial cons.					Template:Ipa "sex", "skinflint"
		usually		or			(male name)
nc	broad						"anchor"
	slender						"dance"
nd (eclipsis of Template:Vr)	broad						"fist" (eclipsed)
	slender						"red" (eclipsed)
ng	broad	eclipsis of Template:Vr					"boy" (eclipsed)
		elsewhere					"ship", "tongue"
	slender	eclipsis of Template:Vr					"gate" (eclipsed)
		elsewhere					"yoke", "vertical"
nn	broad						"head"
	slender						"illness"
p	broad						"hole", "stop"
	slender						"prison", "trip"
ph	broad						"hole" (lenited)
	slender						"prison" (lenited)
r	broad						"buckwheat", "fragrant", "cold"
	slender	initially					"king"
		before , , , , , , ,					"height", "stony beach", "corner", "visit", "east"
		after Template:Vr					"string"
		usually					"dry", "got"
rr							carr "car, cart"
s	broad						"England", "beginning"
	slender	initially before , , ,					"sphere", "scythe", "blackberry", "string"
		usually					"old", "cheese"
sh							"England" (lenited), "walked"
t	broad						"treasure", "correct"
	slender						"country", "two (people)"
thb	usually			c			"north", "below", "father", "kept", "eat", "learned", "chased", "swept"
	finally after a long vowel or diphthong						"blossom", "harrow"
ts (mutation of Template:Vr- after "the")	broad						"the light (gen.)"
	slender						"China"
v (loan consonant)	broad						"vote"
	slender						"violin"
z (loan consonant)	broad						"zoo"
	slender						"Zen"

Vowels

Vowel sequences are common in Irish spelling due to the "" ("slender with slender and broad with broad") rule, i.e. that the vowels on either side of any consonant (or consonant cluster) must be both slender (Template:Vr) or both broad (Template:Vr), to unambiguously determine if the consonant(s) are broad or slender. An apparent exception is Template:Vr, which is followed by a broad consonant despite the Template:Vr.

The pronunciation of vowels in Irish is mostly predictable from the following rules:

• Unstressed short vowels are generally reduced to .
• Template:Vr before Template:Vr or Template:Vr and Template:Vr bordering either side of Template:Vr are silent, but mark a slender sonsonant. This is true for both long and short vowels.
• Template:Vr have multiple pronunciations that depend on adjacent consonants.
• Accented vowels (Template:Vr) represent long vowels and in digraphs and trigraphs containing them, surrounding unaccented vowels are silent, but there are several exceptions, e.g. when preceded by two unaccented vowels.
• Accented vowels in succession are both pronounced, e.g. "sixth", "royal, kingly, majestic", "sympathy", etc.
• Template:Vr and Template:Vr are long before Template:Vr, e.g. "wild", "twine"
• A following Template:Vr lengthens some vowels and in Munster and Connacht. ⟨rr⟩ rarely ever occurs after a vowel other than ⟨a⟩.
• A following syllable-final Template:Vr or word-final Template:Vr may lengthen or diphthongise some vowels depending on dialect.

Letter(s)			Phoneme(s)			Example(s)
			U	C	M
a, ea	stressed	usually				"stay" (imper.), "woman"
		before Template:Vr				"policeman", "happening", "gap", "better"
		before syllable-final Template:Vr and -Template:Vr				"slow, late", "there", "time", "severe"
	unstressed	usually				"drink" (present), "bag", "he" (emphatic)
		before				"Sunday", "chieftain; Irish prime minister"
á, ái						"white", "assembly", "taking"
ae, aei						"Gaelic", "Irish (language)"
ai, eai	stressed	usually				"home", "van"
		before Template:Vr				"sloe", "height"
		before syllable-final Template:Vr				"lost, ruined", "trees"
	unstressed					"knowledge" (genitive)
aí, aío						"claim" (imper.), "vowels", "infant", "blesses"
ao						"life"
aoi						"shrewdness", "nine"
e, ei	stressed	usually				"hot", "question"
		before Template:Vr				"destruction", "record album", "trade, craft"
		before Template:Vr				"corrosion, erosion", "eroded", "playing"
		before syllable-final Template:Vr and -Template:Vr				"grip"
	unstressed					"thousand"
é, éa, éi						"he", "doing", "bottle", "beauty", "papers"
eá, eái						"John", "castle", "middles", "castles"
eo, eoi		usually				"music", "wren"
		in four words				anseo "here", deoch "drink", eochair "key", seo "this"
i	stressed	usually				"pitch", "hell"
		before syllable-final Template:Vr and -Template:Vr				"church", "sure", "butter"
	unstressed					"confession"
í, ío						"act, deed" (gen.), "girl", "seed"
ia, iai						"Dermot", "year"
iá, iái						"size", "trowel" (gen.)
io		usually				"shop", "with me", "will come", "Joan", "(finger)nail"
		before , , , , , , ,				"knowledge", "spit, spike", "affection", "bit, piece", "attention"
		before syllable-final Template:Vr				"light-haired"
ió, iói						"fairy", "pie", "weakling"
iu						"wet"
iú, iúi						"walk", "gathering", "quiet", "able, fit"
o	stressed	usually				"post"
		before Template:Vr				"table", "inch"
		before Template:Vr				"agreement", "hooked nose"
		before syllable-final Template:Vr and -Template:Vr				"desire, inclination", "heavy", "ship"
	unstressed					"my", "equal"
ó, ói						"kiss", "harmonic", "sod, turf", "boatman"
oi	stressed	usually				"school", "fight" (imper.), "cigarette", "work" (gen.), "in the east", "stone" (gen.)
		before , , , ,				"foot" (dat.), "will hear", "poor" (gen. sg. masc.), "doors", "salty", "east"
		before Template:Vr				"corner", "sledgehammers"
		next to ⟨m⟩, ⟨n⟩				"now", "glass", "hills", "before", "keep" (imper.), "ship" (gen.)
		before syllable-final Template:Vr and -Template:Vr				"wish" (gen.), "back"
		before syllable-final Template:Vr				"grieve, hurt", "forests"
	unstressed					"lightness"
oí, oío						"core", "hearts"
u	stressed	usually				"black"
		before Template:Vr				"bundle", "ankle"
	unstressed					"and"
ú, úi						"beginning", "eye", "like, resembling"
ua, uai						"cold", "got"
uá, uái						"buckwheat", "kidney, fishhook", "sewing, stitching"
ui	stressed	usually				"person"
		before Template:Vr				"stony beach", "spinning wheel"
		before syllable-final Template:Vr and -Template:Vr				/ˈt̪ˠiːl̠ʲtʲənˠəx/ "deserving", /pˠiːn̠ʲ/ "much", /sˠiːmʲ/ "interest"
	unstressed					"addition"
uí, uío						"turn yellow" (imper.), "band, troop"
uó, uói						"urgent need", "pollock" (gen.)

Short vowels followed by Template:Vr

When followed by Template:Vr, a short vowel usually forms a diphthong or lengthens. In most dialects, this diphthong or lengthened vowel carries over to a neighbouring unstressed vowel.

Letters		Phoneme(s)			Example(s)
		U	C	M
(e)abh(a(i))		or			"February", "books", "barn"
(e)adh(a(i)), (e)agh(a(i)),	stressed	or			"whey", "horn", "pillow", "sorts, kinds", "centaury", "face"
	unstressed				"market", "breaking"
(e)aidh(e(a)), (e)aigh(e(a))	stressed				"rack", "aye!", "argument, discussion", "cow, ox" (gen.), "cage"
	unstressed				cleachtaidh "practice" (gen.), "beggar" (gen.)
(e)amh(a(i))	stressed				"fattened", "venture", "November"
	unstressed				"academy", "belief, religion"
eidh(ea/i), eigh(ea/i)					"function", "ivy", "overseer", "healing"
(u)idh, (u)igh	stressed				"sit", "pray"
	unstressed				"addition" (gen.)
oidh(ea/i), oigh(ea/i)					"heir", "tragedies", "oven", "logic"
(e)obh(a(i)), (e)odh(a(i)), (e)ogh(a(i))					"leprosy", "deaf", "misery"
(e)omh(a(i))					"Sunday", "partnership", "deep"
(i)ubh(a(i))					"black", "dense"
(i)umh(a(i)					"fragrant", "Munster" (gen.), "edge"

Epenthesis

After a short vowel, an unwritten epenthetic gets inserted between Template:Vr + Template:Vr (as well as Template:Vr, when derived from devoiced Template:Vr), when within a morpheme boundary, e.g. "blue", "red", "dark", "name", "prickly, thorny"’ "child", "silver, money". The main exception to this is Template:Vr which is mainly used for or .

Epenthesis does not occur after long vowels and diphthongs, e.g. "term" or "duty", or across morpheme boundaries (i.e. after prefixes and in compound words), e.g. "grandson" (from "close, near" + "son"), "very quiet" (from "very" + "quiet"), "carriageway, roadway" (from "car" + "way, road").

In Munster, epenthesis also occurs across morpheme boundaries, when Template:Vr follow Template:Vr (after any vowel) or Template:Vr (after short vowels), and when Template:Vr follows Template:Vr.

Irregularities

In verb forms some letters and letter combinations are pronounced differently from elsewhere:

Letter(s)				Phoneme(s)			Example(s)		Notes
				U	C	M
-dh	broad	preterite					"he was praised"
		elsewhere	before Template:Vr- initial pronouns				"let her open"
			usually				"I would bless"
	slender	before subject pronouns		(silent)			"will bless"
-ea-	in forms of "be"							"he would be"	as if spelled -⟨e⟩-
-eo(i), ó(i)-	verb endings							"I would bless"	Ulster form represents a prior -eoichea-/ -ócha-
-f-	in personal verb endings			c				"would burn", "will say"	as if spelled -⟨th⟩-
-(a)im								"I praise"	The synthetic first person singular is uncommon outside of Munster
-(a)igh	before subject pronouns							"I blessed"

Outside of verbs suffixes, the following words are pronounced irregularly for their spelling:

• ⟨ai⟩ is pronounced in the following words: daibhir "poor", raibh "to be (present subjunctive or past dependent)", and saibhir "rich".
• The preposition ag "at", is pronounced , as if spelled ⟨oig⟩. This carries over into inflected forms aige "at him" and aici "at her".
  • When used as a particle indicating progressive verbs, ag is pronounced regularly as .
• The prepososition ar "on" is pronounced , as if spelled ⟨oir⟩. Its inflected forms air " on him" and uirthi "on her" are pronounced and , respectively.
• beag "small" is pronounced , as if part of the group below.
• ⟨eo⟩ is pronounced in four words: anseo "here" , deoch "drink" , eochair "key" , and seo "this" , using a short vowel.
• féin "self" is often pronounced , as if spelled ⟨héin⟩.

Diacritics

File:Gaeltacht Donegal cropped.jpg

An Irish road sign using the dotless i

currently uses one diacritic, the acute accent, though traditionally a second was used, the overdot. If diacritics are unavailable, e.g. on a computer using ASCII, the overdot is replaced by a following Template:Vr, e.g. → "He/It was" and there is no standard for replacing an acute accent, though sometimes it is indicated by a following slash, e.g. → "truth".

The acute accent (Template:Vr; or "long (extension)")^a is used to indicate a long vowel, as in "boat". However, there are other conventions to indicate a long vowel, such as:

• A following Template:Vr, e.g. "high", "destruction", "fist", and, in Connacht, a word-final Template:Vr, e.g. "time".
• The digraphs Template:Vr, e.g. "gay", "bare", "music".
• The tri/tetragraphs Template:Vr, e.g. "neighbour", "Munster".
• Template:Vr and Template:Vr before Template:Vr or Template:Vr, e.g. "wild", "twine".

The overdot (Template:Vr; "dot of lenition") was traditionally used to indicate lenition, though exclusively uses a following Template:Vr for this purpose. In Old Irish, the overdot was only used for Template:Vr, while the following Template:Vr was used for Template:Vr and the lenition of other letters was not indicated. Later the two methods were used in parallel to represent lenition of any consonant (except Template:Vr) until the standard practice became to use the overdot in Gaelic type and the following Template:Vr in Roman type. Thus the dotted letters ( "struck letters") Template:Vr are equivalent to letters followed by a Template:Vr, i.e. Template:Vr.

Lowercase Template:Vr has no tittle in Gaelic type. However, as printed and electronic material like books, newspapers and web pages use Roman type almost invariably, the tittle is generally shown. Irish does not graphemically distinguish dotted i and dotless ı, i.e. they are not different letters as they are in, e.g. Turkish and Azeri.

Punctuation

File:Pay and Display sign with Tironian et for Irish agus.jpg

("Pay & Display") sign in Dublin with the Tironian et for "and".

Irish punctuation is similar to English. An apparent exception is the Tironian et (Template:Vr; ) which abbreviates the word "and", like the ampersand (Template:Vr) abbreviates "and" in English. It is generally substituted by a seven (Template:Vr) in texts.

A hyphen () is used in Irish after Template:Vr when prefixed to a masculine vowel-initial word as an initial mutation, e.g. "the bread", "their daughter". However, it is omitted when the vowel is capitalised, e.g. "the Scotsman", "Our Father". No hyphen is used when Template:Vr is prefixed to a vowel-initial word, e.g. "her daughter".

A hyphen is also used in compound words under certain circumstances:

• between two vowels, e.g. "misfortune"
• between two similar consonants, e.g. "bad language", "prompt payment"
• in a three-part compound, e.g. "permanent joint committee"
• after the prefixes , , before a word beginning with Template:Vr, e.g. "bad tasting", "subsume", "mortality"
• in capitalised titles, e.g. "the Chief Justice"
• after "very" and "good", e.g. "very big", "goodwill"

An apostrophe () is used to indicate an omitted vowel in the following cases:

• the prepositions "from" and "to" both become before a vowel or Template:Vr + vowel, as in "She fell from a horse" and "Give it to the landlord"
• the possessive pronouns "my" and "your (singular)" become and before a vowel or Template:Vr + vowel, as in "my youth", "your tooth"
• the preverbal particle becomes before a vowel or Template:Vr + vowel, as in "I raised", "he would wait"
• the copular particle becomes before a vowel or Template:Vr + vowel, as in "I found that odd" and "maybe". However, is used before the pronouns , , , as in "It was the generals who kept the power"

Capitalisation

File:ALLCAPS OIFIG NA bPASANNA.JPG

Bilingual sign in Ireland. The eclipsis of Template:Vr to Template:Vr uses lowercase in an otherwise all-caps text.

Capitalisation rules are similar to English. However, a prefixed letter remains in lowercase when the base initial is capitalised ( "China"). For text written in all caps, the prefixed letter is kept in lowercase, or small caps ( "THE HISTORY OF IRELAND"). An initial capital is used for:

• Start of sentences
• Names of people, places (except the words , , ), languages, and adjectives of people and places ( "Michael Murphy"; "Mary McEntee"; "Burke"; "Slievenamon"; "French"; "Italian food")
• Names of months, weeks and feast-days ( "September"; "Monday"; "Christmas Eve")
• "day" ( "on Monday")
• Definite titles

Abbreviations

Most Irish abbreviations are straightforward, e.g. → ("page → p.") and → (" (for example) → e.g."), but two that require explanation are: → ("that is → i.e.") and → ("et cetera (and so forth) → &c./etc."). Like Template:Vr in English, Template:Vr follows an ordinal numeral, e.g. "St. Patrick's day is the 17th [day] of March".

Spelling reform

The literary Classical Irish which survived till the 17th century was archaic; the first attempt at simplification was not until 1639. The spelling represented a dialect continuum including distinctions lost in all surviving dialects by the Gaelic revival of the late 19th century.

The idea of a spelling reform, linked to the use of Roman or Gaelic type, was controversial in the early decades of the 20th century. The Irish Texts Society's 1904 Irish-English dictionary by Patrick S. Dinneen used traditional spellings. After the creation of the Irish Free State in 1922, all Acts of the Oireachtas were translated into Irish, initially using Dinneen's spellings, with a list of simplifications accumulating over the years. When Éamon de Valera became President of the Executive Council after the 1932 election, policy reverted to older spellings, which were used in the enrolled text of the 1937 Constitution. In 1941, de Valera decided to publish a "popular edition" of the Constitution with simplified spelling and established a committee of experts, which failed to agree on recommendations. Instead, the Oireachtas' own translation service prepared a booklet, , published in 1945.

Some pre-reform spellings criticised by T. F. O'Rahilly and their modern forms include: → , → , → , → , → .

The booklet was expanded in 1947, and republished as "The Official Standard" in 1958, combined with the standard grammar of 1953. It attracted initial criticism as unhistorical and artificial; some spellings fail to represent the pronunciation of some dialects, while others preserve letters unpronounced in any dialect. Its status was reinforced by use in the civil service and as a guide for Tomás de Bhaldraithe's 1959 English–Irish dictionary and Niall Ó Dónaill's 1977 Irish–English dictionary. A review of the written standard, including spelling, was announced in 2010, aiming to improve "simplicity, internal consistency, and logic". The result was the 2017 update of .

See also

• Irish Braille
• Irish initial mutations
• Irish manual alphabet
• Scottish Gaelic orthography

Notes

• ^a Vowels with an acute accent are read as [á/é/í/ó/ú] "long [á/é/í/ó/ú]".
• ^b In the verbal adjective suffix, -Template:Vr- becomes Template:Vr after Template:Vr (Template:Vr are deleted before it is added) and it becomes Template:Vr after Template:Vr which are deleted before it is added.
• ^c After consonants, is silent, but devoices preceding voiced consonants. See Irish phonology.