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. 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 in Roman type (e.g. → ).
Letters and letter names
thumb|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: . It does not contain , although they are used in scientific terminology and modern loanwords. 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"). , when not prefixed to a word initial vowel or after a consonant to show lenition, primarily occurs word initially in loanwords, e.g. "hat". is the only letter not listed by Ó Dónaill.
Vowels may be accented with an acute accent (; 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.
{| class="wikitable"
! Letter
! Name
!Name
(IPA)
! Tree Name ()
!Ogham equivalent
! Notes
|-
|Aa
|
|
| (pine)
|ᚐ
| rowspan="9" |
|-
|Bb
|
|
| (birch)
|ᚁ
|-
|Cc
|
|
| (hazel)
|ᚉ
|-
|Dd
|
|
| (oak)
|ᚇ
|-
|Ee
|
|
| (poplar)
|ᚓ
|-
|Ff
|
|
| (alder)
|ᚃ
|-
|Gg
|
|
| (ivy)
|ᚌ
|-
|Hh
|
|
| (hawthorn)
|ᚆ
|-
|Ii
|
|
| (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 in loanwords).
|-
|Ll
|
|
| (rowan)
|ᚂ
| rowspan="4" |
|-
|Mm
|
|
| (vine)
|ᚋ
|-
|Nn
|
|
| (ash)
|ᚅ
|-
|Oo
|
|
| (gorse)
|ᚑ
|-
| rowspan="2" |Pp
| rowspan="2" |
| rowspan="2" |
| (gooseberry or thorn)
|ᚘ
| rowspan="2" |See .
|-
| (dwarf alder)
|ᚚ
|-
|
|
|
|ᚊ
|Occurs in unestablished loanwords, such as , but there is often an alternative where has been replaced with (). Typically represents . is also used to transliterate .
|-
| Rr
|
|
| (elder)
|ᚏ
| rowspan="8" |
|-
|Ss
|
|
| (willow)
|ᚄ
|-
|Tt
|
|
| (holly)
|ᚈ
|-
|Uu
|
|
| (heather)
|ᚒ
|-
|Vv
|
|
| rowspan="4" |
| rowspan="4" |
|-
|Ww
|
|
|-
|Xx
|
|
|-
|Yy
|
|
|-
| Zz
|
|
|
|ᚎ
| is used to transliterate ; 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 and "slender" (palatalised) when beside . Irish orthography does not allow consonant letters or digraphs to be doubled (except in ); in compound words which would result in doubled consonants, they are broken up by a hyphen (see below).
{| class="wikitable"
! colspan="4" rowspan="2" | Letter(s)
! colspan="3" | Phoneme(s)
! rowspan="2" | Example(s)
|-
!U
!C
!M
|-
| rowspan="2" | b
| colspan="3" | broad
| colspan="3" |
| "take" (imper.), "broom"
|-
| colspan="3" | slender
| colspan="3" |
| "mouth", "hemp"
|-
| rowspan="3" | bh
| colspan="3" | broad
| colspan="3" |
| "took", "material", "blacken" (imper.), "side", "black"
|-
| colspan="3" | slender
| colspan="3" |
| "mouth" (lenited), "common table", "rivers", "you" (pl.)
|-
| colspan="7" | See below for
|-
| rowspan="2" | bhf<br /><small>(eclipsis of</small> <small>)</small>
| colspan="3" | broad
| colspan="3" |
| "window" (eclipsed)
|-
| colspan="3" | slender
| colspan="3" |
| "wine" (eclipsed)
|-
| rowspan="2" | bp<br /><small>(eclipsis of )</small>
| colspan="3" | broad
| colspan="3" |
| "hole" (eclipsed)
|-
| colspan="3" | slender
| colspan="3" |
| "prison" (eclipsed)
|-
| rowspan="2" | c
| colspan="3" | broad
| colspan="3" |
| "cheese", "son"
|-
| colspan="3" | slender
| colspan="3" |
| "question", "sons"
|-
| rowspan="3" | ch
| colspan="3" | broad
| colspan="3" rowspan="2" |
| "cheese" (lenited), "chieftain, Prime Minister of Ireland"
|-
| rowspan="2" |slender
| colspan="2" |before
| "poorer"
|-
| colspan="2" |usually
| colspan="3" |
| "question" (lenited), "ten", "night"
|-
| rowspan="2" | d
| colspan="3" | broad
| colspan="3" |
| "fist", "nest"
|-
| colspan="3" | slender
| colspan="3" |
| "red", "part"
|-
| rowspan="5" | dh
| rowspan="2" | broad
| colspan="2" |initially
| colspan="3" |
| "fist" (lenited)
|-
| colspan="2" |elsewhere
| colspan="3" |
| "luck"
|-
| rowspan="2" | slender
| colspan="2" |usually
| colspan="3" |
| rowspan="2" | "red" (lenited), "prophet"
|-
| colspan="2" |finally
|
|
|
|-
| colspan="7" | See below for . See Exceptions for - at the end of verbs endings.
|-
| rowspan="4" | dt
| rowspan="2" | broad
| colspan="2" |<small>eclipsis of</small>
| colspan="3" |
| "treasure" (eclipsed)
|-
| colspan="2" |elsewhere
| colspan="3" |
| "beaten"
|-
| rowspan="2" | slender
| colspan="2" |<small>eclipsis of</small>
| colspan="3" |
| "country" (eclipsed)
|-
| colspan="2" |elsewhere
| colspan="3" |
| "stolen"
|-
| rowspan="3" | f
| colspan="3" | broad
| colspan="3" |
| "still", "graph"
|-
| colspan="3" | slender
| colspan="3" |
| "wine", "stuff"
|-
| colspan="7" | See Exceptions in verb forms for -- in future and conditional personal verb endings.
|-
| colspan="4" | fh
| colspan="3" |
| "window" (lenited), "wine" (lenited)
|-
| rowspan="2" | g
| colspan="3" | broad
| colspan="3" |
| "boy", "soft"
|-
| colspan="3" | slender
| colspan="3" |
| "gate", "rock"
|-
| rowspan="2" | gc<br /><small>(eclipsis of</small> <small>)</small>
| colspan="3" | broad
| colspan="3" |
| "cheese" (eclipsed)
|-
| colspan="3" | slender
| colspan="3" |
| "question" (eclipsed)
|-
| rowspan="5" | gh
| rowspan="2" | broad
| colspan="2" |initially
| colspan="3" |
| "boy" (lenited)
|-
| colspan="2" |elsewhere
| colspan="3" |
| (male name)
|-
| rowspan="2" | slender
| colspan="2" |usually
| colspan="3" |
| rowspan="2" | "gate" (lenited), "way, manner"
|-
| colspan="2" |finally
|
|
|
|-
| colspan="7" | See below for . See Exceptions for at the end of verbs.
|-
| colspan="4" | h
| colspan="3" |
| "hat", "the fish" (plural)
|-
| colspan="4" |j (loan consonant)
| colspan="3" |
| "job", "jeep"
|-
| rowspan="6" |l
| rowspan="3" |broad
| rowspan="2" |initially
|usually
| colspan="3" |
| "lying (down)"
|-
|lenited
| colspan="3" |
| "blade" (lenited)
|-
| colspan="2" |elsewhere
| colspan="3" | or
| "mouth"
|-
| rowspan="3" |slender
| rowspan="2" |initially
|usually
| colspan="3" |
| "lazy"
|-
|lenited
| colspan="3" |
| "baby" (lenited)
|-
| colspan="2" |elsewhere
| colspan="3" | or
| "walk"
|-
| rowspan="2" |ll
| colspan="3" |broad
| colspan="3" |
|poll "hole"
|-
| colspan="3" |slender
| colspan="3" |
|coill "woods"
|-
| rowspan="2" | m
| colspan="3" | broad
| colspan="3" |
| "big", "time"
|-
| colspan="3" | slender
| colspan="3" |
| "sweet", "butter"
|-
| rowspan="2" | mb<br /><small>(eclipsis of</small> )
| colspan="3" | broad
| colspan="3" |
| "takes" (eclipsed)
|-
| colspan="3" | slender
| colspan="3" |
| "mouth" (eclipsed)
|-
| rowspan="3" | mh
| colspan="3" | broad
| colspan="3" |
| "big" (lenited), "hands", "reading"
|-
| colspan="3" | slender
| colspan="3" |
| "sweet" (lenited), "number", "poison"
|-
| colspan="7" | See below for .
|-
| rowspan="8" |n
| rowspan="4" |broad
| rowspan="2" |initially
|usually
| colspan="3" |
| "nine"
|-
|lenited
| colspan="3" |
| "notes" (lenited)
|-
| colspan="2" |after non initial cons.
| colspan="2" |
|
| "women", "press"
|-
| colspan="2" |usually
| colspan="3" | or
| "woman"
|-
| rowspan="4" |slender
| rowspan="2" |initially
|usually
| colspan="3" |
| "strength"
|-
|lenited
| colspan="3" |
| "strength" (lenited)
|-
| colspan="2" |after non initial cons.
| colspan="2" |
|
| "sex", "skinflint"
|-
| colspan="2" |usually
| colspan="3" | or
| (male name)
|-
| rowspan="2" | nc
| colspan="3" | broad
| colspan="3" |
| "anchor"
|-
| colspan="3" | slender
| colspan="3" |
| "dance"
|-
| rowspan="2" | nd<br /><small>(eclipsis of</small> <small>)</small>
| colspan="3" | broad
| colspan="3" |
| "fist" (eclipsed)
|-
| colspan="3" | slender
| colspan="3" |
| "red" (eclipsed)
|-
| rowspan="4" | ng
| rowspan="2" | broad
| colspan="2" |<small>eclipsis of </small>
| colspan="3" |
| "boy" (eclipsed)
|-
| colspan="2" |elsewhere
| colspan="3" |
| "ship", "tongue"
|-
| rowspan="2" | slender
| colspan="2" |<small>eclipsis of </small>
| colspan="3" |
| "gate" (eclipsed)
|-
| colspan="2" |elsewhere
| colspan="3" |
| "yoke", "vertical"
|-
| rowspan="2" |nn
| colspan="3" |broad
| colspan="3" |
| "head"
|-
| colspan="3" |slender
| colspan="3" |
| "illness"
|-
| rowspan="2" | p
| colspan="3" | broad
| colspan="3" |
| "hole", "stop"
|-
| colspan="3" | slender
| colspan="3" |
| "prison", "trip"
|-
| rowspan="2" | ph
| colspan="3" | broad
| colspan="3" |
| "hole" (lenited)
|-
| colspan="3" | slender
| colspan="3" |
| "prison" (lenited)
|-
| rowspan="5" | r
| colspan="3" | broad
| colspan="3" rowspan="4" |
| "buckwheat", "fragrant", "cold"
|-
| rowspan="4" |slender
| colspan="2" |initially
| "king"
|-
| colspan="2" |before , , , , , , ,
| "height", "stony beach", "corner", "visit", "east"
|-
| colspan="2" |after
| "string"
|-
| colspan="2" |usually
| colspan="3" |
| "dry", "got"
|-
| colspan="4" |rr
| colspan="3" |
|carr "car, cart"
|-
| rowspan="3" | s
| colspan="3" | broad
| colspan="3" rowspan="2" |
| "England", "beginning"
|-
| rowspan="2" |slender
| colspan="2" |initially before , , ,
| "sphere", "scythe", "blackberry", "string"
|-
| colspan="2" |usually
| colspan="3" |
| "old", "cheese"
|-
| colspan="4" | sh
| colspan="3" |
| "England" (lenited), "walked"
|-
| rowspan="2" | t
| colspan="3" | broad
| colspan="3" |
| "treasure", "correct"
|-
| colspan="3" | slender
| colspan="3" |
| "country", "two (people)"
|-
| rowspan="2" | th
| colspan="3" |usually
| colspan="3" rowspan="1" |
| "north", "below", "father", "kept", "eat", "learned", "chased", "swept"
|-
| colspan="3" |finally after a long vowel or diphthong
| colspan="3" |
| "blossom", "harrow"
|-
| rowspan="2" | ts<br /><small>(mutation of - after "the")</small>
| colspan="3" | broad
| colspan="3" |
| "the light (gen.)"
|-
| colspan="3" | slender
| colspan="3" |
| "China"
|-
| rowspan="2" | v <small>(loan consonant)</small>
| colspan="3" | broad
| colspan="3" |
| "vote"
|-
| colspan="3" | slender
| colspan="3" |
| "violin"
|-
| colspan="4" |x <small>(loan consonant)</small>
| colspan="3" |/ks/
|xileafón /ˈcɪlʲafˠoːn̪ˠ/ "xylophone"
|-
| rowspan="2" |z <small>(loan consonant)</small>
| colspan="3" |broad
| colspan="3" |
| "zoo"
|-
| colspan="3" |slender
| colspan="3" |
| "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 () or both broad (), to unambiguously determine if the consonant(s) are broad or slender. An apparent exception is , which is followed by a broad consonant despite the .
The acute accent (; or "long (extension)") is used to indicate a long vowel, as in "boat". However, there are other conventions to indicate a long vowel, such as:
- A following , e.g. "high", "destruction", "fist", and, in Connacht, a word-final , e.g. "time".
- The digraphs , e.g. "gay", "bare", "music".
- The tri/tetragraphs , e.g. "neighbour", "Munster".
- and before or , e.g. "wild", "twine".
The overdot (; "dot of lenition") was traditionally used to indicate lenition, though exclusively uses a following for this purpose. In Old Irish, the overdot was only used for , while the following was used for and the lenition of other letters was not indicated, lenition being generally understood due to word position (somewhat like in Danish). Later the two methods were used in parallel to represent lenition of any consonant (except ) until the standard practice became to use the overdot in Gaelic type and the following in Roman type. Thus the dotted letters ( "struck letters") are equivalent to letters followed by a , i.e. .
Lowercase 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
thumb| ("[[Pay and display|Pay & Display") sign in Dublin with the Tironian et for "and".]]
Irish punctuation is similar to English. An apparent exception is the Tironian et (; ) which abbreviates the word "and", like the ampersand () abbreviates "and" in English. It is generally substituted by a seven () in texts.
A hyphen () is used in Irish after 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 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 , 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 + 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 + vowel, as in "my youth", "your tooth"
- the preverbal particle becomes before a vowel or + vowel, as in "I raised", "he would wait"
- the copular particle becomes before a vowel or + 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
right|thumb|[[Bilingual sign in Ireland. The eclipsis of to 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 in English, 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. Instead, the Oireachtas' own translation service prepared a booklet, , published in 1945. 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. The result was the 2017 update of .
See also
- Irish Braille
- Irish initial mutations
- Irish manual alphabet
- Scottish Gaelic orthography
Notes
- Vowels with an acute accent are read as [á/é/í/ó/ú] "long [á/é/í/ó/ú]".
- In the verbal adjective suffix, -- becomes after ( are deleted before it is added) and it becomes after which are deleted before it is added.
- After consonants, is silent, but devoices preceding voiced consonants. See Irish phonology.