Blair Collection > Kelt or Gael

CHAPTER V.
The Irish or Ancient British Alphabet. Vowels and
Consonants. Mutable and Immutable Consonants.
Rule of Aspiration. Rule of Eclipsis. Early
Parts of Speech. Present Parts of Speech.
Declensions. Conjugations. Concords.
Irish or As I could not cxpcct my readers to learn the
alphabet. Irish alphabet for the purpose of studying the
little I have to say on that dialect, I shall use
the English, which is in reality equally convenient.
The Irish or ancient British alphabet, however,
agrees more closely than any other with the
Phoenician, the parent alphabet, as to the number
of its letters. It comprises seventeen letters — a,
b, c, d, e, f, g, i, 1, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, and u. The
Phoenician alphabet consisted of sixteen letters :
they used the same character for o and u. As
these letters are quite incapable of expressing all
the sounds of the Irish language, the incapacity
is provided for by the rules for aspiration and
eclipsis.
Vowels. The five Irish vowels, which are the same as
the Latin, are divided into three broad, a, o, u,
and two slender, e and i. P'^rom this division a
considerable difficulty arises for the student,