Why is Irish spelling so difficult to understand?
Irish spelling may seem unusual to a native speaker of English, but it is designed to deal with many changes in the pronunciation of words in the language. The spelling system of Irish seems complicated, but, unlike English, it is very regular and can be learned in a couple of hours. In written Irish, like French, an accent ( ) may sometimes appear over vowels. This accent is called a fada (it literally means ‘long’ in Irish). When you see a fada over a vowel it usually has a lengthening effect. For example, Sen is pronounced [shawn], with the emphasis on the . If there was no accent, it would be sean [shan] which means old. You will also see many consonants followed by an h. This is the result of a process called aspiration or lenition in English. This process traditionally happens when a consonant is situated between two vowels. An h after a consonant essentially softens the sound of the letter. An example of this process would be the change in the sound of the Irish word mac son in
