Irish orthography
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Orthography
Modern Irish is written with the Roman alphabet, but consists of only eighteen (18) letters: a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, u. The letters j, k, q, v, w, x, y, z are used only in foreign words that were not assimilated into normal Irish orthography (e.g. job).
History
Old Irish, the precursor to both Modern Irish and Scots Gaelic, was written in a carved writing called Ogham. Ogham consisted of marks made above or below a horizontal line.
With the advent of Christianity in the 5th century CE, the Roman alphabet was introduced to Ireland. Out of that developed a stylized version used for centuries, and can be seen even today in signs and for special decoration.
Today, however, the main alphabet is the standard Roman alphabet
Conventions
Irish written in the Roman alphabet uses only an acute accent, called a síneadh fada, over vowels to indicate length.
However, in the more stylized Gaelic alphabet, an addition sign resembling a dot, called a ponc séimhiúchán, was placed over certain consonants to indicate lenition. Nowadays, the ponc séimhiúchán is replaced by an "h" after those consonants.
On lenition, see below.
Phonology
Concepts of Irish phonology
Before any discussion of individual phonemes can occur, there are four terms that you should know about when talking about Irish phonology. They are: broad, slender, lenition, eclipsis.
Broad is another term for lack of palatalization. (For those familiar with Slavic languages such as Russian, palatalization is the addition of a /j/ element to consonants and vowels; Irish is no different.) Both consonants and vowels in Irish can be broad.
Slender is the term used for palatalization. Slender consonants are palatized in Irish, through the use of slender vowels.
The broad/slender distinction together constitute a process called attenuation.
Lenition is the term for a weakening of an initial consonant. The process involves converting stops (including nasals) into fricatives. (Another term is spirantization.) In Modern Irish, most of the lenited consonants still convert to fricatives, but due to changes over time, the effect is now slightly different.
Eclipsis is the term for voicing of an initial stop (excluding nasals, which are already voiced). Voiceless stops become voiced stops, while voiced stops become nasals. One fricative, f, is also subject to eclipsis.
Consonants
There are only thirteen (13) written consonants, b, c, d, f, g, h, l, m, n, p, r, s, t. However, they cover roughly thirty-four (34) phonemes.
This table shows how detailed the system is: Consonants
Vowels
There are five written vowels, a, e, i, o, u. This number increases to ten when the fada vowels á, é, í, ó, ú are added. The vowel picture of Irish is muddied in that, like consonants, they cover __ phonemes.
More on the vowels can be found here: Vowels
Special Combinations
Within Irish, there are special combinations that constitute, in the modern language, almost diphthong elements.
More can be found here: Combinations
