Re: Irish vs. Scot Gaelic

Scríobh Einde O'Callaghan <einde.ocallaghan@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>:
>Féachadóir wrote:
>> Scríobh Einde O'Callaghan <einde.ocallaghan@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>:
>> 
>>>John P. Mullen wrote:
>>>
>>>>This is what happens when you let monks invent your spelling rules. 
>>>>Even little Irish children can work out the initial mutations, but the
>>>>monks needed the extra letters to keep matters straight.
>>>>
>>>
>>>As I understand it Old and Middle Irish did not write the 
>>>transformations - it was assumed that the reader knew what they were. 
>> 
>> 
>> Old Irish certainly, Middle Irish less so.
>> 
>> 
>>>The letters used to write Irish until the introduction of the Roamn 
>>>alphabet in the 1960s was invented by Elizabethan scholars who were 
>>>trying to convert the irish to Protestantism - although it was based on

>>>the scripts used in monastic manuscripts (but variations of these 
>>>scripts were used in many Western European countries).
>> 
>> 
>> The letters used to write Irish have always been Roman alphabet. The
>> initial spellings of Irish are based on 5th century British
>> pronunciation of Roman, since we got literacy rom 5th century Britons.
                    ^^^^^

Meant to say, pronunciation of *Latin*...
 
>> IIRC the orthographic reform was in 1948. Contrary to popular belief,
>> standard typefaces as well as the cló gaelach were used both before
>> and after it.
>> 
>I have seen some pre-1948 books in the clo rómhánach, but it was 
>introduced into schoolbooks while I was in secondary school in teh 1960s 
>- at the same time as the imposition of Gaeilge caighdeánach as the 
>written language in schoolbooks. I remember this because by this time I 
>was speaking Donegal Irish, which deviates from the Caighdeán quite 
>significantly - particularly on the use of the initial séimhiú and urú 
>after prepositions - as a matter of fact in my edition of the Gramadach 
>Caighdeánach they explicitly allow these deviations for speakers of 
>Donegal Irish.

AFAIK they still do

-- 
"Ferr fíor fertaib"
Féachadóir