Ceanntuigheoireacht6 wrote:
I've been wondering about this for awhile. There are many ways to spell one Irish word, all correct in my own opinion. For example:
Sgéaluidheacht (my way, I learned to spell Irish here
https://knockmealdownactive.com/PDF/An% ... %20Ann.pdf)
Sgéaluigheacht
Sgéuluigheacht
Sgéulaidheacht
Sgéalaidheacht
I could go on for a while changing aidheacht to uidheacht (and with gh insead of dh) and sgéal to sgéul. Also I could spell it with an sc instead of sg.
The only spelling I would call dialectal that I have noticed is West Munster -ibh plural endings (is that ever pronounced like written, by the way?). Buachaillibh, not buachaillí. Are there any other regional rules to spelling or for example my example above, is it purely personal preference whichever province you are from?
-ibh is the dative plural only. Buachaillibh and buachaillibh are dative plural. The nominative plural is still buachaillí. That said, there is (limited) use of the -ibh in other cases, eg "a fhearaibh" for "a fheara" in the vocative plural.
Where used, the -ibh is pronounced like that. "I gcoinnibh na dlí" is pronounce guingiv in the relevant word. I suppose some people say "i gcoinne na dlí" too.
You can also take leathan le leathan, caol le caol to the Nth degree: mío-thráthamhail, but even Dinneen didn't bother with that much.
If you go back far enough, spellings liked to separate broad endings from slender medial vowels, eg "bead", "I will" could be "beidhead". Beifí could be beidhthí etc.
I think Dinneen preferred -dh- in nouns - madraidhe, scéalaidheacht - and -gh- in adjectival comparatives - tuirsighe, I think. That said, there was no consistency in books on this: bliadhain, bliaghain.