Irish orthography is the set of conventions used to write Irish. A spelling reform in the mid-20th century led to An Caighdeán Oifigiúil, the modern standard written form used by the Government of Ireland, which regulates both spelling and grammar.[1] The reform removed inter-dialectal silent letters, simplified some letter sequences, and modernised archaic spellings to reflect modern pronunciation, but it also removed letters pronounced in some dialects but not in others.
Irish spelling represents all Irish dialects to a high degree despite their considerable phonological variation, e.g. crann ("tree") is read /kɾˠan̪ˠ/ in Mayo and Ulster, /kɾˠaːn̪ˠ/ in Galway, or /kɾˠəun̪ˠ/ in Munster. Some words may have dialectal pronunciations not reflected by their standard spelling, and they sometimes have distinct dialectal spellings to reflect this.[2][3]
- ^ "Publications by the Houses of the Oireachtas". Houses of the Oireachtas. 2 February 2018. Retrieved 13 July 2022.
- ^ "Irish Gaelic dialects". www3.smo.uhi.ac.uk. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
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