22 IRISH SPELLING 



as they imagine, and, of course, was not at the start an 

 Irish system at all. Founded on the Roman spelling of 

 Latin, with a British pronunciation, it was gradually adapted 

 to suit the language. Improvements were introduced from 

 time to time, and the spelling varied and altered more or 

 less with the pronunciation. But at no time, from the 

 introduction of the Latin alphabet with Christianity down 

 to the present day, has there been a fixed standard of 

 spelling. 



As long as the native system of culture lasted, that 

 is, up to about the middle of the seventeenth century /there 

 was a standard literary dialect with a standard of usage 

 and pronunciation, but within the limits fixed by the 

 schools there was ample scope for those who retained the 

 " historic " spelling to vary it according to their individual 

 preference or passing fancy. 



Thus, in Keating's time 



fceut fceul 



fcc6t fCC6Al recent r-cc6ul 



were all regarded as " correct," and the same scribe often 

 used one or another as it pleased him. In the case of 

 longer words, such as rs&AtdigeACc, the limits were wide 

 enough in all conscience. Thus : 



f 5 t A 1 5 e* C c 



c 6-d o ti 10 en "o 



cc eu u t) 



eu "on 



I will not keep you here while I write out the possible 

 variations, but if the compulsory arithmetic I learned a 

 good many years ago has not misled me, the total, not 

 counting abbreviations, works out at 1152 possible spellings 

 of this one word in the literary dialect, all of them intended 

 to represent one pronunciation. Those were brave days 

 for the phonetician ! Even now there must be over a 

 dozen of these spellings in common use. 



