Re: PTD was the most-respected of the AUE regulars ...

 Ar an seachtú lá is fiche de mí Iúil, scríobh Peter Moylan:

 > [...] In my study of Irish I am struggling badly with spelling. That is
 > because Irish spelling has so many silent letters. (That is why I never
 > heard my grandfather say anything.) Some consonants are silent because of
 > lenition or eclipsis. Some vowels are silent because of the rule "slender
 > with slender, broad with broad" that inserts extra silent vowels to match
 > the adjacent consonants. The end result is that the spoken word is a lot
 > shorter than the written word.
 >
 > But, of course, familiarity matters. I can recognise the word "bhfuil",
 > whose pronunciation is non-intuitive, because I've seen it so often. I
 > am almost at the point where "mo mhathair" has an obvious spelling. So
 > maybe I'll get there eventually.
 >
 > [Positive: I can now say "Tá penna m'aintín ar bhuró m'uncail", so maybe
 > I'm making progress.]

Penna isn’t a word; did you mean peann? Next step; render « La plume de ma
tante est près de la chaise de ma tante. »

Having gone back to Irish after twenty years recently the spelling is fine,
there is rhyme and reason to it. You’ll get there I’m sure.

--
‘As I sat looking up at the Guinness ad, I could never figure out /
How your man stayed up on the surfboard after fourteen pints of stout’
(C. Moore)