Editing Primitive Irish (section)

==== Consonants ====
The [[Consonant|consonant inventory]] of Primitive Irish is reconstructed by [[Celtic studies|Celticist]] Damian McManus as follows:<ref>McManus 1991 pp.36-39</ref><ref name=":1" />
{| class="wikitable" style="margin:1em auto;"
|+caption |Consonants of Primitive Irish in IPA
|-
!
! colspan="2" | [[Bilabial consonant|Bilabial]]
! colspan="2" | [[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]
! colspan="2" | [[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]

! colspan="2" | [[Velar consonant|Velar]]
! colspan="2" | [[Labialized velar consonant|Labiovelar]]{{efn|In Old Irish, these consonants had disappeared. The stops merged with their simple velar counterparts, while /w/ became /f/.}}
|- align=center
![[Nasal consonant|Nasal]]
| colspan="2" | {{IPA|m}}
| colspan="2" | {{IPA|n}}
| colspan="2" |

| colspan="2" |
| colspan="2" |
|- align=center
![[Stop consonant|Stop]]
|{{IPA|p}}{{efn|The sound {{IPA|/p/}} was absent in Primitive Irish, but a letter in scholastic ogham was created for the late introduction of this sound, called ''Pín'', ''Ifín'' or ''Iphín'', the only ''forfeda'' with a consonant value, although often used as an equivalent to the digraphs ''io'', ''ía'' and ''ia'' in Latin spelling. In early loanwords, the Latin letter {{sc|P}} was incorporated as {{sc|Q}}, for example Primitive Irish {{sc|QRIMITIR}} from Latin ''presbyter''.}}
|{{IPA|b}}
| {{IPA|t}}
| {{IPA|d}}
| colspan="2" |

| {{IPA|k}}
| {{IPA|ɡ}}
| {{IPA|kʷ}}
| {{IPA|ɡʷ}}
|- align=center
![[Fricative consonant|Fricative]]{{efn|The fricatives {{IPA|/f, v, θ, ð, x, ɣ, h, and β̃/}} emerged by the 5th century with the advent of phonetic séimhiú (lenition). In turn, their non-lenited counterparts occasionally and inconsistently became geminates.}}
| colspan="2" |
| colspan="2" |{{IPA|s}}, {{IPA|sᵗ}}{{efn|The sound {{IPA|/s/}} in scholastic ogham was represented by two letters: ''Sail'' and ''Straif'', the latter probably representing a previously distinct sound such as {{IPA|/st/}} or {{IPA|/sw/}} (it was relatively rare and corresponded to Indo-European words containing {{IPA|/sw/}}). However, the two sounds had likely merged by the Old Irish period, except in their respective lenited forms.}}
| colspan="2" |
| colspan="2" |
| colspan="2" |
|- align=center
![[Approximant]]
| colspan="2" |
| colspan="2" |
| colspan="2" | {{IPA|j}}{{efn|Lost in later stages.}}
| colspan="2" |
| {{IPA|ʍ}}
|w
|- align=center
![[Lateral consonant|Lateral]]
| colspan="2" |
| colspan="2" | {{IPA|l}}
| colspan="2" |
| colspan="2" |
| colspan="2" |
|- align=center
![[Trill consonant|Trill]]
| colspan="2" |
| colspan="2" | {{IPA|ɾ}}
| colspan="2" |
| colspan="2" |
| colspan="2" |
|}

The letters ''Cért'', ''Gétal'' and ''Straif'', [[Transliteration|transliterated]] as {{sc|q}}, {{sc|ng}} (or {{sc|gg}}) and {{sc|z}}, respectively, were known by the ancient scholastic Oghamists as ''foilceasta'' (questions) due to the obsolescence of their original pronunciations: the first two, {{IPA|/kʷ/}} and {{IPA|/ɡʷ/}}, had merged with plain [[Velar consonant|velars]] in Old Irish, and the third, probably {{IPA|/st/}}, merged with {{IPA|/s/}}.<ref>McManus 1991 p.182</ref><ref>Ziegler 1994 pp.11-12</ref> However, evidence of the original distinction between ''straif'' and ''sail'' was still present into the Old Irish period, as the ''séimhiú'' ([[lenition]]) of {{IPA|/s/}} produced {{IPA|/f/}} (< Primitive Irish {{IPA|/w/}}) for lexemes originally represented by ''Straif'' but {{IPA|/h/}} for [[lexeme]]s originally represented by ''Sail''.<ref>Stifler 2006 p.30. The lenited form strengthens the opinion that the basal form had an older, Indo-European derived pronunciation /sw/ that had apparently evolved into /st/ at some point later, but which retained the lenited form */hw/ for some time, which could easily have later evolved into /w/ or /f/.</ref>

The letter ''Úath'' or ''hÚath'' (transliterated as {{sc|h}}), although not counted among the ''foilceasta'', also presented particular difficulties due to apparently being a [[silent letter]]. It was probably pronounced as {{IPA|/j/}} in an early stage of Primitive Irish, disappearing before the transition to Old Irish.<ref>McManus 1991 pp.36-37</ref>

Consonant lenition and palatalisation, which feature heavily in [[History of the Irish language|later stages of the language]], may already have existed in an [[Allophone|allophonic]] form, i.e., they were not [[Phonemic contrast|phonemically contrastive]] yet.