Crazy spelling

Having pondered long and hard as to what might be the pottiest alphabetic spelling in any language, I have finally come to a decision. I considered:

ss → [z] in English scissors, possession etc.

Another candidate was Portuguese êm → [əiəi] (approximately, but nasalised), as in têm “they have”.

However, I award the Golden Doozy Prize to Donegal Irish for

-adh in words like bunadh “origin, people, kindred” and many, others.

In Connacht and Munster the sequence is simply [ə], but where on earth did come from?!?!

2 Responses to “Crazy spelling”

  1. əð > əɣ > əʊ > uː

  2. John Maidment says:

    Figures. Thank you, Michael.

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