Nicholas Bodley wrote:

> Doug Ewell wrote:
> "In fact, there's really no reason why an alphabet couldn't
> have reordrant
> letters, though I can't think of such an alphabet offhand."
>
> Although not actually so, as I understand it, Irish might
> seem to be that way in some instances. One example is
> the name Áine (trust I spelled it OK), which is
> pronounced "Anya". (I'm referring to the harper/singer
> Áine Minogue.)

Hm... No, I think this comoparison is streching things a bit too much.

I'd say the "ny" in "anya" is just a loose rendering in English spelling of
the Irish pronunciation. The "n" in Áine should actually be a single palatal
sound similar to Spanis "ñ". That is the usual "slender" (i.e. palatal)
pronunciation of /n/.

AFAIK, the "i" preceding "n" is not actually pronounced, and never was: it
is just a mute orthographic sign required by a rule of Irish spelling which
reads, if I recall correctly, "Broads with broads and slenders with
slenders".

That means that, in the spelling, a slender consonant must be surrounded by
"slender vowels" (i.e. front vowels: /i/ and /e/) vowels, while a "broad
consonant" (i.e. non palatal) must be surrounded by "broad vowels" (/a/,
/o/, /u/).

In "Áini", the slender "n" is actuallu preceded by a broad vowel, "á", so a
fictitiois vowel "i" is inserted in the spelling to obey the rule.

An actual case of graphical methatesis is, IMHO, the English digraph "wh" in
"where", "why", "who", etc. This was originally pronounced and written "hw"
(and still is, in some dialectal pronunciations of "where").

> No disrespect intended, surely!

Well, no disrespect was assumed, I guess! :-)

_ Marco