IrregularVerbOrthography

One unsolved question in Gaelic orthography involves how to spell certain irregular dependent verb-stems.

Contents:
 * 1) d/tàinig, d/tug, d/tubhairt
 * 2) d/tig, d/tèid, d/toir
 * 3) fhuair

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=1. d/tàinig, d/tug, d/tubhairt=

Consider the following three irregular/defective past independent verb-stems in Gaelic which begin with //**th-**// :
 * //**thàinig**// is the past independent stem from the irregular verb //**thig**// (to come).
 * //**thug**// is the past independent stem from the irregular verb //**thoir**// (to give).
 * //**thubhairt**// (alternatively ** //thuirt// **) is the past independent stem from the irregular verb //**abair**// (to say).

The regular compound dependent past forms created from these three verb-stems would be //**do thàinig**//, //**do thug**// , and //**do thubhairt**// , respectively. However, these compound forms are generally considered to have been reduced nowadays into single words, pronounced as if they were written //**dàinig**//, //**dug**// , and //**dubhairt**//. However, GOC recommends that they should be written as //**tàinig**//, //**tug**// , and //**tubhairt**// , thus violating the principle that says that the pronunciation of a word must be predictable from its written form.

Here are six different ways of writing these three past independent verb-forms, most of which have been used at some point in Gaelic writing:
 * 1) //**do thàinig**//, //**do thug**// , //**do thubhairt**//
 * 2) //**d' thàinig**//, //**d' thug**// , //**d' thubhairt**//
 * 3) //**d'thàinig**//, //**d'thug**// , //**d'thubhairt**//
 * 4) //**dthàinig**//, //**dthug**// , //**dthubhairt**//
 * 5) //**dàinig**//, //**dug**// , //**dubhairt**//
 * 6) //**tàinig**//, //**tug**// , //**tubhairt**//

None of these are perfect -
 * 1) ** //do thàinig// ** etc. fails to accurately represent the way the verb-form is universally pronounced nowadays, and also fails to reflect the intuition that we are talking about single words here, and not particle + verb compounds.
 * 2) ** //d' thàinig// ** is better than ** //do thàinig// **, in that it gives a more accurate representation of the actual pronunciation, but it violates the principle that orthographic representations should be as short as possible, in particular involving extraneous punctuation.
 * 3) ** //d'thàinig// ** is better than ** //d' thàinig// **, in that it is clear we are talking about a single word now, but there are still redundant characters.
 * 4) ** //dthàinig// ** can be argued to be better than ** //d'thàinig// **, since the unnecessary apostrophe is lost. However, it can also be argued to be worse, since we are now starting to lose the morphological / etymological relationship between ** //dthàinig// ** and ** //thàinig// **.
 * 5) From the perspective of phonological accuracy and non-redundancy, ** //dàinig// ** is the perfect orthographic form. However, it completely obscures the morphological / etymological relationship with ** //thàinig// **.
 * 6) ** //tàinig// ** is arguably the worst option of all. First of all, it is completely misleading as to the actual pronunciation of the word. Secondly, although it makes an attempt to retain the morphological / etymological relationship with //thàinig//, it gets things the wrong way round, suggesting that the latter is derived from the former by means of lenition.

It appears that either ** //d'thàinig// ** or ** //dthàinig// ** is the optimal choice for spelling the past dependent form of ** //thig// **. These options provide a balance between accurately representing the pronunciation and preserving the morphological / etymological relationship with ** //thàinig// **. Of course, if it is decided that the etymology is unimportant, then ** //dàinig// ** is the best choice.

Note that this discussion is also relevant to the passive/generic past dependent forms of these verbs -
 * ** //tàineas// ** versus ** //d'thàineas// ** versus ** //dàineas// **
 * ** //tugadh// ** versus ** //d'thugadh// ** versus ** //dugadh// **
 * ** //tubhairteadh// ** versus ** //d'thubhairteadh// ** versus ** //dubhairteadh// **

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=2. d/tig, d/tèid, d/toir=

Consider the following irregular/defective non-past independent verb-stems which also begin with **//th-//** :
 * //**thig**// is the default, non-past independent verb-stem from the irregular verb meaning "to come".
 * //**thèid**// is the future independent verb-stem from the irregular verb //**rach**// (to go).
 * //**thoir**// is the default, imperative verb-stem from the irregular verb meaning "to give".

These verb-forms appear to behave as if they had once been past independent verb-stems, since they combine with the reduced //**d'**// verb particle to create pseudo-compound dependent verb-forms, //**d'thig**//, //**d'thèid**// and //**d'thoir**// , which are pronounced as if they were spelled //**dig**// , //**dèid**// and //**doir**//. In contrast, GOC recommends the misleading spellings //**tig**//, //**tèid**// and //**toir**//.

Presumably, the same approach should be taken to spelling these words as is used for the past dependent forms above.

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=3. fhuair=

The past independent verb-stem //**fhuair**//, from the irregular verb //**faigh**// ("to get") is pronounced as if it were spelled //**thuair**//. Thus, the standard spelling violates the principle that the pronunciation of a word should be predictable from its orthography.

What is going on here? Are there any solutions that balance pronunciation and etymology? //**th'fhuair**// ?

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