| |- |c | | | | , | |- |d | | | colspan=2| | — |- |f | | | | | — |- |g | | | colspan=2| | — |- |h | colspan=5|See explanation below |- |l | | — | colspan=2| | |- |m | | — | colspan=2| | |- |n | | — | colspan=2| | |- |p | | | | , | |- |r | | — | colspan=2| | |- |s₁ | | — | | | — |- |s₂1 | | — | colspan=2| | — |- |t | | | | , | |} When the consonants b, d, g are eclipsed by the preceding word (always from a word-initial position), their spelling and pronunciation change to: , , Generally, geminating a consonant ensures its unmutated sound. While the letter may be voiced at the end of some words, but when it's written double it's always voiceless in regularised texts; however, even final was often written "cc", as in bec / becc "small, little" (Modern Irish and Scottish beag, Manx beg). In later Irish manuscripts, lenited f and s are denoted with the letter h , , instead of using a superdot , . When initial s stemmed from Primitive Irish *sw-, its lenited version is . The slender (palatalised) variants of the 13 consonants are denoted with marking the letter. They occur in the following environments: Before a written e, é, i, í After a written i, when not followed by a vowel letter (but not after the diphthongs aí, oí, uí) Although Old Irish has both a sound and a letter h, there is no consistent relationship between the two. Vowel-initial words are sometimes written with an unpronounced h, especially if they are very short (the Old Irish preposition "in" was sometimes written ) or if they need to be emphasised (the name of Ireland, , was sometimes written ). On the other hand, words that begin with the sound are usually written without it: "her gold". If the sound and the spelling co-occur, it is by coincidence, as "it is not". Stops following vowels The voiceless stops of Old Irish are c, p, t. They contrast with the voiced stops g, b, d. Additionally, the letter m can behave similarly to a stop following vowels. These seven consonants often mutate when not in the word-initial