A Family Story (Myth?) and Question about Gaelic Languages

[neloon]

Welsh, in common with Latin, pronounces every letter in a word whereas Gaelic is quite different with so many letters silent.

Neither of these statements is strictly speaking true but this is a matter of orthography not the spoken forms of the languages. Gaelic uses "h" to change the pronunciation of a preceding consonant (as does English in very confusing ways - "though - trough - plough - thought" etc.). This makes Gaelic seem full of "h"s where Welsh uses a different letter to signify the altered sound e.g "big Mary" is "Mair fawr" in Welsh but "Màiri mhòir" in Gaelic - in both cases the initial "m" of "mor/mawr" is lenited because she is feminine but Gaelic keeps the "m" whereas Welsh converts to "f" and both are pronounced "v". Hope that's not too technical!

Alan