Editing Openai/69186d20-2d14-8013-b9c6-c09000f173f6 (section)

===== For native Irish consonants, the practical answer is: =====

: 
* Broad = velarized/backed (ˠ), driven by nearby a, o, u.
* Slender = palatal(ized) (ʲ), driven by nearby e, i.
* This is baked into the spelling system; it’s not optional.

The only clear “neither” case in the normal inventory is:
* h: it’s just /h/ (or zero after lenition), no broad/slender contrast.

Some things that sound neutral to your ear but are still classed as one or the other under the hood:
* bh, mh: can be /v/, /w/, or just lengthening of a vowel; the broad/slender distinction is often weak acoustically, but spelling still fixes one.
* English loans (job, bus, club etc.): speakers often approximate broad/slender in a way that’s not super consistent, but standard spelling tends to force them into the system once “Gaelicized”.

So: for s, t, d, n, l, r, p, b, m, f, c, g, treat them all as broad or slender according to the surrounding vowels. There is no third “plain” category in the native system.