The letters _b_, _f_, _m_, _n_, _p_, and _r_, except when aspirated, are
sounded like their English analogues. _C_ is never at all pronounced like
_s_ or _ch_ soft, but always hard like _k_; _d_, like _dh_; _g_ hard, as
in _get_; and _l_, generally, like the first _l_ in William.
More variable, however, is _s_. Before or after the vowels _e_ or _i_, it
is most generally sounded like _sh_, there being but a single exception
to the rule, and this occurs in the word _is_—the third person singular
present indicative of the assertive form of the verb _to be_, which is
pronounced _is_, and not _ish_. Before or after _a_, _o_, _u_, it takes
simply the sound of _s_ in _soon_, the demonstrative pronoun _so_, this,
being in Connaught, where it is pronounced _sho_, the only exception.