Hiatus

When two adjacent vowels are not joined together as one vowel (a diphthong), we say that there is a hiatus (a gap) between them. In many words, bh, mh, dh, gh are mute when they appear between vowels. The preceding and following syllables are generally not coalesced (not joined, not run together) as one vowel. We say that there is a hiatus or a gap between such syllables. Here are some examples:

[Lɤ.əx]	laghach	kind
[sɯː.əL]	saoghal	world
[kLɤ.əx]	cladhach	digging
[a.ɪNʲ]	abhainn	river

-th-, which is usually pronounced as [h], is used only in a small number of words to indicate hiatus e.g.

[La.a]	latha	day
[ha.asd]	fhathast	yet
[Ra.ad]	rathad	road