Acute interest in síneadh fada

A chara, – If you are correct in your report on traffic legislation translation difficulties ("Conflict over Irish traffic legislation", January 18th), then "eiseamal" would be more correct, as there is no such word in Irish as "samplá", which is repeated throughout the article.

There is, however, such a word as “sampla”, the síneadh fada making all the difference between words, such as “fear/féar” (man/grass), “ban/bán” (of woman/white), “fail/fáil” (hiccup/getting). – Is mise,

FEARGAL

Mac AMHLAOIBH,

Dún Chaoin,

Co Chiarraí.