The letters "cért", "gétal" and "straif", respectively transliterated as , (or ) and , were known by the ancient scholastic oghamists as " foilceasta " (questions) due to the obsolescence of their original pronunciations: the first two, and , had merged with plain velars in Old Irish, and the third, probably , merged with . However, evidence of the original distinction between "Straif" and "Sail" was still present into the Old Irish period, as the séimhiú (lenition) of produced for lexemes with original "Straif" but for lexemes with original "Sail".