Dia dhíbh!

Tá cheist beag agam. I was always under impression that the essence of caighdeán introduction was to eliminate reputedly "silent" consonants. Leaving aside the question if those consonants have been silent after all, like tráigh in Munster or léighim in Ulster, I was sure there was no tampering with vowels. Alas! According to "Irish of West Muskerry" the classical spelling of "prepared" was "ollamh" which is duly pronounced [ol@v] in Múscraí. However, as I have seen this word is to be spelled "ullamh" now. What was the point of changing the spelling from exactly the equivalent to something different. The same story with word "egg" - "ogh" ([ov] in Múscraí) - it is spelled "ubh" although pronounced "obh. What's going on?

le meas,
is mise Róman as Liotuáin

Ollamh and ullamh are not the same word. Ollamh = a university professor; ullamh = ready.

Short u's are pronounced as unrounded o's most of the time, except when they are at the end of a word or followed by -gh, -dh, -bh, -mh. There are exceptions in some dialects, as you said: ubh /ov/ in Muskerry. It is pronounced /əf/ in NW Donegal (actually it could be spelled "uibh", because according to the spelling, "ubh" should be pronounced /u/ in Donegal).

What is the etymology of word "ollamh" (professor)? Isn't it adjective "ullamh" turned noun? in a sence "duine ullamh"->"ollamh"?

Dár le MacBain: http://www.ceantar.org/Dicts/MB2/mb28.html#ollamh

ollamh

a learned man, a doctor, so Irish, Old Irish ollam, g. ollaman; from Irish oll, great (root pol, pel, plê, full, fill).

ollamh = OI ollam < oll (= great) + -am (superlative adjectival suffix)

Samplaí eile:

ollscoil - university
ollpheist - monster (huge worm, fch wyrm an Bhéarla)
ollmhargadh - supermarket.