Page:A contribution to the phonology of Desi-Irish to serve as an introduction to the metrical system of Munster Poetry (IA contributiontoph00henerich).pdf/56

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by m is sometimes used independently of the inducing context. There is no lengthening before rr, or slurred diphthongization before mn, mm in word pausa when the heavy ending is resolved. fearra dhuit fara yot from far, fir, ar a barra Bird from pir, gearra garo from gir, cama-chlis Kimo from KauM. an-=very (ré- always=too) is ana- before all elements, an-=un— usually combines with its word, antoil auntl.

3. Example of gd in dearg daol (?) daruca vex, of ngbh in diongbhail (2), diongabhdil O'R. dingivalta Cat. -the in the ppp. of verbs is joined to a consonant auslaut root usually by .a svar. vowel, doctha Txaha, but cortha xorha, curtha xurha.

Of the Consonants.

§ 44. The voice-production in Irish is legato not staccato. One might regard a continuous even voice or air-stream sub- jected to the manipulations of an independent set of modifying or articulating processes. The air-stream may be considered as a long irrational vowel interrupted and modified by certain contacts, half-contacts and approaches. Hence the perfect agreement between vowel and consonant in timbre relation, for the vowel is produced by the consonant. Also the partial agreement in intonation, e. g. S with a nasal to 0, § 18,3, 9 to i before s, to u before a guttural, ete. This intimate bond connecting vowel and consonant and the persistent or continuous character of the voice stream will explain the Keltie peculiarities of voicing intervocalic tennes, or opening to spirants of unsup- ported inter-voealic consonants, of the tendency to anticipation in sound formation which so helped the backward run of vowel and consonant palatal umlaut in words, of the prevalence of glides, of the phenomenon of auslaut hardening, the result of a conscious effort to check the voealic stream in pausa. Here glides are not reported excopt where (as in connection with labials or gutturals) they have a specially prominent value.