Page:Alexander Macbain - An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language.djvu/41

Rh eud, eug, eudann, éiginn, geug. The negative ṇ appears before vowels as an, before c, t, and s, as eu, éi: eutrom, éislean, &c. The most curious result arises from ‑ṇgm‑, which ends in G. as eum‑; see ceum, W. cam, leum, W. lam, and add teum, W. tam, from *tṇd-men.

Before the medials b, d, g, both ṇ and ṃ become in (ion), im (iom), and original in retains its i (cf . fionn). Thus we have im‑, iom- from ṃbi, Lat. ambi, also ìm, ionga, imleag, ciomach.

Gaelic r and l represent the I. E. liquids r and l. Initially we may select ràmh, reachd, ruadh, rùn, loch, laigh, labhair, leth; after p lost—ro, ràth, làmh, làn, làr. Medially r and l are “aspirated,” but the sounds have no separate signs—dorus, tulach, geal, meil, eile, seileach, etc. Post-conso&shy;nantal r and l appear in sruth, srath, etc., cluinn, fliuch, slug, etc. In ‑br, ‑tr, ‑dr, the combi&shy;nations become ‑bhar, ‑thar, ‑dhar, while in ‑cr, ‑gr, ‑bl, ‑tl, ‑dl, ‑cl, ‑gl the respec&shy;tive explo&shy;sives disappear with lengthen&shy;ing of the preceding vowel. For ‑sl, see below (‑ll).

Ante-consonantal r and l preserve the explosives after them—ard, bard, ceart, neart, dearg, dearc, allt, calltuinn, gilb, balg, cealg, olc, etc.

Gaelic ‑rr arises from ‑rs; see bàrr, èarr, carraig; from the meeting of r with r, as in atharrach; from rth, as in orra from ortha, Lat. orationem. Again ‑ll comes from ‑sl, as in uaill, coll, ciall, etc.; especial&shy;ly from ‑ln‑, as in follas, ball, feall, etc.; from ‑ld‑, as in call, coille, and many others.

Gaelic ‑rr arises from ‑rp; corran, searrach (St.); Ir. carr, spear, cirrim, I cut, forrach, pole. KZ. 35.

I. E. n and m appear normally in G. as n and m, save that I. E. terminal m in neuter nouns, accu&shy;sative cases, and genitives plural, became in Celtic n. (1) Initial n appears in nead, Eng. nest, neart, neul, nochd, naked, night, nathair, nuadh, nasg, na, not, etc. (2) After an initial mute, n appears in cnàimh, cneadh, cnò, gnàth, etc. After s, in snàth, snìomh, snuadh, snigh, sneachd. After b it changes the b into m (mnatha for *bnâs). (3) Inter&shy;vocalic n is preserved—bean, làn, maoin, dàn, rùn, dùn, sean, etc. (4). Pre&shy;conso&shy;nantal n is dealt with variously:


 * a. Before the liquids, n is assim&shy;ilated to m and l, and dis&shy;appears before r.

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