Page:Alexander Macbain - An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language.djvu/43

Rh :b. Before s, m should disappear, but no certain Celtic cases seem to occur. In the historic language, m before s results in mp or p as usually pro&shy;nounced, as in rompa for rom + so, that is, *rom-sho; so iompaidh, umpa.


 * c. Before the explosives. Original mb is now m, as in the prefix im‑, iom‑, in imleag, tom. I. E. m before t and k (q) became n (as in ceud, breug), and dis&shy;appeared with compen&shy;satory lengthen&shy;ing. Compare also dìdean, eiridinn. Pre&shy;historic mg, md fail us; in the present language both appear aspirated (mhgh, mhdh).

After s, m becomes in the older language mm, now m; druim comes from *dros-men. But s is very usual as an inter&shy;mediate letter between a previous consonant and m: many roots appear with an addition&shy;al s, which may original&shy;ly have belonged to an ‑es neuter stem. We actually see such a develop&shy;ment in a word like snaim, which in E. Ir. appears as snaidm (d. snaidm&shy;aimm), from a Celtic *snades-men. In any case, a word like ruaim postu&shy;lates a Pre-Celtic *roud-s-men. See also gruaim, seaman, reim, lom, trom.

After the explosives the m is aspirated and the explosive dis&shy;appears, as in the case of freumh (vṛdmâ); but seemingly the accented prefix ad- preserves the m: cf. amas, amail, aimsir.

Preserved G. m, intervocalic or final, may arise from (1) m or n before m, (2) s before m (also ‑bsm, ‑tsm, ‑dsm, ‑csm, ‑gsm), (3) ‑ngm, or ‑ṇgm, as in ceum, leum, beum, geum, or ‑ndm as in teum, (4) nꬶ becoming mb as in ìm, tum, tom, etc., or (5) mb (‑mbh), as in im‑, iom‑.

The most character&shy;istic roots of the I. E. languages are at least triple-barrelled, so to speak: they show three grades of vowels. The root pet, for instance, in Greek appears as pet, pot, pt (πέτομαι, fly, ποτάομαι, flutter, πτερόν, wing). The first grade—e—may be called the “normal” grade, the second the “deflected” grade, and the last—pt—the “reduced” or “weak” grade. The reason for the reduced grade is evident; the chief accent is on another syllable. Why e inter&shy;changes with o is not clear. The