Page:Alexander Macbain - An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language.djvu/52

xxviii. gar, grian, gaol, guidhe, geas, guin. Labial&shy;ised ꬶ appears in bean, Eng. queen, bior, beò, bó, brà, quern, bràghad.

(2) Intervocalic Celtic g. See deigh, aghaidh, greigh, truagh, bleogh&shy;ainn, tigh, bragh, etc. In the termi&shy;nation of words it appears often as ch: teach (*tegos), mach, (*magos), imlich, im[th]ich, éirich, fuirich. Inter&shy;vocalic ꬶ labial&shy;ised does not seem to exist in modern G.

(3) Pre-consonantal Celtic g. Here ‑gr, ‑gl, ‑gn, become ‑r, ‑l, ‑n with vocalic lengthen&shy;ing, as feur, *vegro‑, àr, nàir, fuar, àl, fual, feun, *vegno‑, sròn, uan, tàin, bròn, etc. Before m, g is found in the combi&shy;nation ng‑m, which results in m with a preceding long vowel, as in ceum, leum, geum. Before s it becomes x and modern s, W. ch, as in uasal, W. uchel, as for ex, os, deer, W. ych, cas, las, uiseag. Before explo&shy;sives the g is variously preserved: ‑gb, ‑gd may be passed over; ‑ct, ‑gt appear as chd, as in seachd, bliochd, smachd, nochd, sneachd, etc.; ‑gk ends in ‑kk, now c, for which see post-conso&shy;nantal k; ‑gg appears as g, as in slug, bog, clag, lag, slige, smugaid.

(4) Post-consonantal Celtic g. After r and l the g is preserved in G., but often in W. becomes y; see dearg, fearg, searg, garg, lorg, balg, cealg, dealg, tulg. After n ordinary g is preserved, as in cumhang, long, muing, seang, fulaing. But labial&shy;ised ꬶ became b, and then coalesced with the n into mm, now m as in ìm, butter, Lat. unguentum, tum, cam, tom, ciomach, and in modern times cum, keep, from *congv in congbhail. For ng‑m see the foregoing paragraph. For sg see the next paragraph. After the explo&shy;sives, the g is preserved in the combi&shy;nations ‑tg (freagair), ‑dg (agair), and ‑gg, which see below.

(5) Intervocalic Gaelic g. It arises from ‑sg firstly, which in pre-Celtic times was ‑zg, as in beag, mogul, griogag, mèag, eagal, etc., which see under I. E. z above. From the explosive combi&shy;nations we have tg in freagair, *frith-gar‑, eagna, eagar; dg in agair, agus. The ‑gg must arise from a suffix in ‑go‑, which was operative in early Gadelic, if we discard Dr Stokes’ view already set forth. Cf. Eng. walk, hark, lurk, skulk, smirk. For this ‑gg see paragraph third above.

Intervocalic g may arise from a lost n before c, as in breug, geug, eug, etc. The previous vowel is length&shy;ened save in a few cases where the word—or sentence—accent has brought about a short syllable. Thus thig has short i, and in G. leig is short. This is regularly the case with the results from the prefix con, confused with cos, as in cogais, O. Ir. concubus, cadal, cagar, cogadh, etc.