Page:Quiggin Dialect of Donegal 0007.png

 atáthar; Nʹi꞉ αhαr < ní fhaghthar as in the proverb Nʹi꞉ αhər sæLʹ gən çαNαχt, ‘lard is not got without buying’; mαhærʹ, ‘mother’, O.Ir. máthir; drαh ə Nαmə ʃɔ, ‘about this time’ = i dtráth an ama seo, cp. Craig, Iasg. s. dratha; Lαhirʹ in sə Nαm ə Lαhirʹ, ‘at the present time’, always occurs with α but double forms seem to have existed in the older language.

Shortening before a consonant group takes place in Nα̃vdʹə plural of Nα̃꞉widʹ, ‘enemy’, O.Ir. acc. pl. náimtea.

Irish throughout its history has never been very careful to dis&shy;tinguish ă and ŏ (cp. Wi. bass, boss) and Donegal speech forms no exception in this respect. In a number of words α commonly appears instead of ɔ, o̤. These are: αgəs, ‘and’, O.Ir. ocus; αskəL, ‘arm-pit’, M.Ir. ochsal; bαrəb, ‘rough’, M.Ir. borb; bαtæLʹtʹə, ‘wap of hay’, Di. batailte < Engl., ‘bottle’; blαgədʹ, ‘bald patch’ if < Meyer’s bloc .i. cruinn; brαhαn, ‘porridge’, Di. Macbain brochán, Meyer brothchán; brαLαχ, ‘breast’, Meyer brollach; fαLænʹ, ‘healthy’, Di. fóllain (cp. Molloy’s 13th dialect-list); fαχlə, ‘parched’, Di. fochla (with different meaning); fαruw, ‘roost’, M.Ir. forud; fαskuw, ‘shelter’, O.Ir. foscad; kαgnuw, ‘to chew’, M.Ir. cocnam; kαL, ‘hazel’, O.Ir. coll; kαskərtʹ, ‘to strike, thaw’, O.Ir. coscar; mαguw, ‘to mock’ < Engl., cp. Louth mogadh; sαp, ‘wisp’, M.Ir. sopp (note ʃïnʹ ə sαp ə row ə tʹiəsk əN, ‘das also war des Pudels Kern’); skαhuw, ‘to wean’, M.Ir. scothaim; spαrαn but also spɔrαn, ‘purse’, M.Ir. sporán; tαrəmαn, ‘noise’, Wi. Ir. T. iv 1 tormán. In other words sometimes α appears, sometimes ɔ, cp. fɔskluw, ‘to open’, fut. Nʹi꞉ αsklαχi꞉. Cp. further §§,.

α is also frequent in syllables having secondary stress, where it most commonly repre&shy;sents an O.Ir. long vowel. Thus O.Ir. á in the deriv&shy;ative suffix ‑án gives α, e.g. gʹαrαn, ‘horse’, lit. ‘gelding’, M.Ir. gerrán; skαhαn, ‘mirror’, M.Ir. scathán; glu꞉rəkαn, ‘numbness’, cp. tα꞉ ko̤Luw glu꞉rəkænʹ əN mə χɔʃ, ‘my foot is asleep’. As in O.Ir. there are other sub&shy;stantival termina&shy;tions which give ‑ən in Donegal, e.g. ‑on, ‑un in mecon, in a number of words we find hesi&shy;tation between ‑αn and ‑ən. Thus the form just mentioned occurs as mʹαkən and mʹαkαn (the word is used principal&shy;ly of ‘carrots’ but it is also applied to the roots of dock and agrimony, Lo̤s Nə mʹαkαn, ‘fungus, moss’). By the side of the regular form LαhənLʹαhən [sic], ‘wide’, O.Ir. lethan, one also hears Lʹαhαn. Similarly gʹaləwαn, gʹαləwən, ‘sparrow’, Dinneen gealbhan, M.Ir. gelbund; ruəkən, ‘cockle’ = Di. ruacán. Adjec-