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 smalcadh; bɔlk beside bαlk, bɔlkəNỹ꞉ Nə Lu꞉NəsNə, ‘August rains’, Di. balc. The hesi&shy;tation between α and ɔ in the O.Ir. suffix ‑óc has been mentioned in § and a number of words appear with both vowels, e.g. fɔli꞉m, ‘I hide’, ə wɔlαχ, wαlαχ, ‘in hiding’, M.Ir. folach, pret. dαli꞉ ʃə, past part. fαli꞉ʃtʹə; αχruw, ɔχruw, an ex&shy;clamation = ‘why, good heavens, I should just think so’, Craig writes áchrú (Iasg.); αtəruw, ɔtəruw, ‘between them’, Di. eatortha; ɔdi꞉, αdi꞉, ‘yon’ = adaí, Di. úd; Noχti꞉, ‘stripped, bare’ but tα꞉rNαχti꞉, ‘naked’, M.Ir. nocht; kɔrə·mʹiLʹə, ‘heath-pease’, Di. carra mhilis; mohuw, ‘to feel’, fut. act. mαihαχə mʹə, pres. mαihi꞉m, pres. pass. mɔtʹər. wɔkə tuw may be heard by the side of wαkə tuw, ‘did you see?’, bɔriαχt, ‘too much’ for bαriαχt, Di. bárraidh&shy;eacht. One might naturally think that this ɔ was spreading into W. Ulster from Connaught, but in the light of the Monaghan forms quoted by Lloyd we may assume that ɔ for α occurs sporadic&shy;ally in northern dialects as well as in the west and south.

ɔ represents M.Ir. eo in ɔχyrʹ, ‘key’, M.Ir. eochuir. This word has doubtless in&shy;fluenced ɔχyrʹ, ‘the roe of a fish’, M.Ir. iuchair. We expect *o̤χyrʹ. O.Ir. fliuch, ‘wet’, is sometimes pro&shy;nounced fʹlʹɔχ beside fʹlʹïχ, fʹlʹəχ, fʹlʹUχ. dʹoχ, ‘drink’ < O.Ir. deug, gen. sing. dige, on the lines of tech, ‘house’, gen. sing. tige, owes its vowel to the u-temper of the final in O.Ir.

An O.Ir. ó is reduced to ɔ in syllables with secondary stress, e.g. fi꞉dɔrʹ, ‘weaver’, Di. figh&shy;eadóir; spʹαlədɔrʹ, ‘mower’; ti꞉dɔrʹ, ‘thatcher’; bʹrʹïŋlɔdʹ, ‘dream’, Meyer brinn&shy;glóid; mα꞉lɔdʹ, ‘a foolish woman’, Di. málaid; tʹrʹïblɔdʹ, ‘trouble’, Di. trioblóid, M.Ir. treblait; ʃkʹïbɔl (ʃkʹïbαl), ‘barn’, Di. scioból; sæLʹɔrʹ beside sæLʹerʹ, ‘evident’, Di. soilléir. Nʹαmɔrt, ‘neglect, careless&shy;ness’, Nʹαmɔrtαχ, ‘careless’, are peculiar. Dinneen writes neamháird. In the Derry People 2 xii ’05 p. 2 col. 5, we find neamart. A remark&shy;able reduction of uə > ɔ before the stress occurs in Lɔχ·pʹi꞉Nʹə, ‘a penny&shy;worth’ < Luəχ, Di. luach; krɔχ ·eirʹ, ‘hay-stack’, < cruach. With this is to be compared sLɔ꞉ ʃi꞉, ‘the fairies’, < sluagh. gɔl ·çɔ꞉lʹ, ‘to sing’ (‘to sing a song’ is ɔ꞉rαn ə rα꞉(tʹ), im&shy;perative αbwirʹ ɔ꞉rαn) < gabháil cheóil, shews loss of palatal&shy;isation in a weakly stressed syllable. The full form gɔ꞉lʹ is used to mean ‘yeast’, Di. gabháil. gɔlʹ and gɔl are used side by side for ‘going’, = ag gabháil and ag dul. Similarly tɔrt ·dŨw̥`, ‘giving to me’ < to꞉rtʹ, Di. tabhairt, imper. tɔr, tər ·dŨw̥` ‘give me’; mɔrαn, ‘many, a quantity of’, Di.