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 may arise from various sources and inter&shy;changes with e. Indi&shy;vidual speakers differ very consider&shy;ably in the employ&shy;ment of the e-sounds and hard and fast rules cannot be estab&shy;lished. Indeed it is charac&shy;teristic of Donegal Irish that most of the short vowels can vary within consider&shy;able limits, the on- and off-glides of the neighbour&shy;ing conso&shy;nants being so to speak of greater import&shy;ance for the listener than exactness of vowel timbre. Finck makes no attempt to distin&shy;guish between the various e-sounds but it seems to me advisable to attempt to differen&shy;tiate the Donegal varieties.

ɛ often represents O.Ir. accented e before a consonant with palatal temper, e.g. fʹɛkʹαl, ‘to see’, Wi. féccim; jɛv ʃə, ‘he gets’, Wi. ni fogeib s. fo-gabim; Lʹɛfʹtʹαn, ‘flat-foot’, Di. leiftean; Lʹɛkʹə, gen. sing. of Lʹαk, ‘flag’, M.Ir. lec; mʹɛLʹɔg, ‘curb, wattle of a cock’, according to Macbain < O.Ir. bél; mʹɛhəl, ‘party of labourers’, M.Ir. methel (but gen. sing. mʹel̥ʹə); ʃɛvtʹuw, ‘to shift’ < Engl. kʹɛrdʹ, ‘trade, profes&shy;sion’, O.Ir. ceird (acc.) shews retention of ɛ before r < rʹ (note dʹαnuw kʹɛrdʹə, ‘futuere’).

Not infrequently an older é (now written éi) is shortened to ɛ, thus before h < th in Lʹɛhαrαχt, ‘reading’, Di. léigh&shy;theoir&shy;eacht; in a syllable with medium stress, α çɛlʹə, ‘each other’, O.Ir. céle, Manx chelley, the form with unreduced vowel çeilʹə occurs in poems, cp. p. 194 l. 37. ɛdirʹ, ‘between’, O.Ir. eter, etir seems due to confusion with αdər- in αdərꬶiə, ‘inter&shy;cession’, Wi. etar‑.

Owing to palatalisation O.Ir. accented a, o followed by a palatal consonant sometimes give ɛ, e.g. ɛgʹ, ɛgʹə, ɛkʹi, O.Ir. oc, oca, aci; ɛvNʹαχə, plur. of o꞉Nʹ, ‘river’, M.Ir. abann, plur. aibne; gɛnʹə̃v, ‘sand’, M.Ir. gainim (dat.); gɛnʹαn, ‘gannet’ (?). seivirʹ, ‘rich’, M.Ir. saidbir commonly has ei but sɛvirʹ is also heard, which is probably due to the com&shy;parative Nʹi꞉s sɛvrʹə and the substan&shy;tive sɛvrʹəs, ‘riches’, where the shorten&shy;ing is regular before a group of conso&shy;nants. Here we may mention Lɛhə, plur. of Lα꞉, ‘day’, O.Ir. lathi, lathe.

In a few instances we find ɛ where we least expect it, cor&shy;respond&shy;ing to an older e before a non-palatal consonant, e.g. bʹɛri꞉, plur. of bʹαrαχ, ‘heifer’, Di. bearach; kʹɛdi꞉nʹə, ‘Wednesday’, with ɛ for ï, cp. § ; Lʹɛhαχ, ‘sea-weed used as manure’, Di. leathach, kɔrαn Lʹehi꞉, ‘a hook for cutting sea-weed’; Lʹɛmɔg, ‘nip’, Di. líomóg. dʹɛrəmwidʹ, M.Ir. Diarmait, is peculiar.

In syllables with secondary stress ɛ occurs in α꞉vɛʃ, ‘ocean’, Di. aibhéis, instead of æ in α꞉rNʹɛʃ (§ ).