Page:Quiggin Dialect of Donegal 0049.png

 caigh&shy;theach; αrt α kʹaLy꞉, ‘Art O’Kelly’; kʹαNy꞉m, ‘I buy’, M.Ir. cendaigim.

After other non-palatal consonants than those mentioned in the preceding paragraph the character&shy;istic features of y are not so strongly marked and we get a sound between y and i, now approach&shy;ing more nearly to the one, now to the other. This is the case after w, p, t, d, s, e.g. in tyNʹə, gen. sing. of to̤N, ‘wave’; sy꞉, ‘to sit’, O.Ir. sude; sy꞉, ‘sage’, O.Ir. sui; i꞉nuw, ‘wonder’ but Nʹi꞉rʹ wy꞉nuw, ‘it was no wonder’.

We have seen that y꞉, i꞉ frequently take the place of ⅄꞉ especial&shy;ly with the younger people but even J. H. has y꞉ in a number of words such as tyuw, ‘side’, O.Ir. tóib; kryuw, ‘branch’, M.Ir. cróeb, cráeb, gen. sing. kri꞉və, plur. kry꞉wαχə). In the case of aoi great uncertain&shy;ty prevails. J. H. sometimes has y꞉ in y꞉ʃ, ‘age’, O.Ir. áis; y꞉lʹ, gen. sing. of ⅄꞉l, ‘lime’, O.Ir. áel and frequent&shy;ly in inflected forms like sy꞉rʹ, gen. sing. of s⅄꞉r, ‘free, cheap’. But the tendency with the younger genera&shy;tions is to introduce i꞉ every&shy;where.

The so-called irrational vowel in Donegal seems to lie between the mid-mixed ə in German Gabe (narrow according to Sweet) and my ï with which it often appears to inter&shy;change. It may be regarded as a lowered ï and it is interest&shy;ing to find that Craig writes: “in the following a is obscure (i.e. un&shy;stressed), and is pro&shy;nounced like i in mist (= ï):—asam, asat &c.” (Grammar² p. 3). In this book I have chosen to write ə before l, n, r, m &c. instead of ḷ, ṇ, ṛ, ṃ, as the quality of the vowel seems to me to be generally retained, cp. Finck’s remarks i pp. 34, 35. ə may represent the reduction of any O.Ir. short vowel in syllables not bearing the chief stress, except in the case of the termi&shy;nation ‑ach. Before palatal conso&shy;nants i takes the place of ə (§ ).

Examples of ə as the reduction of O.Ir. short vowels in un&shy;stressed syllables—(a) O.Ir. a, αləbənαχ, ‘Scotch, Presby&shy;terian’, O.Ir. albanach; αsəl, ‘ass’, M.Ir. assal; αstər (χlïNʹə), ‘labour’, Meyer astar; α̃uwərk, ‘sight’, M.Ir. amarc; α꞉məd, ‘timber’, M.Ir. admat; bαnəLtrə, ‘nurse’, M.Ir. banaltru; bαtə, ‘stick’, M.Ir. bata; gαNtənəs, ‘scarcity’, Di. ganntanas; kαr̥əNαχ, ‘loving’, Meyer carthan&shy;ach; ruəmən Nə gyNʹəl, ‘daddy long-legs’, cp. Di. ruaim, ‘a long hair’, O’R. ruaghmhar, ‘whisker’