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 The greatest uncertainty prevails when e forms the first and i the second clement of a diphthong. When ei stands before any other palatal consonant than those mentioned in §, J. H. usually has ɛi whilst the younger people prefer ei, e.g. kʹlʹɛiv, gen. sing. of kʹlʹiuw, ‘basket’; Lʹɛijəm, ‘I read, melt’, but past part. Lʹeitʹə, imperf. pass. lʹeitʹi꞉; dʹi꞉lʹɛiəm, ‘I digest’, M.Ir. dílegim, ji꞉lʹɛi mʹə, ‘I digested’; kʹlʹɛ̃iəv, ‘sword’, plur. kʹlʹɛ̃ifʹαχə. Before mʹ, ɛi, ei and even ɛə are heard, thus Lʹɛimʹ, ‘spring, jump’, M.Ir. léimm; kʹɛimʹ, ‘dignity’, M.Ir. céimm. Hence ɛi usually arises from O.Ir. é followed by a palatal consonant and sometimes from O.Ir. accented e followed by palatal g (Mod.Ir. gh).

This diphthong occurs in a few infinitives, where an inter&shy;vocalic gh, dh have become silent before the termi&shy;nation ‑uw, as in Lʹɛuw, ‘to read, melt’, Di. léigheadh, O.Ir. legad (‘to melt’); tʹɛuw, ‘to heat’, Di. téidheadh but tʹeiji꞉ ʃə, ‘he warms’; spʹrʹɛuw, ‘to scatter’, Di. spréidh&shy;eadh, also in spʹrʹɛuw ɔrt, ‘bad cess to you’ written spréadh, spréamh Cl. S. 18 vii ’03 p. 3 col. 2. The infin&shy;itive of dʹi꞉lʹɛiəm, ‘I digest’, is dʹi꞉lʹɛαuw.

This diphthong may be regarded as the regular Donegal represen&shy;tative of O.Ir. accented é by compen&shy;satory lengthen&shy;ing, when standing before a non-palatal consonant. Before r and oc&shy;casional&shy;ly before other sounds more especial&shy;ly as the initial of tri&shy;syllables, we find ɛ꞉ for ɛə, cp. § . Examples—dʹɛəd, ‘row of teeth’, O.Ir. dét; ɛəd, ‘jealousy’, O.Ir. ét; ɛən, ‘bird’, O.Ir. én; ɛədo꞉nʹ, ‘shallow’, Di. éadoimhin; ɛədrəm, ‘light’, M.Ir. étromm; fʹɛədəm, ‘I may’, M.Ir. fétaim (this verb is also used idi&shy;omatical&shy;ly in the sense of Eng. ‘need’, locally ‘might’, Nʹi꞉ ɛədəN tuw kɔruw, ‘you need not stir’); fʹɛəsɔg, ‘beard’, M.Ir. fésóc; Nʹɛəl, ‘cloud’, O.Ir. nél (gen. sing. Nʹeilʹ); tʹrʹɛən, ‘strong’, O.Ir. trén. Also in the late loan-words fʹɛəstə, ‘feast’, Di. féasta; rɛəsu꞉n, ‘reason’, Di. réasún.

ɛə also arises in a few instances through contraction owing to the quies&shy;cence of inter&shy;vocalic d, g. Examples—bʹrʹɛə, ‘fine’, Meyer bregda; dʹɛənαχ, ‘last’, O.Ir. dédenach; ɛən, ‘ivy’, M.Ir. edenn; əmʹɛəwəs əgəm = da mbéidh&shy;eadh fhios agam; LʹɛəN,