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 the atmo&shy;sphere, climate’, Di. plainéid. It may also be noted that before the ending ‑αχə (fem. plur. of nouns and fut. act. of the second conju&shy;gation) there is a distinct tendency to unvoice a preceding media, e.g. dʹαrəkαχə mʹə from dʹαrəguw, ‘to light’, Di. deargadh; dʹarəfαχə mʹə, ‘I shall assert’, from dʹαrəwi꞉m, Di. dearbh&shy;uighim; dʹi꞉kαχə, plur. of dʹi꞉g, ‘dyke, trench’, Di. díog, plur. díogacha.

The plural bαh, ‘cows’, <bα` M.Ir. ba (acc.), is due to the tendency to make a short final accented vowel end in breath (§ ). Words which in Donegal have come to end in ç in the singular sometimes have h in the plural, e.g. ĩ꞉wα̃iç, ‘image’, M.Ir. imaig, plur. ĩ꞉wα̃ihəNỹ꞉.

This symbol denotes the y sound in Engl, ‘yes’ but the organs are tense during the produc&shy;tion of the Irish sound and the middle of the tongue is raised much higher towards the hard palate. As is the case with all palatal (palata&shy;lised) sounds in Donegal the tip of the tongue is pressed more or less firmly against the lower teeth.

Most commonly j represents an aspirated initial d or g before O.Ir. e, i, e.g. α jiə, ‘O God’; mə je꞉i, ‘behind me’; jrʹαs mʹə, ‘I drove away’, Di. dreas&shy;uighim; fwi꞉ jĩ꞉vαs, ‘scorned, despised’, = faoi dhímheas; ji꞉lʹɛi mʹə, ‘I digested’, Di. díleagh&shy;aim; ty꞉w o jαs, ‘south side’; ə jiɲ, ‘the wedge’, = an ghing; ə jαlαχ, ‘the moon’; jα꞉r mʹə, ‘I cut’; bo̤d ə jɛrtə, ‘blast of wind’, = bod an ghiorta, cp. Di. giorraide, giorta; αiçərə n χytʹ fʹrʹ꞉dʹfʹrʹi꞉dʹ [sic] ə jrʹi꞉si꞉ = aith&shy;ghiorra an chait fríd an ghríos&shy;aigh, i.e. trying to take a short cut and coming to grief, cp. also Lʹeimʹ əNʹ tʹinʹi əNə gʹrʹi꞉suw, ‘from Scylla into Charybdis’; jrʹαd, pret. of gʹrʹαduw, ‘to thrash’; pαræʃtʹə jliNʹə, ‘Parish of Glen(colum&shy;kille)’.

Medially we sometimes find j arising from dh = O.Ir. d before e, i. This is the case after a long vowel in kα꞉jαχ, ‘filthy’, Keat. cáidheach; prα꞉jiNʹαχ, ‘diligent’, O’R. práidhin&shy;each, Di. práidh&shy;neach. Further in bə ·je꞉, budh e, bə ·jα, budh eadh, cp. Henebry p. 61, KZ. xxxv 325. But note the proclitic form in bwi ən mαduw ə riNʹ ə, ‘it was the dog that did it’. mʹα꞉jəm, ‘I weigh’, Di. meadhaim, is a new formation to the pret. vα̃꞉i < *mheadh&shy;uigh and has become the model for other verbs whose stems end in a long vowel, such as te꞉jəm, ‘I choose’, from tö̤uw, Di. toghadh; tʹrʹo꞉jəm, ‘plough’, Di. treabhaim;