Page:Quiggin Dialect of Donegal 0082.png

 wounded’; lɔk mə χri꞉, ‘my heart failed me’; ïŋə lö̤꞉rʹ, ‘toenail’; dʹe꞉lo꞉r̥ə, ‘eloquent’; ku꞉gʹi꞉ ləiən, ‘the province of Leinster’; bʹlʹiïnʹ luə, ‘an early year’; gʹαrænʹ lα꞉dʹirʹə, ‘strong horses’; tro̤mli꞉, ‘nightmare’; dən vαn lo̤g, ‘to the weak woman’; sə wα꞉d lα꞉n, ‘in the full boat’; tα꞉ ʃɛ əN αr wo꞉r lα꞉dʹirʹ, ‘he’s a big strong man’. L is however never aspirated after the article or çïd, ‘first’, e.g. ə Lo̤χɔg, ‘the mouse’; ə çïd Lα꞉, ‘the first day’. The same holds good for Lʹ, N, Nʹ.

The aspiration of initial sL which should be L̥ is L, cp. Pedersen p. 23, e.g. də lα꞉Nʹtʹə, ‘your health’; lα꞉ni, pret. of sLα꞉nuw, ‘to redeem’; kα lïNʹuw huw, ‘what’s your name (surname)?’

L is not aspirated after r, e.g. gʹαr` Lα꞉dirʹ, ‘middling strong’; fʹiərLo̤g, ‘very weak’; fʹïr Lα꞉dʹirʹə, ‘strong men’. Similarly after erʹ, ‘upon’, as in ər Lα꞉r, ‘down, on the ground’.

In gɔl ·ço꞉lʹ, ‘singing’, < gabháil cheóil, the palatal quality is often given up in the syllable preceding the stress, cp. ə fʹαr sən, ‘that man’ and Zimmer, Unter&shy;suchungen über den Satz&shy;accent des Alt&shy;irischen p. 4.

An unvoiced l with strongly breathed off-glide occurs in futures and a few substan&shy;tives, e.g. dʹiəl̥ə mʹə, ‘I shall sell’; dʹu꞉l̥i ʃə, ‘he will suck’; mɔl̥ə mʹə, ‘I shall praise’; ɔ꞉l̥ə mʹə, ‘I shall drink’, bʹαl̥uw, ‘grease’, Di. bealadh, Meyer belad; mʹαl̥ɔ꞉, ‘inter&shy;ruption, delay’, Di. meathladh; ʃiəl̥α꞉, ‘strain’, cp. Di. siothladh, M.Ir. sithlaim, ʃiəl̥αn, ‘strainer’, Di. siothlán.

This symbol denotes a palatal l followed by a j-sound. For the formation cp. Jespersen p. 129. Of Lʹ and Nʹ Pedersen says (p. 21)꞉ “Lʹ and Nʹ are much more strongly palatal&shy;ised (i.e. than lʹ and nʹ), so strongly, that in the transi&shy;tion from these sounds to a (back‑) vowel one seems to hear a j-glide (which is not the case with lʹ and nʹ)”. This j-glide is also clearly heard before palatal vowels. Dottin writes (RC. xiv 107) ꞉ “L’l et l’n devant une voyelle palatale ne sont pas exacte&shy;ment le l et le n mouillé du français ; l’élément palatal n’est pas entière&shy;ment fondu avec la consonne”. The articula&shy;tion of Lʹ and indeed of almost all the palatal conso&shy;nants (Nʹ, ʃ, tʹ, dʹ, kʹ, gʹ) resembles that of L. The front rim of the tongue is pressed firmly against the lower teeth whilst the front of the tongue covers the greater part of the hard palate. Cp. Chr. Bros. Aids to the Pron. of Irish p. 19.