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 krïn̥ʹαχtə, ‘wheat’, O.Ir. cruith&shy;necht; kʹɔ꞉ ·brin̥ʹə, ‘haze portend&shy;ing heat’, cp. Di. ceobhrán; Lʹin̥ʹə, compar. of Lʹαhən, ‘broad’; ræn̥ʹαχ, rαin̥ʹαχ, ‘fern’, M.Ir. raithnech. (c) < chn, e.g. dʹïn̥ʹu꞉r, ‘set of ten’, Di. deich&shy;neabhar, O.Ir. dechenbor; in̥ʹi꞉Nʹ, ‘brain’, M.Ir. inchind.

Note on the r sounds. Corresponding to the four l and four n sounds described above we expect to find four parallel r sounds (R, r, Rʹ, r), but it would seem that almost every&shy;where r has been general&shy;ised for R and there are no remains what&shy;so&shy;ever of Rʹ. If any traces of Rʹ had survived we might expect to find them in such sandhi combi&shy;nations as Nʹi꞉rʹ rʹïgər se, ‘he did not answer’; fʹαrəg ə Nʹirʹ rʹiʃNʹæʃi꞉ (fʹrʹiʃNʹæʃαχ), ‘the temper of the irritable man’. I have tried all imagin&shy;able combi&shy;nations but have never heard anything but rʹ. It is easy to form a palatal r with the articu&shy;lation of Lʹ, Nʹ, i.e. with the front rim of the tongue pressing against the lower teeth, but I cannot conceive why the sound was given up. Of R on the other hand there are distinct traces, but not in the initial position where it has become r. Fortunate&shy;ly Donegal has not leng&shy;thened the vowel in every case before R as Munster and Connaught have done and it is at the end of mono&shy;syllables after a short vowel that we must look for the sound.

By this symbol we denote a long, strongly trilled r with the tongue vibrating against the alveoles just above the upper teeth. Whether in pro&shy;nouncing R the point of the tongue original&shy;ly acted against the teeth as in the case of L, N, it is now impos&shy;sible to say. O’Brien in his Grammar says (p. 11)꞉ “It (viz. r) is sometimes written double, as barrach tow; earr, champion; and is then strongly pro&shy;nounced, with a longer dwelling on the sound of r than if it were written singly”. Now O’Brien was according to O’Donovan a native of Meath and it is quite likely that traces of R were preserved in that district as they have been in the west of Ulster. Quite un&shy;necessari&shy;ly Pedersen remarks (p. 38) that it is in&shy;conceiv&shy;able that rr in barrach should be long. For traces of R in Scotland see Henderson, ZCP. iv 523.