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 persons under that age are rapidly substitut&shy;ing the labio-dental for the bilabial sound. Finck regards the Aran f, v as labio-dental (i pp. 64, 77) and it would be interest&shy;ing to know if any distri&shy;bution of the sounds similar to that described above exists in the west. Dottin (RC. xiv 104) gives fʹ as labio-dental but is not explicit on the subject of f, v. For Munster cp. further Chr. Bros. Grammar p. 9 (probably based on Henebry). Henderson (ZCP. v 97) and Rhys (p. 87) both regard labio&shy;dental f, v as the normal sounds in Scotch and Manx Gaelic but I think that if the following facts are taken into considera&shy;tion it is impos&shy;sible to avoid the conclu&shy;sion that bilabial f, v were every&shy;where the original sounds. i. Irish initial f arose from Idg. u̯. ii. At the present day inter&shy;vocalic f repre&shy;sents bhth, mhth, i.e. an unvoiced w. It is frequent&shy;ly impos&shy;sible to distin&shy;guish between w̥ and bilabial f, as they are so closely related to one another in formation, iii. χ + w frequent&shy;ly passes into fw (§ ). iv. English words beginning with wh appear in Irish and Anglo-Irish with fw, cp. the spellings fwenever, fweel.

Initial f represents O.Ir. f before a, o, u or before l, r followed by the same vowels, e.g. fαdə, ‘long’ M.Ir. fota; fαruw, ‘roost’, M.Ir. forud; fαrsiNʹ, ‘plentiful’, O.Ir. fairsing; fαlαχ, ‘hiding’, M.Ir. folach; fα꞉, ‘cause’, M.Ir. fáth, fád; fα꞉gælʹ, ‘to leave’, M.Ir. fácbáil; flαihiʃ (pl.), ‘heaven’, Di. flaitheas, O.Ir. flaith; fokəl, ‘word’, O.Ir. focul; fõ꞉wər, ‘autumn’, M.Ir. fogamur; fr⅄꞉χ, ‘heather’, O.Ir. froech; fwærʹə ‘wake of the dead’, M.Ir. faire; fwəidʹə, ‘patience’, O.Ir. foditiu; fwïLʹNʹi꞉m, ‘I suffer’, O.Ir. foloing (3rd sing.); fwïlʹ, ‘blood’, O.Ir. fuil; fwirʹαχt, ‘to tarry’, M.Ir. furecht; fwi꞉Lʹi꞉, ‘leavings’, Wi. fuidell; fwi꞉ʃuw, ‘improve&shy;ment’, M.Ir. foessam; fwi꞉wər, ‘edge’, M.Ir. fáebur; fw⅄꞉grə, ‘to proclaim’, O.Ir. fócre; fw⅄꞉χɔg, ‘limpet’, M.Ir. faochóg.

f also occurs as the aspirated form of initial p, e.g. sə fαræʃtʹə, ‘in the parish’; flu꞉χ ʃə, ‘he choked’; tʹαχ ə fo̤bwilʹ, ‘Roman Catholic chapel’; ꬶα꞉ fα꞉ʃtʹə, ‘two children’.

Medial f usually arises from O.Ir. b, m followed by th or ch. The off-glide is a kind of w̥ and is clearly audible. Examples – gαfəN, ‘aloes’; kα꞉fri꞉, ‘sowins’, Di. cáith-bhruith; Lα꞉frəN, ‘one of the handles of a flail’, Di. lámh-chrann; mαrəfαχ, ‘slaughter’, cp. Atk. marbthach; Nỹufə, ‘sancti&shy;fied’, Di. naomhtha, Nỹufər, pres. pass. M.Ir. noemthar. The ending ‑fə of the preposi&shy;tional pronouns in the third person plural is probably due to