Page:The Celtic Review volume 3.djvu/119

 long liquids. Even u is stated to be diphthongised into au sometimes, but all the examples given, with one doubtful exception, are borrowed words, and therefore liable to eccentricity. I is lengthened in sinn, ‘we,’ linn, ‘with us’; in other cases before long nasals it has the diphthongal sound of the English pronoun I (‘Ai’), and before long l it has the diphthongal sound of the same pronoun as pronounced by an Irishman (‘Oi’). The addition of a syllable has in like circumstances the same effect or non-effect as in Scottish Gaelic. Southern Irish thus resembles northern Gaelic and northern Irish resembles southern Gaelic.

Manx Gaelic corresponds, as regards this diphthongisation, not to the dialects of Irish and of Scottish Gaelic that are nearer to it, but to those that are more remote from it. It has, besides, apparently a further development. ‘Thus,’ says Professor Rhŷs, ‘“tromm,” now written “trome,” heavy, is pronounced in a way which sometimes strikes one as being “troum,” and sometimes “trobm” or “trubm,” with a sort of precarious b; and similarly with other words, such as “kione,” head, which becomes “kioun” or “kiodn,” and “lhong,” a ship, which becomes “logng” or “lugng.”’ The change has been extended in Manx, it appears, to words in which the nasal consonant was short but was preceded by a long vowel, and is not found, apparently, before l or r.

In old Cornish, by a development similar to that found in Manx words like ‘camm,’ crooked, and ‘gwyn,’ white—our fionn—became respectively ‘cabm’ and ‘gwydn.’

The strength of the tendency to diphthongise in such words as have been considered above is such as to influence the pronunciation of English in certain cases. The Irishman calls bold, ‘bould,’ cold, ‘could,’ hold, ‘hould,’ and so on. Here, as so often happens, extremes meet. The Caithness man also says ‘bould,’ ‘could’ ‘hould,’ and he owes the tendency to do so to Gaelic influence. The same sounds may be heard occasionally in Sutherland also, but they have been acquired, probably, by those who use them, in the neighbouring county.