Page:The Celtic Review volume 3.djvu/121

 pronunciation, it generally has the sound that is called open e and that resembles, except that it is long, that of e in English ‘let,’ ‘set.’ The close sound, é, like that of e in English ‘whey,’ or that of a in English ‘fate,’ occurs occasionally in words that have ia in the north, but in general is confined to those words in which diphthongisation is not found, as beum, ceum, treun, beud, beus, etc. In contact with nasals, diphthongisation is found as a rule only in those instances in which the vowel is nasalised in the south, e.g. in eun, meur, but not in beum, treun. Of the words that have ia in the north, the following are found with é in the south—

Ceudna ‘céunna,’ ‘féirseag’ (for feursann), geur, reustladh (for reusladh), sleuchd, in Arran.

Deug, feun, geug, leubh, in Arran and Islay.

Feudail, gleus, reul, in Arran, Islay, and Perth.

Peur (a pear), in Arran, Islay, and Glenlyon, eud in Arran and East Perth, Seumas, in Arran and Glenlyon.

Sgeun (‘sgéan’) and déabh, in Islay, geuban, in Islay and Perth.

Céud (first) and céud (hundred), in Mid-Argyll.

Créadhach (crè), in Perth.

In Strathspey and in Sutherlandshire there are fewer instances of é than in Arran. The only words showing the change to ia, that are not known to have è, in place of é, in some district or other, are ceud, ceudna, deug, feudail, feun, geuban, peurtag, reul, reusail, and reusan, and of that small number three are borrowed words, while the diphthongisation of at least two others, feudail and reul, is local and exceptional. The association of the change to ia with the open sound è is thus very close. The tendency, apparently, when the vowel happens to be left undiphthongised in the north, is to sound it é, and further the vowel is apt in such cases to be é also in Arran and Islay, but è in Perth, Strathspey and Sutherland. Beurla, e.g. is béurla in Arran, Islay, North Argyll, part of Skye, North Inverness and West Ross, but bèurla in Perth and Sutherland, and geug is géug in Arran,