Page:The Celtic Review volume 3.djvu/127

112 ‘mìod.’ The undiphthongised form of deug is kept in Perth, Strathspey, W. Ross, and Lewis in ‘da uair dhéug,’ often preceded by the article and compressed ‘an da’r ’éug’ (the twelve o’clock); in Sutherland ‘an da’r ’iaog.’ In Irish ‘dareug’ means twelve persons.

Similar diphthongisation is found in Munster in such words as ceud, deug, eun, feuch, feur, and also in words in which it is unknown among us, as breun, eug, treun, and even eudochas, eudtrom (light), eugcóir (injustice), eugmhais (want), and others. To Scottish Gaels the diphthongisation of eucoir and eugmhais, not to speak of eudochas or aotrom (for eutrom), seems a sheer impossibility, and yet it is found with us in the word èasgaidh, i.e. eu-sgìth, of exactly similar formation.

Long i (ìo), which normally represents an original long e in Gaelic and the other Celtic tongues, as fìor (true), vêro&#8209;, Latin, vêrus, is diphthongised generally, except in the South, in such words as—
 * Dìomhain, dìomhair, gnìomh, snìomh, crìon, dìon, fìon, lìon, sìon, mìos, nìos, dìol, sìol, fìor, sìor, sìorruidh, cìoch, crìoch, dìosg, grìosach, ìosal, sìos, etc.

In Arran, Kintyre, and Islay, ìo in these and other words has the sound simply of Gaelic ì (that is, the sound of e in English ‘me,’ ‘be’), with nasalisation when in contact with m or n. In North Argyll it is the same except that ia occurs in one or two instances (as dìomhain, snìomh), and that in some of the words with n, l, or r following—lìon, spìon, sìol, fìor—a slight ao sound may be noticed between the long ì and the liquid.

In East Perthshire, in Badenoch and Strathspey, and in Sutherlandshire, ìo is sounded ia nasal in the words in which it is flanked by m or n, and iao in other cases. In a few instances—sìoman, crìon (little), lìon (flax), lìon (fill), dìosg, grìosach, sìos, Strathspey retains the long ì, and shows again