Page:The Celtic Review volume 3.djvu/245

 West Perthshire, and is that given by MacAlpine. He has ao in truagh, but a in truaghan and in truaighe. Ao appears also once in Arran in uaigneach, though it is not heard, so far as known, in that word in the north. In East Perthshire and in Strathspey biadh when it is the noun (food) is ‘biao’; when it is the verb (feed) it is ‘bia.’

What has been said above holds good generally in similar circumstances in regard to diphthongised eu (èa, etc.). Ceutach, for example, is ‘ciatach’ in the one group of districts and ‘ciaotach’ in the other. Io also becomes ia or iao in different positions, as stated above (p. 112).

The digraph ai is variously sounded as a single vowel a, a nasal, e open, close, or nasal, or ao short, or as a diphthong composed of any one of those vowels along with i. Any distinctions are more local than general. The most prominent of them is that before n as in gràin, thàinig, ainm, gainmheach, raineach the digraph receives the sound of à or a in some districts as ‘grà’n,’ ‘a’nm,’ etc., and that of è or e in others, ‘gr’èn,’ ‘enm.’ Two prominent words that follow this analogy are màthair, ‘mèhir,’ or ‘mèr,’ and Gàidheal ‘G’è-al.’ Perhaps nowhere is e for ai so frequent as in North Argyll and Lochaber. It is more frequent in Strathspey than Badenoch; it may be heard on one side of the Tay in Perthshire while a is found on the other, and prevails in Kintyre while a holds the field in Arran. Raineach, however, is roineach in Kintyre, and gives the local name Ronachan, Gaelic Roineachan, meaning place of bracken or ‘brackenry.’ It is the same name as Ranachan, of which there are several in North Argyll and Inverness, and is a diminutive form of the Perthshire name Rannoch. When e does occur for ai in Arran it is not open e to which a changes as above, but close e as in gairbhe, mairbh; in several words in which oi is written for an older ai as coileach, coille, goil, doire, goid; in airean (ploughman), and in air (on). In all those instances except air, however, ai or oi gets the sound of ao short in a