Page:The Celtic Review volume 3.djvu/249

 MacAlpine has said, the nearest sound in English is that of u in Burns, throughout Argyllshire with the exception of Kintyre, and in the west of Perthshire. In Arran it has that sound of é and also in Kintyre. Another sound given to the vowel is that usually called French u or the Scottish u in such words as ‘mune’ moon, ‘shune’ (or ‘shoon’) shoes. In Aberdeenshire, it is well to observe, the vowel of such words is like ee in English been, seen, and accordingly they are written there ‘meen,’ ‘sheen.’ The spelling ‘shoon’ represents yet another pronunciation, viz., that of oo in English moon, soon. Ao gets this û sound in a great part of Gaeldom, as in East Perthshire, Badenoch, and Strathspey, Skye, West Ross-shire, and Sutherland. For the old óe, etc. the û sound is much more widespread than the ao sound. Caol, aom, raon, daor, fraoch, laogh, gaoth and many others generally show those various pronunciations in the different districts mentioned. Some words are apt to be exceptions. Caomh, naomh, caomhain and aon with their derivatives have ì in Arran and Kintyre and û in Argyllshire (Ardnamurchan and also MacAlpine) as well as in the eastern and northern districts. In East Perth, West Ross and Sutherland, it may be remarked, mh of naomh is now represented by a Gaelic u so that a diphthong is formed of û and u, ‘nûu.’ The same thing (without nasalisation of the vowels of course) has happened to craobh and taobh in East Perth and to craobh in West Ross, ‘crûu,’ ‘tûu.’ Taobh has gone a stage further in West Ross and Sutherland as has also craobh in the latter district; both vowels have coalesced into one long Gaelic u, ‘tù,’ ‘crù.’

Another instance of ì for ao in Arran and Kintyre appears in maoth, ‘mì.’ The name Aonghas, in which ao is short and n long wherever that is the form, takes the form ‘Naoghas’ in Arran and Kintyre (and Skye) and has short i for ao.

When ao is for a or o before dh or gh, it is long in a few instances as aobhar, aobrann, aoradh, fòghlum or faolum, and is short in many in which it is heard but not written. When short as in aghaidh ladhar, Foghar roghainn, it is sounded