Page:The Celtic Review volume 3.djvu/334

 SCOTTISH GAELIC DIALECTS

(Continued from p. 239.)

a for initial ea

In North Argyll (Sunart) initial ea in a few instances is sounded a. Ealamh or eathlamh is ‘alamh,’ eanbhruith ‘anbhruich,’ and eanghlas ‘anghlas.’ Eanchainn is here ‘anchaill.’ There is a corresponding pronunciation in the case of io and of iu. Eathlamh, however, which is althamh (‘alhu’) in West Ross, is athlamh in Irish and athlam in Early Irish.

In such words as beum, ceum, feum with feumach, feumail, etc., geum, leum, teum, breun, treun, beur, eur, speur, beuban, treubh, creuchd, beud, deud, treud, beus, etc., eu is not known to become ia but is sounded é both north and south. M and n also where they occur in those words do not nasalise the vowel. Another diphthong, however, composed of e and u is heard in North Argyll and in Mull, Tiree, Coll, Eigg, etc., in the word feumach. In some parts of that area the sound seems to be rather iu or even yu. This pronunciation is not found in any other of those words, not even in feum or in feumail, in at least a great part of that area. 