Page:The Celtic Review volume 4.djvu/188

 geamhradh, samhradh, geamhta; and sometimes after a long vowel or dipthong, as àmhuinn, cliamhuinn, sgiamhuil. The same pronunciation is heard in West Ross in most of those words, with the exception of the monosyllables, and also in nàmhaid, glamhadh (for sglamhadh), and tamhasg. It is heard in Sutherland additionally in dìomhain and in alternative pronunciations of ìomhaigh and sámhach. Reamhar, fat, which is ‘revar’ in Arran and Kintyre and ‘r’avar’ with MacAlpine, and ‘re-ur’ in North Argyll and West Ross, is ‘re-ur' and ‘rewar' in Perth and ‘r’awar’ in Sutherland. The word for a song, which is óran in Arran and Kintyre and MacAlpine, and òran in North Argyll, Skye, and (with ò nasalised) Perth, is amhran, ‘awran’ (or ‘auran’), with aw (or au) nasalised in Strathspey, West Ross, Sutherland, and Lewis. In Irish the word is written amhrán and abhrán and, as usual reversing the relations as they are in Scotland, is pronounced ‘óran’ in the north of Ireland and ‘auran’ in the south.

h

Instances of this have been given from West Ross, where it is found, in ‘ahuich’ for amhaich (amhach) and ‘fohair’ for famhair.

nil

Besides instances referred to already—the prefix comh, etc.—a few of the words in which mh is silent apparently in all dialects are cumhang, tomhas, umhail, umhal, romham, romhad, tromham, tromhad, etc., cuimhne, Domhnach, cloimh, roimh, troimh. In Domhnall, Donald, mhn are all usually silent. In ùmhlachd (obedience), where mh is silent, u owes its length (ù) to the contraction of the syllable from umhal, obedient, and has caused this adjective sometimes to be written erroneously ùmhal.

The sound of short open o is given in Arran to the termination amh or eamh in the ordinal numerals and in the word teagamh. Shaw, in his Dictionary, writes ceathro, fourth; coigo, fifth; fithchiodo, twentieth, etc.; also teaga, perhaps.