Page:The Celtic Review volume 4.djvu/290

Rh in the north. It is lost in Sutherland in fichead, twenty; beannaichte, blessed; mallaichte, cursed, there ‘mullait,’ with meaning of ‘wicked,’ and in cluich, play. ‘Dealrait' for dealraichte, brightened, etc., also occurs in a hymn published with those of Donald Matheson, Kildonan, Sutherland, and composed probably by one of his sons. In West Ross ch is lost in cluich, but is more apt in that district to be sounded h. In Gairloch a phrase used to order one out of a house sounds ‘Gabh am fhoith,’ literally, ‘Take the green.’ The word is faich, a green, a lawn, Irish faithche, and is pronounced ‘foih’ and also, at all events in a couple of place-names, fothaigh (‘fohi’). The latter is an oblique case taking the place of the nominative. An Fhothaigh is a small township at Aultbea, and Foy Lodge, Lochbroom, is in Gaelic Tigh na Fothaigh. With fothaigh, which is the regular genitive of the word in the district, may be compared clothaigh (‘clohi’), the pronunciation there of cloiche, genitive of clach, a stone. The pronunciations here also of foipe, roimpe, and troimpe, respectively ‘fòhi,’ ‘ròhi,’ and tròhi (o nasal in two last), dealt with below, are to be kept in view.

The West Ross duainidh, bad, ill of looks or of conduct, notwithstanding that it is duaineil in Sutherland, seems to be for duaichnidh, which, however, comes from du-aithne.

Flichne, sleet, a derivative of fluich, wet, is flinne in Arran, Islay, and Skye. In West Ross flichneadh-shneachd (dh = g) is used. MacAlpine gives flichne for Cowal and Coll, Armstrong has flichne and flicheann; the latter on the face of it should be a Perthshire pronunciation of the word.

Among Scottish Gaelic dialects loss or absence of slender ch in medial and final positions is peculiarly characteristic of the speech of Arran and, though perhaps in a less degree, of Kintyre and Islay. Medially it is silent in Arran in fichead, twenty, flichne, sleet, timchioll, around, pronounced ‘tiumall,’ the personal name Mìcheil, Michael; in passive participles of ich verbs, as beannaichte, blessed; ionnsuichte, taught; in dìchioll, diligence, at the north end of the island, and others. In the future indicative and other parts of