Page:The Celtic Review volume 4.djvu/349

 at the present day Sasgunn, though the adjective is there Sasunnach, is Sostyn in Manx.

Contrasted with that are such northern forms as cosg used by Duncan Ban, and cosgus for cosd and cosdus, and perhaps cas-ruisg for cas-ruisgte, barefoot.

gh broad

Broad gh when non-initial is unaspirated as a rule in Arran. Amhghair, affliction, bràghad, throat, and truaghan, a miserable creature, are respectively àmhagair, bràgad, and truagan. Agus, and, also is pronounced there as written, not as in North Argyll and West Ross aghus, nor as so often in other districts aoghus (ao short). Leómhann, lion, Old Irish leoman, from Latin leo, leonem, sometimes written leòghann, and pronounced with gh by MacAlpine is leògann in Arran. At the end of monosyllables especially, as dragh, trouble, lagh, law, seagh, sense, sleagh, spear, gh is g in Arran. At the north end even brèagh, fine, may be heard as brèag, and at Shiskine laogh, calf, is laog, whence the local name Glenlaeg or Calves’ Glen.

In a few instances such as àmhghair, affliction, aoghaire, shepherd, truaghan, miserable person, etc., gh has its proper sound in most dialects. It is sounded in aghaidh, face, in Arran, Perth, West Ross, and Sutherland, but is silent in Kintyre, North Argyll, and Skye; MacAlpine gives both pronunciations. Foghar, autumn, harvest, Irish fóghmhar, Early Irish fogamur, has gh—faoghar—in Perth, Strathspey, and Sutherland; and bh—fe’bhar (close e)—in Arran, Kintyre, and Islay; in Skye it is fao’ar, in West Ross faowar, and in North Argyll fowr (o close), the vowel of the first syllable being short in all those pronunciations. In West Ross gh is heard in rìoghann, a nymph, etc., sometimes written rìbhinn, and by MacAlpine rìghinn with gh sounded slender in this case; in Early Irish it is rígan. In the same district gh is heard in làghan, sowens, the local form of làgan; possibly it should be làthan, a spelling favoured by the sound of à