Page:The Celtic Review volume 4.djvu/352

 represent maidinn with d non-sibilant as in Perthshire. One instance of non-sibilant slender t in a place·name is Allt Chailtnidh, Keltney Burn, near Aberfeldy.

The non-sibilant sound is heard sometimes in Skye, Eigg, North Argyll, and Arran, in taitneach, taitneas, and some forms of taitinn, specially such as have n following t immediately—taitnidh, will please; thaitneadh, would please, etc. It is heard in Sutherland in tilg, v. throw, cast.

The influence of analogy and the tendency to make exceptions conform to rule often cause the sibilant sounds to be given to the slender dentals in those cases, especially by the more educated speakers.

It is curious that the non-sibilant sound of t has been preserved also in the Manx form of our taitneas. According to Professor Rhys, ‘Voiceless mute t sounded like English t should represent Aryan t associated with a narrow vowel e or i, and we have it occasionally as in tatnys, now written taitnys, joy, delight, pleasure.’ In Irish apparently the dentals have sibilant sounds only in Connaught.

In Arran slender c is heard sometimes in place of t in taitiim, taitneach, and taitneas; thaicinn e ris, it pleased him; bheil sin a’ taicinn riut, does that please you?

An insertion of t in the group sr at the beginning of words is characteristic of Northern Gaelic, as srad, a spark; srann, snore; srath, a strath; srathair, a pack-saddle; sreath, a row, series; sreothart, a sneeze; srian, a bridle; sròn, nose;, sruth, a stream; sruthail, to rinse, etc. A number of words, mostly borrowed, have str in both Southern and Northem Gaelic, as stràc, a stroke, a strickle; stràic, pride; straighlich, rattling noise; streap, climb ; strì, strife; strìoch, a streak; strìochd, yield; stròic, tear asunder, etc.

In one or two instances in which str is found in the South, sr occurs in particular districts in the North. Srac, tear asunder, for example, is strac generally if not universally in the South, but srac in Lochaber.