Page:The Celtic Review volume 4.djvu/88

Rh bàn; plain slender in cinneach, beinn; and aspirated slender in binid, min. In this case the sounds that are difficult to distinguish are the two aspirated, as in dùnadh, closing, and dùinidh, will close, and as is evinced in alternative spellings like cinealta for cionalta or ceanalta.

Broad n tends to take its aspirated sound permanently, when initial, in North Argyll, West Ross, and Sutherland. Nàire is apt to be always 'naire' and never 'nnàire,' and so namhaid, naoidhean, naomh, etc. Words like snàmh, swim; snàth, thread, which are pronounced respectively 'snnàmh,' 'snnàth,' elsewhere, follow suit in those districts.

Initial slender n retains its plain sound in Sutherland, and takes its aspirated sound in North Argyll. Neart, strength, for example, is apt to be always 'nneart' in the former district and 'neart' in the latter, and so neamh, heaven; neimh, venom; Niall, Neil, etc. Words like sniomh, sneadh, again follow suit. In West Ross the leaning, so far as it has appeared there, is towards aspirated n. In North Argyll aspirated slender n for unaspirated often appears both medially, as 'inean' for innean, anvil, and finally as gamhain for gamhainn, a stirk, and Samhuin for Samhuinn, Hallow-tide. The latter wordsì, however, have final n, not nn, in Irish.

In medial and final positions the plain sound of slender n is substituted for the aspirated sound in many instances in the West Highlands, more especially in the extreme south, but to some extent all the way northwards, and even into the south-east of Sutherland. Thus, words like minig, duine, mìn are sounded respectively minnig, duinne, mìnn, and so binid, muineal, léine, mòine, sine, teine, ùine, gràin, maoin, muin, and so on. In Arran and Kintyre these and many others all have nn. Indeed, in those districts the number of words in which n is not sounded nn in such positions is very small.

This same unaspirated slender sound of n is given to the n of the so-called diminutive suliix an when it follows a slender vowel in Arran, Kintyre, and Islay. Cuilean, a pup, for example, is 'cuileinn,' and so càirean, cìrean, fìrean, innean, and names like Ailean, Ailpean, Cailean, etc.