Page:The Celtic Review volume 4.djvu/90

Rh but to difference of dialect, though ultimately the difference of dialect itself may be referable to such failure. In Arran and with MacAlpine the word for shame is nàire, but the adjective is nàrach and the verb nàraich. A màireach, to-morrow, is in Irish a márach, in Early Irish, imbárach, but Mr. Quiggin has found both amárach and amáireach in Donegal. An uiridh, so Perthshire, etc., Early Irish inn uraid, Old Irish urid, is an uraidh in Arran and in Modern Irish. Into such a word as uiread, so much, urad in Arran and with MacAlpine, the prepositional prefix ar, air, which takes so many diverse forms, enters.

Initial aspiration has become fixed in the prepositions ri, to, with its derivatives rium, to me, riut, etc., and roimh, before, with romham, romhad, etc. Other instances of fixed aspiration are a riamh, ever; a rìreadh, indeed; a rithis, again.

The initial aspiration of slender r is disappearing both in North Argyll and in Sutherland. Da rìgh, two kings, is 'da rrìgh' and reoth e, it froze, 'rreoth e.' The aspiration is maintained in the case of broad r.

At Alligin on Loch Torridon aspirated slender r sounds as though an attempt were made to say y at the same time. This is heard, e.g., in ri, to, with rium, riut, ris, rithe, riuthal; coire, cauldron; coire, fault; màireach, cuir, fhuair. Further north at Little Lochbroom r has dropped out of the combination and only y remains.

In part of Lewis aspirated broad r, for example in farum, noise, sounds like th in English 'then,' 'this.'

The long sounds which have been noticed in connection with vowels (vol. iii. pp. 99, 330) differ from the other sounds only in length, and are found in the case of the aspirated, as well as the unaspirated sounds. Sean, old, to take an exceptional instance, occurs in different positions or dialects with three sounds of the liquid. When the word does not stand before its noun n has, as it ought to have etymologically, its aspirated sound and is short. Sometimes