Page:The Celtic Review volume 5.djvu/93

 n

In most dialects, if not in all, n or nn is assimilated in annlan, condiment; coinnle and coinnlean, gen. and plur. of coinneal, candle; coinnlear, candlestick; connlach, straw; crannlach, a teal; cuinnlean, nostril; eunlaith, birds; innleachd, device; Fionnlagh, Finlay; in annrath, distress; canran, wrangling; cunnradh, bargain; ganradh, gander; ganraich, noise; ionraic, upright; onrachd, solitude; sonraich, appoint; Eanruig, Henry; in bainnse, gen. of banais, wedding; coinnseas, conscience; innse, gen. of innis, island; innseadh, telling; oinnseach, foolish woman; sinnsear, ancestor; uinnsean, ash-wood. Puisean (from English ‘poison,’ so Arran, Kintyre, and Perth—puision, Armstrong)—has ui nasalised in many dialects, as North Argyll and West Ross, and consequently, on the analogy of words like uinnseann, is usually written puinsean. Innis, tell, though a vowel stands between nn and s, is usually pronounced ìs (ì nasal), as is also innis, island, often when forming the first part of a place-name. Ministear, a minister, may be heard in some districts, e.g., Arran and Perth, without n, ‘mi’istear.’ ‘Coinean,’ rabbit, is often coi’an, and ionann, like, ‘i’ann.’ Domhnall, Donald, is perhaps everywhere ‘Dò’all’ or ‘Dòll’ (o nasal), and Raonall, Ronald, ‘Raoll,’ or in Skye ‘Ràll.’ Coainneal, candle, is caoi’al (ao short) in North Argyll, cai’ill (ai nasal) in West Ross, and cai’il (ai as ei and nasal) in Sutherland. Anart, linen, is a’ard in Perth and Strathspey; and arad (first a nasal in both) in Sutherland; in Arran, North Argyll, Skye and West Ross n is kept.

Mh is sometimes written for nn, e.g. by MacAlpine in comhlach for connlach or conlach (which he calls ‘Irish pronunciation of comhlach’), coimhseas for coinnseas, comhsaich for connsaich, contend, and comhspaid for connspaid, a quarrel. In Northern Gaelic where a and o become au and ou before long nn, mh, which often has the sound of u after a or o, is liable to be written for nn where the letter has been assimilated in pronunciation. The West Ross word ‘crannlach,' a tulchan calf, for example, so far as the