14. Characteristics of Donegal Irish.
§ 494. Lip-articulation in the case of the vowels is not well-marked. There is slight protrusion in the case of p, b, m, retraction in p′, b′, m′. Rounded front vowels are entirely absent. The tongue is advanced and articulates forcibly against the top teeth (L, N, t, d). In the case of the palatal sounds the tongue rests against the lower teeth, also in the case of s. l occurs in four varieties, r in three, the latter is generally slightly rolled. The consonants, particularly the stops, seem to be much tenser than the vowels. All consonants occur both voiced and unvoiced except s, ʃ and ɲ. b, d, g are voiced; p, t, k, s are aspirated; unaspirated p, t, k and p′, t′, k′ occur with lax articulation after s, ʃ, χ. Nasal resonance is particularly strong. The glottal catch is altogether wanting. Palatal and non-palatal consonants arc contrasted, the quality of the consonants being apparently of greater relative importance than vowel-quality. Whilst the numerous consonant-types are well articulated, many of the vowels are remarkably ill defined, two vowels being frequently interchangeable. The back vowels are much better represented than the front and include peculiar high-back-unrounded sounds. Low vowels are also represented and every vowel may occur nasalised. The quality of the vowels often depends on the environment. There is a tendency to make all short vowels wide and lowered and all long vowels narrow. Long vowels in stressed monosyllables are apt to become overlong and diphthongisation occurs in the case of ɛ: and i:. Long vowels appear chiefly in syllables with strong stress. In weak syllables the vowel is generally ə but α is not rare and long vowels due to contraction are often found. Close stress after short vowels. Assimilation is frequent particularly in sandhi. Most consonants tend to be long or half-long but l, r, n, l′, r′, n′, ç, w̥ are always short and at the end of stressed monosyllables are clipped or over-short. There is a great difference between strong and weak stress. The traditional stress always falls on the first syllable. Unity stress plays a great part. Pitch much as in English and German.
