Scottish Gaelic Dialects
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OCTOBER 15, 1906
SCOTTISH GAELIC DIALECTS
The importance of a thorough and systematic investigation of our Gaelic dialects was urged by Professor Mackinnon in a paper read before the Gaelic Society of Inverness exactly twenty years ago. Before that time there were scattered remarks on dialectical peculiarities in grammars and dictionaries and other publications, and a recognition of two or, on the part of some authorities, of three main dialects. The Rev. John Forbes in his grammar tries to distinguish three dialects—a Northern, an Interior, and a Southern. Mr. James Munro, whose grammar contains not a few accurate observations of peculiarities and variations, distinguishes on occasion the mid Highlands from Ross and Sutherland, but, in general, classing the mid Highlands and the far north together, he recognises but the two divisions of North Highland and West Highland. Mr. Neil MacAlpine, from whose dictionary most of the peculiarities of Islay and mid Argyll dialect can be gathered, recognises in practice, if he does not formally state, the twofold division. The division into three dialects, in effect, is a division into Northern and Southern (or Western) Gaelic, with a further division of the former into two sub-dialects. The differences upon which the sub-division has been based are not on a par with the broad distinctions between Southern and Northern Gaelic. [ 98 ]An equally good case could be made out for sub-dividing Southern Gaelic which has in Arran, Kintyre, and Islay Irish and Manx affinities not found further north. Nothing is gained by going beyond two divisions and stopping at three. The division into two main dialects is clear, familiar, and useful, while, as Professor Mackinnon holds in the paper referred to, ‘On the Dialects of Scottish Gaelic’: ‘The threefold divisions cannot, without considerable confusion, be maintained,’ and again, ‘It would perhaps be as easy to distinguish thirteen dialects as three.’ How many well-defined dialects underlie the two main divisions can only be determined by a systematic investigation of the spoken language in every district of Gaeldom. As a result of Professor Mackinnon’s endeavours to direct attention to the matter by that paper and in his lectures to his students, something has been done during those twenty years. First came a paper by the Rev. Adam Gunn, M.A., on the dialects of the Reay country, which is a model of what such papers ought to be. Then the dialect of Badenoch was dealt by Dr. MacBain. The Rev. John Kennedy, who was third in the field with a paper on Arran Gaelic, wrote of a dialect other than his native one, and was the first to do so. These papers and others on the dialects of Arran, Perthshire, Skye, the west of Ross-shire and Sutherland, appear in the Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness (vols. xv., xviii., xx. et seq. Professor Mackinnon’s paper is in vol. xii.). Mr. Gunn has a later and fuller paper on his dialect in the Celtic Monthly (vol. vi.). The Rev. Dr. Henderson also has been writing comprehensively and thoroughly on the dialects generally of late in the Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie. All this work (which, it may be remarked, with the exception of the papers by Dr. MacBain and Mr. Kennedy, has been done by students trained by Professor Mackinnon) affords material for determining the characteristics and limits, to some extent at least, of the local dialects into which our Gaelic divides itself. The vowels claim attention first and show the most far-reaching peculiarities.
[ 99 ]Of all the tests employed to distinguish different dialects of our Gaelic, none is more generally applicable, or gives more definite results, than the treatment of short vowels before long liquids. The long sounds of the liquids are important in this connection. In words like dall, cam, bonn, the vowel, though marked long by the authorities in some words of the kind, was not long originally and is not long now; it is the liquid that is long. The difference between long and short liquids is well shown by a comparison of their pronunciation in the above words and in the corresponding forms dallag, camas, bonnadh. The difference indeed needs but to be pointed out, to be recognised in pronunciation. A long liquid can also be distinguished generally, though not so unerringly, by position. It is found only after the vowel of an accented syllable, and must be supported, if a syllable follows, by another liquid or by one of certain consonants. Long l and long n are usually written double, as is also long r except when followed by a supporting liquid or consonant. N is not written double before g, and is long in bantrach, sometimes written accordingly banntrach. Long m was of old, but is not now, written mm. The supporting consonants that enable a liquid to preserve its long sound are—
| for m: b, p, | for n: d, t, s, g, |
| for l: d, t, s, | for r: d, s. |
The supporting liquids and consonants are important, as will appear further on, in connection with the addition of syllables to the words. When in the course of grammatical change or of word-formation a syllable is added to a word containing a long liquid, the long liquid becomes short unless supported by one of those liquids or consonants in the original word, or in the extended form, as Gall, Gallach, (ll shortened) but Gallda (ll long).
[ 100 ]The simplest forms of words containing short vowels and long liquids are such as—- call, cam, bann, barr, poll, com, bonn, corr, null, cum, lunn, curr, fill, im, binn.
- annlan, dorn, burn, urlar,
- lombair, umpa, impidh, Gallda, allt, fallsa, drannd, sunnd, binndich, sannt, connsaich, long, bard, ordag.
- bealltuinn, dream, teanndadh, cearr, ceard, cearn, eorna, ciurr; cairdean, uird, cuirn, feaird, smeoirn, ciuirteach.
The changes to which the vowels are liable in the positions in question are two in number. In other words a short vowel followed by a long liquid may be dealt with in one or other of three ways in Scottish Gaelic; it may be left unchanged, it may be lengthened, or it may be diphthongised. In this as in other cases the area of the fewest changes is the extreme south, and that in which the greatest number of changes is found is the far north mainland.
The vowels are unchanged before l, n, and m, in Argyllshire south of Lorne, in Arran, and in east Perthshire. All, except a and o before l and n, remain unchanged before the same three liquids as far north as Loch Linnhe and the Inverness county march. With the additional exception of a and o before m, they are unchanged as far north as the Ross-shire border; in other words u, e, and i are unchanged [ 101 ]before l, n, and m in the whole of Gaeldom with the exception of the mainland of Ross-shire and Sutherlandshire.
The vowels sometimes remain unaltered before r with another liquid. In Strathspey and east Perthshire for example, they are short in words with rn—carn, dorn, burn, cuirn, etc., with the exception of ‘eòrna.’
The broad vowels (a, o, u,) have been lengthened before long r in Gaelic generally both south and north. In such words as barr, ard, cam, ceard, corr, ord, dorn, curr, durd, burn, ciurr, the vowels were short in the old language but are now sounded long, from Arran in the south to Sutherland in the north, and are often marked long in writing, bàrr, càrn, ceàrd, ciùrr, etc. Partial exceptions are Strathspey and east Perthshire, where, as already noted, the vowels are not usually lengthened before rn, and Badenoch and Rannoch, where a and o before rn and rd are dealt with otherwise.
The greatest development of lengthening is found in the mainland of Ross-shire and in Sutherlandshire. In those two districts u has been made long before all the long liquids. Moll, ‘chaff,’ for example, takes u there (as it does in east Perthshire also) in place of o and makes the vowel long ‘mùll.’ In like manner, null, cum, lunn are pronounced respectively, ‘nùll,’ ‘cùm,’ ‘lùnn,’ and so with sunnd, cunnt, unnsa, ung, etc. The slender vowels also have undergone the like change there. Fill is pronounced ‘fìll,’ im, ‘ìm,’ cinn, ‘cìnn,’ and so on. Im (butter) is of course often written ‘ìm’ by the authorities, but is never pronounced so except in the far north, just as am (time), cam, crom, etc., are often written ‘àm,’ ‘càm,’ ‘cròm,’ respectively. In the case of e the lengthening is accompanied by a change of the vowel to i; beinn, seinn, teinn, respectively, are ‘bìnn,’ ‘sìnn,’ ‘tìnn’; steill (peg) is ‘stìll,’ and creim (nibble) ‘crìm.’ In some cases the vowel remains short; teinntean is sometimes tinntean but not tìnntean. In other cases the vowel is undecided, sometimes [ 102 ]short and sometimes long, but in the great majority of cases the lengthening of the vowel is firmly established.
Diphthongisation before long liquids is confined to a and o and consists in the introduction of a u sound like that of u in the English words ‘foul,’ ‘hound,’ or of w in the English ‘howl,’ ‘town,’ between the vowel and the liquid. The sound of the whole diphthong in words like poll, bonn, com, is that of ou or ow in those English words. In words like ball, bann, cam, the diphthong has an a sound instead of the o sound before the u and so resembles au in German ‘haus.’ Such diphthongisation does not exist in the extreme south or in east Perthshire. It is found before l and n in Lorne and west Perthshire. It extends to m when we cross into Inverness-shire and the part of Argyllshire beyond Loch Linnhe, and prevails before the three liquids throughout the rest of Gaeldom northwards.
When the vowel is preceded by e, the pronunciation varies somewhat. The regular diphthong, preceded by a y sound of course, prevails in Badenoch and Strathspey, as meall, ‘myaull,’ ceann, ‘cyaunn.’ Geall, seall, steall have there as usual eo for ea, gyoull, etc. In Skye ea is retained in the words ‘gyaull’ etc., while meall (lump) and meall (deceive) have short ao in place of a in the diphthong. In Rannoch, Skye, and west Ross-shire before nn a diphthong consisting of the Gaelic sounds of e and u is heard, as beann, ‘beunn,’ ceann, ‘ceunn,’ etc. In Rannoch and Ross meall likewise is ‘meull.’ In Sutherland meall (‘myull’ with u nasal) seems to follow leann, ‘lyunn,’ and seann, ‘shunn,’ as those words are pronounced there and in Ross and Strathspey. Other Sutherland pronunciations are gyaull, shaull, cyaunn, glyaunn, greunn (for greann). Diphthongisation is heard in that county once before a short liquid, with o for a also, in the word dealt (dew) ‘djoult.’
In Glenlyon, Rannoch, and Badenoch diphthongisation is heard occasionally before rd and even rt with or without an
[ 103 ]intervening small vowel, as in ard, ‘aurd,’ ord, ‘ourd,’ ort, ‘ourt,’ goirt, ‘gou’rt,’ cairdean, ‘cau’rdean.’ In Rannoch it occurs also in words like carn, ‘caurn,’ dorn, ‘dourn’; in words like bearn, cearn, in which the a sound is changed to o, ‘byourn,’ ‘cyourn’; in words like ceard, feaird, feart, and the name of the county town Peairt, ‘Pyau’rt.’
Both those vowel changes depend vitally upon the length of the liquids. The liability of the long liquids to shortening when unsupported has been referred to already. Such shortening, whenever it takes place, undoes the change, if any, undergone by the vowel. The lengthened vowel of àrd continues long in àrdan, and that of còrr in còrlach or còrrlach, but that of bàrr is shortened in barrach, and that of tòrr in torran. So in the north mill is ‘mìll,’ and milltear, ‘mìlltear,’ but millidh is not ‘mìllidh,’ and while seinn is ‘sìnn,’ seinnidh is not ‘sìnnidh,’ but ‘sinnidh.’ Again, beann is ‘byaunn’ or ‘beunn,’ and beanntan, ‘byaunntan’ or ‘beunntan,’ but though cam is ‘caum,’ caman is not ‘cauman,’ nor camas ‘caumas,’ and though Gall is ‘Gaull’ and Gallda ‘Gaullda, Galllach is not ‘Gaullach.’
A long liquid is thus found mostly in monosyllables. If the word comes, through grammatical inflection or word-formation, to have more than one syllable, the long liquid becomes short except when it is followed either in the original word or in the extended form, by a supporting liquid or consonant, and, when the liquid becomes short, the preceding vowel, if it has been either lengthened or diphthongised, reverts to its original short undiphthongised form.
This u after a and o, besides being of less frequent occurrence near the southern borders of its area than it is farther north, seems also to be less distinct and pronounced, or less fully developed. It is, however, of old standing. The Dean of Lismore has it before l and n as dawle for dall, Cown for Conn, just as in west Perth and Lorne at the present day.
The treatment of those vowels in like positions in Manx and in Irish is to some extent analogous. In Munster a and o are lengthened before long r and diphthongised before other [ 104 ]long liquids. Even u is stated to be diphthongised into au sometimes, but all the examples given, with one doubtful exception, are borrowed words, and therefore liable to eccentricity. I is lengthened in sinn, ‘we,’ linn, ‘with us’; in other cases before long nasals it has the diphthongal sound of the English pronoun I (‘Ai’), and before long l it has the diphthongal sound of the same pronoun as pronounced by an Irishman (‘Oi’). The addition of a syllable has in like circumstances the same effect or non-effect as in Scottish Gaelic. Southern Irish thus resembles northern Gaelic and northern Irish resembles southern Gaelic.
Manx Gaelic corresponds, as regards this diphthongisation, not to the dialects of Irish and of Scottish Gaelic that are nearer to it, but to those that are more remote from it. It has, besides, apparently a further development. ‘Thus,’ says Professor Rhŷs, ‘“tromm,” now written “trome,” heavy, is pronounced in a way which sometimes strikes one as being “troum,” and sometimes “trobm” or “trubm,” with a sort of precarious b; and similarly with other words, such as “kione,” head, which becomes “kioun” or “kiodn,” and “lhong,” a ship, which becomes “logng” or “lugng.”’ The change has been extended in Manx, it appears, to words in which the nasal consonant was short but was preceded by a long vowel, and is not found, apparently, before l or r.
In old Cornish, by a development similar to that found in Manx words like ‘camm,’ crooked, and ‘gwyn,’ white—our fionn—became respectively ‘cabm’ and ‘gwydn.’
The strength of the tendency to diphthongise in such words as have been considered above is such as to influence the pronunciation of English in certain cases. The Irishman calls bold, ‘bould,’ cold, ‘could,’ hold, ‘hould,’ and so on. Here, as so often happens, extremes meet. The Caithness man also says ‘bould,’ ‘could’ ‘hould,’ and he owes the tendency to do so to Gaelic influence. The same sounds may be heard occasionally in Sutherland also, but they have been acquired, probably, by those who use them, in the neighbouring county.
The long vowels è (eu, etc.), and ì (io), in certain cases in which they are retained in the south, are diphthongised in the north. The resulting diphthongs are alike from both vowels, as beul ‘bial,’ deug ‘diaog,’ dìon ‘dian,’ fìor ‘fiaor.’
‘The crucial distinction,’ says Dr. MacBain in his Gaelic Dictionary (p. xviii.) in reference to the two main dialects ‘consists in the different way in which the dialects deal with é derived from compensatory lengthening; in the south it is eu, in the north ia (e.g., feur against fiar, breug against briag, etc.).’ He has pointed out elsewhere as another characteristic of the words in which this change is found, that their original stems ended in o or a. There are exceptions drawn in perhaps by the influence of analogy. Compensatory lengthening of a vowel takes place when the first of two or more following consonants, of which one must be a liquid, is lost. Ceud hundred, for example, has lost the n seen in Welsh cant, Cornish cans, Breton kant, Latin centum, English hund-red, and to compensate for this loss the vowel, which was short originally, extended itself into the blank thus left, and so became long in the Gaelic form of the word. The process is not unknown in the modern language. Words like annrath, innleachd, innseadh show loss of nn or assimilation of the nasal to the following consonant, and consequent compensatory lengthening of the preceding vowel in the spoken forms ‘àrath,’ ‘ìlleachd,’ ‘ìseadh.’ Compare also sòise, ‘a bolide’ (MacAlpine), for soillse. In some instances it is an original ei, which appears normally in Old Irish and in Gaelic as èi in some instances and as ia in others, that has diverged in the two Scottish dialects and is heard as è in the south and as ia in the north, as in mèith, reub, sgreuch.
The vowel that changes to ia in the north is usually written eu, but it occurs also as èa, èi, and è. In southern
[ 106 ]pronunciation, it generally has the sound that is called open e and that resembles, except that it is long, that of e in English ‘let,’ ‘set.’ The close sound, é, like that of e in English ‘whey,’ or that of a in English ‘fate,’ occurs occasionally in words that have ia in the north, but in general is confined to those words in which diphthongisation is not found, as beum, ceum, treun, beud, beus, etc. In contact with nasals, diphthongisation is found as a rule only in those instances in which the vowel is nasalised in the south, e.g. in eun, meur, but not in beum, treun. Of the words that have ia in the north, the following are found with é in the south—
Ceudna ‘céunna,’ ‘féirseag’ (for feursann), geur, reustladh (for reusladh), sleuchd, in Arran.
Deug, feun, geug, leubh, in Arran and Islay.
Feudail, gleus, reul, in Arran, Islay, and Perth.
Peur (a pear), in Arran, Islay, and Glenlyon, eud in Arran and East Perth, Seumas, in Arran and Glenlyon.
Sgeun (‘sgéan’) and déabh, in Islay, geuban, in Islay and Perth.
Céud (first) and céud (hundred), in Mid-Argyll.
Créadhach (crè), in Perth.
In Strathspey and in Sutherlandshire there are fewer instances of é than in Arran. The only words showing the change to ia, that are not known to have è, in place of é, in some district or other, are ceud, ceudna, deug, feudail, feun, geuban, peurtag, reul, reusail, and reusan, and of that small number three are borrowed words, while the diphthongisation of at least two others, feudail and reul, is local and exceptional. The association of the change to ia with the open sound è is thus very close. The tendency, apparently, when the vowel happens to be left undiphthongised in the north, is to sound it é, and further the vowel is apt in such cases to be é also in Arran and Islay, but è in Perth, Strathspey and Sutherland. Beurla, e.g. is béurla in Arran, Islay, North Argyll, part of Skye, North Inverness and West Ross, but bèurla in Perth and Sutherland, and geug is géug in Arran,
[ 107 ]Islay, part of Skye, and Lewis, but gèug in Perth, Strathspey and Sutherland.
The vowels that are subject to diphthongisation are arranged in the following groups to show the occurrence of the change in the southern dialect, in Arran, Islay and Perthshire, and in the northern dialect in the following districts in order, North Argyll (Appin and Sunart), Skye (Sleat), North Inverness-shire (the Aird, south and east of Beauly), West Ross-shire, and Lewis. The pronunciation given in MacAlpine’s Dictionary is, in general, that of his native island and is that given here under the name Islay. The absence of a word from the list for any particular district does not in all cases imply non-diphthongisation of the vowel in that district; it may mean that there is some other alteration on the word or that the attempt to ascertain its pronunciation has not been attended with success. Smeuraich, for example, is smeòraich in Sutherland and in Lewis. Feusgan ‘mussel,’ fè ‘a calm,’ and muir-tèachd ‘jelly-fish,’ (II. iii. sub), are not in Dr. Henderson’s list for the Aird and were unfamiliar as Aird words to an aged farmer from the district. Cè (cream) is unknown in several districts, uachdar or bàrr being used instead, and smeur (bramble) is unfamiliar in Lewis. Geug (branch) no doubt owes its non-diphthongisation in parts of the northern Hebrides to its disuse during a treeless period and a subsequent adoption of it from literature. In West Ross-shire ‘giag’ was not disused, but was degraded during the treeless period, and now means, in part at least of the district, a stalk of heather, while a branch of a tree is called meur (‘miar’).
Southern Dialect:—
I. Ceud (hundred), ceud (first), Di-ceudaoin, ceutach, ceutadh (sense, impression), ceudna, deug, brèagh.
North Argyll et seq.:—
II. i. Beul, breug, deuchainn, deur, dreuchd, eudach (jealousy), eulaidh (stalk game, etc.), eun, feuch, feur, feusag, [ 108 ]freumh, geuban (‘ciaban’ in Skye and onwards), geur, greusaich, leugach (clammy, etc., leug, leugaire), leus (torch, etc.), meud or meudachd, cia meud, meur, neul, reub, seud (hero), seun, breac-sheunain, sgeul, sgreuch, crè (clay), dèan, èasgaidh, gèadh, lèad, mèanan, sè (six), sglèata, tèaruinn.
North Argyll et seq. except Lewis:—
II. ii. Beuc, ceus (ham, coarse part of fleece), geug, reusail (ill-use), smeur (bramble), smeuraich (grope), speuc, sèap.
North Argyll et seq. except North Inverness:—
II. iii. Feusgan, fè (calm), lèana or lèanag, rèap (a slattern, rèapach, adj., rèapail, verb), muir-tèachd.
Skye et seq.:—
III. Loch-bhlèin or dubh-chlèin (flank, loin), sgeun (fright), smeur or smiùr (to smear), mèith, sèamarlan.
North Inverness et seq.:—
IV. Feursann (warble), speuclan (spectacles), teuchdaidh (viscid, etc., ‘tiachaidh,’ North Inverness).
North Inverness, etc.:—
V. i. Feunaidh (peat-cart, from feun), peurtag (partridge), cè (cream).
V. ii. Peuras (a pear), seum or seumaich (enjoin, etc.), Seumas (James), leubh (read), clach-nèaraidh (grindstone), trèasg (shrivel).
V. iii. Sleuchd, nèarachd.
Various:—
VI. i. Beurla, eud, m’fheudail, càl-feurain (cives), gleus, [ 109 ](trim, etc.), spleuc (stare), teuchdadh (parching), lèabag, piata, trèan-ri-trèan.
VI. ii. Earlais (arles), reusan (reason).
Group I. contains words that are diphthongised in the South; all have ia (or iao) in Perthshire, all but the last in Islay, and all but the three last in Arran. MacAlpine gives ‘a chéud’ or ‘a chiad.’ The diphthong is ia in all the instances in Arran, and in Glenlyon in Perthshire; in East Perthshire and in the North generally in those words, with the exception of brèagh, it is iao, i.e. the second constituent of the diphthong is not a, but the Gaelic ao sound. Ceudna varies; ‘ciaodna,’ North Argyll; ‘cianda,’ North Inverness, West Ross, Sutherland; ‘ciaont,’ Lewis; ‘ciaodainn,’ East Perth, Strathspey; ‘céunna,’ Arran; ‘ciaonna,’ Skye. MacAlpine gives ‘cianna,’ and apparently ‘ceudna.’
In addition, dreuchd, omitted by MacAlpine, has ia in Arran and èarlais and reusan, Group VI. ii., have ia the former in Arran and Islay, and the latter throughout Argyll and in West Perth (‘riaosan,’ in North Argyll). Nèaraidh (V. ii.) has ia in Perthshire.
Groups I. and II. i. have the diphthong in North Argyll, Skye, North Inverness, West Ross and Lewis; Group II. ii. in North Argyll, et seq., except Lewis, and Group II. iii. in North Argyll, et seq., except North Inverness. Group III. falls to be added to the number in Skye and onwards, and Group IV. in North Inverness and onwards. The words in V. i. ii. and iii. all have ia in North Inverness, and those in V. ii. in West Ross also. Trèasg in North Argyll, and sleuchd in Skye have ia. Nèarachd is ‘niarachd’ in North Argyll, ‘miarachd’ in Skye, and ‘meurachd’ according to MacAlpine (sub nèarachd) in Argyll.
The words of VI. i. have ia as follows:—
Eud (and eudmhor, ‘iadar’), càl-feurain, spleuc, and lèabag in North Argyll.
[ 110 ]Spleuc, teuchdadh, lèabag, and trèan-ri-trèan (‘trianaidhtrian’) in Skye.
Beurla (‘biaorla’ or ‘biaolla,’ so Lochbroom also), eud (‘iad’ in Barra also), m’fheudail, gleus, and teuchdadh, in Lewis.
‘Piata,’ a puny child, North Inverness and West Ross, has been explained by Dr. Henderson as a by-form of ‘peata,’ English ‘pet’; in Lewis ‘piatan’ used affectionately of one craving for a drink.
Eud in the North generally means zeal, while jealousy is ‘iadach’ (in Glenlyon ‘eudach’).
Diphthongisation of the vowel è thus appears to be most prevalent in the central Highlands, and somewhat less so in North Argyll and Lewis. It has extended strongly into Rannoch, which breaks away from the rest of Perthshire in this respect, and is sharply distinguished from Glenlyon and the parish of Blair-Atholl, bounding it respectively on the south and east, and is in full force in Badenoch and Strathdearn, its eastern limits. On the other hand, Strathspey which means in local usage the part of the valley of the Spey below Rothiemurchus, and lies in an angle between Badenoch on the south-west, and Strathdearn on the north-west, differs from both districts, and agrees closely with the South. Far north Sutherlandshire also, with the exception perhaps of the Assynt quarter of the county, claims to stand with Strathspey and the south in this matter. The words in which ia has been found in Strathspey are:—
Ceud, ceud, ceudna, Di-ceudaoin, deug, sgreuch, brèagh, sè, ceutach, seun.
With the exception of the two last, those words are diphthongised in Sutherlandshire—Creich, Kildonan, and Strathy—and, with the following list, they exhaust the known instances of that vowel change in the south-east and in the north of that county:—
Deuchainn, feuch, feusgan, cia meud, reul, crè.
Beul, neul, sgeul, ‘cial.’
Ceutach and feusgan have the diphthong in Creich,
[ 111 ]deuchainn and feucn in Creich and Kildonan, reul (‘rialt’ or more frequently ‘rialtag’) in Kildonan, and crè (‘criaodhach’) in Kildonan and Strathy. Ceutach and ceutadh apparently are diphthongised by some speakers and not by others (‘cèutach’ and ‘cèutu’) in the Strathy district.
The southern è of beul, neul, and sgeul is changed in Sutherland, not into ia, but into à, so that the words would be written respectively, beàl, neàl, and sgeàl, and are pronounced byàl, nyàl, sgyàl. Cial, brim of a vessel, is also changed to ceàl in Sutherland. Though this resembles in the result the change in Arran of brèagh, cè (cream), crè, gèadh, and sè, respectively into breàgh (brè or bryà, Macalpine), ceà, creà, geàdh, seà (br’à, cyà, cr’à, gyà, shà), it is no doubt to be compared rather with the transference in Gaelic generally, of the pronunciation from e to a in such words as geal, ‘gyal,’ seal, ‘shal,’ etc.
A substitution of other sounds for è sometimes occurs. Lèabag is leóbag (‘lyóbag’) in N. Inverness, W. Ross, Lewis, and Sutherland, feusag is feòsag (‘fyòsag’) in Sutherland, and rèapach is reòpach in N. Inverness. Teuchdaidh viscid, in N. Inverness tiachaidh, is teaochaidh in Creich, and beurla is beaorla in Strathspey, and in parts of Skye and of Lewis. The name for the landrail—trèan-ri-trèan—is traon in Lewis and, according to MacAlpine, in Skye; in Irish it is traona.
It is not an unknown thing that a word should come to have two pronunciations accompanied by some differentiation in meaning or usage. In N. Argyll, Skye, N. Inverness, W. Ross, and Lewis, seud, when it means jewel, is ‘séud,’ but when it means hero it is ‘siad.’ The word is everywhere in those districts familiar in the latter sense. As ‘séud,’ jewel, it is not at all so frequently used, and may have been adopted from literature. Meud is undiphthongised throughout Sutherland, except in the phrase ‘co miad’ (how much). The phrase is ‘ce mìod’ in Skye and Lewis, while the word otherwise is both ‘mìod’ and ‘miad’ in Lewis, and ‘miadachd’ in Skye, and also in N. Argyll. MacAlpine gives ‘mèud’ and
[ 112 ]‘mìod.’ The undiphthongised form of deug is kept in Perth, Strathspey, W. Ross, and Lewis in ‘da uair dhéug,’ often preceded by the article and compressed ‘an da’r ’éug’ (the twelve o’clock); in Sutherland ‘an da’r ’iaog.’ In Irish ‘dareug’ means twelve persons.
Similar diphthongisation is found in Munster in such words as ceud, deug, eun, feuch, feur, and also in words in which it is unknown among us, as breun, eug, treun, and even eudochas, eudtrom (light), eugcóir (injustice), eugmhais (want), and others. To Scottish Gaels the diphthongisation of eucoir and eugmhais, not to speak of eudochas or aotrom (for eutrom), seems a sheer impossibility, and yet it is found with us in the word èasgaidh, i.e. eu-sgìth, of exactly similar formation.
Long i (ìo), which normally represents an original long e in Gaelic and the other Celtic tongues, as fìor (true), vêro-, Latin, vêrus, is diphthongised generally, except in the South, in such words as—
- Dìomhain, dìomhair, gnìomh, snìomh, crìon, dìon, fìon, lìon, sìon, mìos, nìos, dìol, sìol, fìor, sìor, sìorruidh, cìoch, crìoch, dìosg, grìosach, ìosal, sìos, etc.
In Arran, Kintyre, and Islay, ìo in these and other words has the sound simply of Gaelic ì (that is, the sound of e in English ‘me,’ ‘be’), with nasalisation when in contact with m or n. In North Argyll it is the same except that ia occurs in one or two instances (as dìomhain, snìomh), and that in some of the words with n, l, or r following—lìon, spìon, sìol, fìor—a slight ao sound may be noticed between the long ì and the liquid.
In East Perthshire, in Badenoch and Strathspey, and in Sutherlandshire, ìo is sounded ia nasal in the words in which it is flanked by m or n, and iao in other cases. In a few instances—sìoman, crìon (little), lìon (flax), lìon (fill), dìosg, grìosach, sìos, Strathspey retains the long ì, and shows again [ 113 ]its tendency, though differing in this instance from East Perthshire, to conform to Southern Gaelic.
In West Ross-shire and in Skye the words in question, with scarcely an exception, have iao, and in contact with m or n, as ao cannot be nasalised, only i of the diphthong is nasal.
Sgìos, because it is for ‘sgìtheas,’ has ì generally, but in Sutherland it is sgiaos. Iobairt and iodhal also have iao in the same county, ‘iaobairt,’ ‘iaowalt.’ The latter is ‘iaodhal’ in Skye. The borrowed word tim, ‘time,’ in Sutherland has become, not tìm, as might be expected on the analogy of im, etc., but tiam, as though the word were tìom, and followed the analogy of sìoman, etc. Féin, self, which is ‘fhìn’ with the first personal pronouns in the Northern Dialect generally—‘Thu fhéin ’s mi fhìn,’ (never in the North ‘mi fhéin’)—is fhèin (è nasal) in the north of Sutherland except Strathy, and fhian in Strathy and the south-east of the county, with first personal pronouns, but with the other persons fhéin (é not nasal), as in the rest of the Highlands. Fhian might be a diphthongisation of fhìn, as though it were fhìon, like crìon, lìon, but is perhaps more likely to have come from the local fhèin on the analogy of eun, dèan.
[ 223 ]
Rev. Charles M. Robertson
(Continued from p. 113.)The features already dealt with seemed to require to be grouped together as they have been and perhaps were so arranged to advantage. In what remains to be said concerning the vowels they will be taken in order with the usual and, in Gaelic, important division into broad and narrow. Translations of Gaelic words cited are not given as a rule except where they seem called for by risk of ambiguity or other cause. Generally the lack of English equivalents will present no great difficulty to one who knows Gaelic or to any one who makes use of Dr. MacBain’s Dictionary.
The points to be observed in regard to the change of a into the diphthong au before ll, nn, and m in words like dall, fann, cam, need be but briefly recapitulated. The vowel that becomes au is not long though marked long in some cases by the authorities; it is the following liquid that is long. The long liquid becomes short if through inflection or [ 224 ]word-formation a vowel comes to stand immediately after it and au then becomes a again; as ann (in) and annta (in them), both with long nn, and so respectively ‘aunn’ and ‘aunnta’ in the north, but annam (in me), annad (in thee), etc., all with short nn and so have not au. In the words affected a always becomes au in northern Gaelic but never in southern. The dividing line between the two dialects has been described as running up Loch Linnhe to the opening of Loch Leven and then following the county march between Inverness on the one side and Argyll and Perth on the other. The change to au, however, found to north of this line before all three long liquids, is found to the south of it before the two ll and nn as far as the middle of Argyllshire and eastwards to the middle of Perthshire. Thus in Argyllshire there is the complete absence of the change to au in the southern half of the county; there is the occurrence of it before two of the liquids from the middle of the county to Loch Linnhe, and there is the full development before the three liquids in the part beyond Loch Linnhe. It is not at all unlikely that the change to au before long r prevailing in Glenlyon and Rannoch may extend also into the Black Mount district and that so a fourth though somewhat irregular stage may be found in the same county. It should be noted that in such words as Alba, calpa, balbh, balg, calma, farmad, etc., though the liquid is long au does not appear.
A strange-looking instance of this diphthongisation is in the word adhlac (burial). The terminal variations of the word in different dialects, viz., adhlacadh, adhlaic, adhlaiceadh, may be disregarded here. It is pronounced ‘àllac’ in the south and ‘aullac’ in the north with à and au nasalised, and, if written according to the analogy of words similarly pronounced, as annlan, connlach, innleachd, it would be annlac. In Manx it is anlaky and oanluckey and in old Irish adnacul and adnocul. What has happened in Scottish Gaelic in this instance is that spelling and pronunciation have followed different courses. Our spelling retains a trace of d and none of n while the reverse is the case with our pronunciation; it
[ 225 ]retains trace of n but none of d. The modern Irish, from which our spelling has been taken, is adhlacadh.
Before long r, a, though here also it was short originally, is now a long vowel, à, in Scottish Gaelic generally. This is the rule before long rr or rd as in bàrr, àrd. In other cases there is irregularity. A may be lengthened in certain words or in certain districts and not in others. Carn (a cairn) is càrn in Arran, Sutherland, etc., but carn in parts of the central Highlands. The long liquid here also becomes short if made to stand immediately before a vowel, and the lengthened vowel—à—then becomes short again—a.
In Glenlyon, Rannoch, and Badenoch a tends to become au before r whenever that liquid, whether it be long or short, is followed by l, n, d, t, or s, as in ardan, bard, MacPharlain, carn, and also in Artair, mart, Cars. Au is heard also for ai (the function of i, itself silent, being only to indicate the slender quality of the following consonant group) in such words as airde (higher, etc.), cairt (bark), fairsing (wide), fairslich (baffle). Before rr, as barr, etc., a is long in those districts.
Another pronunciation of the vowel both long and short is heard in Arran and in Kintyre. In a number of words in these districts a gets the sound of open e. That is the sound of e in English ‘bell,’ ‘less,’ ‘get,’ but lengthened when the Gaelic vowel is long, and nasalised in contact with m, mh or n. The difference between the usual sound and that of Arran and Kintyre is like that between the ordinary Scottish and the high English pronunciations of the vowel in such words as ‘man,’ ‘cat,’ ‘gas,’ as when the familiar line is rendered:—
The peculiarity is well exemplified in the popular Arran rime:—
- ‘Nevertheless
- Na bris do chas
- A’ ruith do chearc
- Di-Dòmhnaich.’
[ 226 ]in which ‘chas’ as pronounced locally gives a perfect rhyme to ‘—less.’ A similar pronunciation of the vowel in the preposition a (out of) with its derivatives asam (out of me), asad, as, asainn, etc., is given by MacAlpine, viz., e, easam (e’sam), easad (e’sad), etc., and is widespread in Scottish Gaelic. So cnatan (a cold) is cneatan (cne’tan) in some districts and farasda (easy) in Ross and Sutherland is fearasda (fe’rasda). A similar change to e (ea) prevails in Waterford in Ireland when a is the initial letter or the second letter with t as the first in words accented on the first syllalble. The character of the flanking consonants is not affected either in Ireland or in Scotland by the change from a to e. Though the vowel is changed from broad to slender the consonants on either side of it, though they be mutable, are still sounded as if the vowel remained broad. As no clear and simple rule can be given governing the change to e in Arran and Kintyre, it may be well to have a somewhat full list of examples. These are arranged in groups to show those that have e in both districts, and those that have e only in one district, and a few that keep a in both districts are added.
Arran and Kintyre e:—
Màl, bàn, dàn, dàna, làn, slàn, cnàmh (chew), làmh, nàmhaid, ràmh (oar), sàmhach, snàmh, tàmh, gnàth, nàdur, màg (paw), màgairt (creeping), màs, snàth, snàthat; anail, anainn (eaves), anam, anart, canach, fan, fanaid, glan, tana, cnap, anbhfhann (for anfhann, weak), marcaich, math (good), a (out of), asam, etc., and MacThàmhais (MacTavish or Thomson).
Arran e, Kintyre a:—
Càl, clàbar, blàr, clàr, fàradh (ladder), làr, làrach, bràth, cràbhach, cràdh, gràdh, gràs, tràth, bàth (drown), bàs, bàta, càch, càs, dà (two), dà (to him), dàth (singe), fàg, fàs (grow), fàs (waste), fàth, gàbhadh, gàg, Pàpa, sàbhail, sàs, sàsaich, sàth (thrust), spàg, thà; aran, arbhar, barail, car, caraid, carbad, darach, fada, gar (warm), garbh, garg, marag, marbh, pac, padhadh, sgarbh, tarbh, tarann (nail), thar (over), tharam, [ 227 ]tharad, etc., agam, agad, againn, agaibh (but not aca), and the island name Arainn.
Arran a, Kintyre e:—
Àmhghair, smàl, amhaich, amhairc, amharus, damh, damhsa (dance), amadan, annamh (rare), Samhradh, Samhuinn.
Arran and Kintyre a:—
Àbhaist, àlainn, Sàbaid, abaich, abhainn, athais, labhair (speak), latha (day), rabhadh, falamh, talamh, etc.; words in which a becomes au in the north, and those with long l which do not show au in the north, Alba, balbh, etc.
The capriciousness of the change is shown by its occurrence in so many words in one district and not in another, and also by such details as that àlainn has è at the north end of Arran, the lists above being from the south end, and that aca (at them) has a, while agam (at me), etc., and faca (saw) have e.
The presence, or introduction through inflection or otherwise, of the vowel i in the same syllable prevents the change to e, or causes the sound to revert to a again. For example, à is changed to è in the nominatives càl, nàmhaid, but not in càil (gen.), nàimhdean (plu.). It is è in slàn, nàraich, càramh, but à in slàinte, nàire, càirich. It is e (open) in agam, asad, againn, agaibh, in asam, asad, as, asainn, etc., but not in aige, aice, aiste, and in thar, tharam, tharad, etc., but not in thairis. The influence of i may be exerted even from the following syllable. In blàth (warm) and blàthas (warmth) à sounds è, but is à again in blàthaich (to warm). So in the nominatives athair, màthair, bràthair, nathair the vowel of the first syllable is a (à), but in the genitives athar, màthar, bràthar, nathrach it is e (è). In amhach (neck) the first vowel is sounded e in Kintyre, but in Arran, where the word is amhaich, it is sounded a. In a number of cases in which a is not changed to e in Arran, it may be observed that i is the sounded vowel of the following syllable. So incompatible with i is the [ 228 ]change of a to open e in Arran as to be sufficient of itself to show which of two alternative spellings should be followed. The fact that the vowels, for example, of the first syllables of nàirich or nàraich, and of bainis or banais, are respectively è and e in Arran shows that, for that island at least, the correct forms are nàraich and banais. In other districts the contrary is the case; the same pronunciations è and e in those words show, in Lochaber for example, that the right forms for that district are nàirich and bainis. Similarly math or maith (good), is pronounced ‘me’ (‘mwe’) in Lochaber and in Arran, therefore maith is the right form in Lochaber, where math would not become ‘me,’ while math is the right form in Arran, for there maith would not become ‘me’ (‘mwe’).
Another instance of the way in which the pronunciation may be a check upon the orthography is the word for a nail given by Dr. MacBain as tarrag and tarrang. But a, which never becomes e before rr in Arran, does become e there in the first syllable of this word, and thereby goes to show that rr should be r. It is r, moreover, and not rr that is heard not only in Arran and in Kintyre, where the word is tarann, but also in Perthshire, Skye, West Ross-shire, and Sutherland, where it is tarag. As final ng is liable to become nn in some districts and g in others, as in cumhann and cumhag for cumhang, those pronunciations would point to ‘tarang’ as the form of the word. The plural, however, tàirnnean in Arran, tairgean in Perth, tairnean in Skye, tairgnean in Sutherland, etc., is nearer to the more literary and Irish form tairnge, as is also the corresponding verb in the districts named. Tairnge is apt to suggest that taireang would be more correct than tarang, but a form with ai, even if it were admissible in other districts, is forbidden by the e sound given in Arran. In Perthshire an alternative plural, taragan, is also used.
Another peculiarity of Arran Gaelic is associated with this change of a to e, and also with the change, yet to be noticed, of ao to é. After b, f, p, m, l, and n a sound like that of w is [ 229 ]heard before this e for a, as bà ‘bwè,’ fàg ‘fwè’g,’ Pàpa ‘Pwèpa,’ màg ‘mwè’g,’ làn ‘lwè’n,’ nàdur ‘nwè’dur.’ So also fàl (peat-cutter), Pàtair (Patrick), màm (two handsful), and with short vowels, bad, bata, blad, blas, mach, marg, and others already mentioned. Aspiration of the consonant, except in the case of f, makes no difference in this respect; w remains, as bhà (was) ‘bhwè,’ mhàg ‘mhwè’g.’ When consonant and vowel belong to different words w is sometimes heard; ’g am fhàgail (leaving me) is sometimes ‘ga mwè’gail,’ and air m’fhàgail ‘air mwè’gail.’ The use of w is perhaps liable to give an exaggerated impression. Especially in the cases of l and n, and in all cases when the vowel is short, the sound is more nearly a very short u. On the other hand, the short u may be heard after l and n, at least occasionally in Kintyre.
The sound given to a in the diphthongs ia and ua, and also in uai, is generally a in the south and ao short in the north, but varies in certain districts according as the diphthong is followed by:—
mh, l, n, r, c, ch, s, t, th, as fiamh, ial, grian, miann, iar, iarraidh, fiacaill, fiach, dias, fiata, sgiath; ruamhair, cual, buan, fuar, cnuac, luach, suas, fuath; suaimhneach, tuaileas, suain, fhuair, stuaic, cruaich, duais, luaithe.
Or by:—
m, ll, dh, gh, as ciall, fiadh, liagh; gruamach, uallach, ruadh, sluagh; fuaim, uaill, buaidh, truaighe.
In East Perthshire, Strathspey, and Sutherland a is sounded a in the first class of words and ao in the second class. In Arran and Kintyre it is sounded a in both classes. In Badenoch, West Ross-shire, and Skye it is ao in both classes. Fiar (awry) and fuar (cold) for example are pronounced as written in the five districts first named; in the three others they are fiaor and fuaor, and, in West Ross and Skye at all events, the ao scarcely needs to be marked short. The a sound prevails in a great part of Argyllshire and in [ 230 ]West Perthshire, and is that given by MacAlpine. He has ao in truagh, but a in truaghan and in truaighe. Ao appears also once in Arran in uaigneach, though it is not heard, so far as known, in that word in the north. In East Perthshire and in Strathspey biadh when it is the noun (food) is ‘biao’; when it is the verb (feed) it is ‘bia.’
What has been said above holds good generally in similar circumstances in regard to diphthongised eu (èa, etc.). Ceutach, for example, is ‘ciatach’ in the one group of districts and ‘ciaotach’ in the other. Io also becomes ia or iao in different positions, as stated above (p. 112).
The digraph ai is variously sounded as a single vowel a, a nasal, e open, close, or nasal, or ao short, or as a diphthong composed of any one of those vowels along with i. Any distinctions are more local than general. The most prominent of them is that before n as in gràin, thàinig, ainm, gainmheach, raineach the digraph receives the sound of à or a in some districts as ‘grà’n,’ ‘a’nm,’ etc., and that of è or e in others, ‘gr’èn,’ ‘enm.’ Two prominent words that follow this analogy are màthair, ‘mèhir,’ or ‘mèr,’ and Gàidheal ‘G’è-al.’ Perhaps nowhere is e for ai so frequent as in North Argyll and Lochaber. It is more frequent in Strathspey than Badenoch; it may be heard on one side of the Tay in Perthshire while a is found on the other, and prevails in Kintyre while a holds the field in Arran. Raineach, however, is roineach in Kintyre, and gives the local name Ronachan, Gaelic Roineachan, meaning place of bracken or ‘brackenry.’ It is the same name as Ranachan, of which there are several in North Argyll and Inverness, and is a diminutive form of the Perthshire name Rannoch. When e does occur for ai in Arran it is not open e to which a changes as above, but close e as in gairbhe, mairbh; in several words in which oi is written for an older ai as coileach, coille, goil, doire, goid; in airean (ploughman), and in air (on). In all those instances except air, however, ai or oi gets the sound of ao short in a
[ 231 ]number of districts, and it may be argued, that the close e here simply follows the Arran pronunciation of é (i.e. long close e) for long ao. Aig (at), which has close e almost universally, has ai in Arran and open e in Kintyre. Two words that have ai in place of a in those districts are ainnleann for annlan, in Arran à’lleann, in Kintyre eileann (eilleann?), and baintreach for bantrach, with ai as a in Arran and as e both in Kintyre and in MacAlpine’s Dictionary.
The Rev. John Forbes in his Grammar gives a preference for o as against a as one of the features of the northern as distinguished from the interior and southern dialects of Gaelic. More recently a partiality for a has been claimed as a feature of the Gaelic of Sutherlandshire. So far as that county is concerned the question has been discussed in full in the papers already mentioned on its dialect. All that can be said is that a does take the place of o in a number of instances in that county, and that o on the other hand in nearly as many instances displaces a, but somehow the latter do not strike the observer as the former do. A distinct feature is the substitution of close o for a before l, as in alt, altruim, allt, call, etc., also in dealt, pailt, etc.
Coileach, coire (fault), goil, and some others, it may be remarked, have ai—caileach, etc.—in Sutherland as in Arran.
The two sounds of o are distinguished as open and close and in writing, when long, as ò and ó. When short they are not distinguished in writing. The open sound ò is like that of o in English cot, lord, and the close sound ó like that of note, quote. In printing care has not been taken always, even in dictionaries, to distinguish ò and ó. Bó (cow), for example, is often given as bò. Mór (great) also generally appears as mòr. In this case there are in fact two pronunciations, the one ‘mór’ for ordinary use and the other ‘mòr’ kept for emphatic [ 232 ]use. Móran and mòran (many) are distinguished in the same way.
Before long r it is ó that is heard in Sutherland as córr, tórr, órd, Górdan (Gordon), dórn, sgórnan, elsewhere còrr, òrd, etc.
As to o becoming ou or ò before long liquids, all that has been said regarding the corresponding changes of a, applies, mutatis mutandis, also to o, both in the general features and in the peculiarities associated with r long or short. Some of those peculiarities stated (p. 103, supra) as occurring in Rannoch extend also to Glenlyon. This has been indicated under a and holds also for o, as dorn, ‘dourn,’ sgornan ‘sgournan.’ Eorna (barley) is heard in Glenlyon both with a triphthong ‘eourna’ and the diphthong ‘eurna.’
A preference of u to o seems to be a feature of Sutherland Gaelic. Cnò, còmhradh, Nollaig, Cromba (Cromarty), Obaireadhain (Aberdeen), for example, all have u (ù) for o (ò). Even pòs (marry) is ‘pùs’ in the Reay Country (the north of the county).
The standard sound of u in Scottish Gaelic resembles the u in English ‘rule’ ‘Yule.’
Except in the digraph ui, u has that sound almost invariably. The lengthening of this vowel is found generally in Scottish Gaelic before long rr and rd, and more variably before rl, rn, etc. Burr (pout, protrusion of the lips, for + borr) is ‘bùrr,’ surd is ‘sùrd,’ uird (gen. and plu. of ord) ‘ùird.’ Ciurrta (for ciurrte, hurt) is ‘ciùrrte,’ and ciuirteach (for ciurrteach, hurtful) ‘ciùrrteach.’ Similar lengthening before other long liquids is peculiar to the mainland of Ross-shire and to Sutherlandshire, where null is ‘nùll,’ tum ‘tùm,’ grunn ‘grùnn,’ and, with the like lengthening of the slender vowels, [ 233 ]distinguishes the Gaelic of those districts from the rest of Northern Gaelic as well as from Southern Gaelic.
Ui is sometimes sounded Gaelic u, as in cuid, dùisg. More often it is a diphthong composed of that u and i or of French u and i. In other instances it has the sound of Gaelic i. The last pronunciation is characteristic of Arran and Sutherland, e.g. in suidh (sit), tuig (understand), cluinn (hear), cruinn (round), ruith (run), ruig (reach), etc. In many of the instances, of course, ui has taken the place of an earlier i.
In Sutherland and in Skye the sound of w is heard in place of u after an initial c. Cuibhrionn, cuigeal, and cuingean are respectively cwibhrionn, cwigeal, and cwingean both in Sutherland and in Skye. This cwi—like quee in English queen—is heard also in the words cuibheas, cuimhne, cuing, cuidhteag (the little finger), cuibhill, cuibhrig, cuidhtich, and cuilc in Skye and also in the local name Cuidh-Fhraing (Quiraing). Though not so frequent after c in Sutherland, it is heard there occasionally in the words guidh ‘gwi’ and suim ‘swim.’ The latter word, as heard there, sounds quite like the Scottish pronunciation, ‘sweem,’ of English swim.
The vowel ao as it now appears in Gaelic is broad. Mutable consonants on either side of it are sounded as when in contact with broad vowels. This holds true through all the variations of sound given to the vowel in Scottish Gaelic. It represents at the present day, especially, óe, ói, and ái of Old Irish. In some cases it stands for a or o before dh or gh, and in a few instances for an, en, or in where n has been assimilated to the following consonant and compensatory lengthening has taken place. Where the vowel represents old óe, ói, ái, it generally gets the sound of ao to which, as
[ 234 ]MacAlpine has said, the nearest sound in English is that of u in Burns, throughout Argyllshire with the exception of Kintyre, and in the west of Perthshire. In Arran it has that sound of é and also in Kintyre. Another sound given to the vowel is that usually called French u or the Scottish u in such words as ‘mune’ moon, ‘shune’ (or ‘shoon’) shoes. In Aberdeenshire, it is well to observe, the vowel of such words is like ee in English been, seen, and accordingly they are written there ‘meen,’ ‘sheen.’ The spelling ‘shoon’ represents yet another pronunciation, viz., that of oo in English moon, soon. Ao gets this û sound in a great part of Gaeldom, as in East Perthshire, Badenoch, and Strathspey, Skye, West Ross-shire, and Sutherland. For the old óe, etc. the û sound is much more widespread than the ao sound. Caol, aom, raon, daor, fraoch, laogh, gaoth and many others generally show those various pronunciations in the different districts mentioned. Some words are apt to be exceptions. Caomh, naomh, caomhain and aon with their derivatives have ì in Arran and Kintyre and û in Argyllshire (Ardnamurchan and also MacAlpine) as well as in the eastern and northern districts. In East Perth, West Ross and Sutherland, it may be remarked, mh of naomh is now represented by a Gaelic u so that a diphthong is formed of û and u, ‘nûu.’ The same thing (without nasalisation of the vowels of course) has happened to craobh and taobh in East Perth and to craobh in West Ross, ‘crûu,’ ‘tûu.’ Taobh has gone a stage further in West Ross and Sutherland as has also craobh in the latter district; both vowels have coalesced into one long Gaelic u, ‘tù,’ ‘crù.’
Another instance of ì for ao in Arran and Kintyre appears in maoth, ‘mì.’ The name Aonghas, in which ao is short and n long wherever that is the form, takes the form ‘Naoghas’ in Arran and Kintyre (and Skye) and has short i for ao.
When ao is for a or o before dh or gh, it is long in a few instances as aobhar, aobrann, aoradh, fòghlum or faolum, and is short in many in which it is heard but not written. When short as in aghaidh ladhar, Foghar roghainn, it is sounded
[ 235 ]ao short as a rule everywhere except in Arran and Kintyre where it is short e close. The same close e is heard in one or two instances such as adharc, fradharc, in Sutherland. In Foghar old Foghmhar ao is slightly obscured in some districts by a w coming from the old mh. Where ao is long it also becomes é in Arran and Kintyre. Elsewhere it is unchanged in most districts but occasionally becomes û. For example, û is found in aobhar and fòghlum in Sutherland and sometimes in East Perthshire, and is given by MacAlpine in aobrann (faobrann).
Foghlum has ò in MacAlpine and in Arran ‘fòlum’ but é in Kintyre.
In the other group of words which includes aodach, aodann, aog, aogasg, aotrom, ao, which again has become é in Arran and Kintyre, is more apt to become û outside of Argyllshire as in aodach, aodann, etc., in Skye, Perth, etc. Those words have sometimes been written with eu in lieu of ao as eudach, eudann, and eug seems to have been preferred to aog by Dr. MacBain. In North Argyll a distinction is attempted in regard to this word, aog being used for the noun (death) and eug for the verb. MacLeod and Dewar give eug as verb and noun, but aog only as a noun.
Aoi is generally the same as ao with i either forming a diphthong with it, or showing the ‘slender’ character of the following consonant. Aois for example is ‘és’ in Arran and Kintyre. A few irregularities occur here also. MacAlpine gives ûi (diphthong) for aoi in aoine as in Di-h-aoine and in naoi. The latter has ûi in North Argyll. Both have ì in Arran and Kintyre as has also maoin. Naoidhean has ì in Kintyre but seemingly short i in Arran. Maoidh is mì in Kintyre, mài in Arran, and mòidh with MacAlpine. Maois (Moses) and chaoidh or choidhche (ever) and also oidhche have ì in Arran and the first û, the others ûi, with MacAlpine. Caoin (weep) is cóin in East Perth and in Sutherland. In the latter county aoi often gets the sound of ì as in gaoith, MacAoidh (Mackay) and the parish name Claoin (Clyne).
As when a is changed to e, so also when ao is sounded é [ 236 ]or ì, a w or very short u is heard sometimes in Arran. It is very slight in this case, however, is found only after l and n as in laogh, glaodh, lagh, naomh, naoi, and is perhaps to be regarded properly as the passage from the ‘broad’ sounds of those liquids to the narrow vowel. The w or u in the case of e for a has arisen no doubt from the effort to pass from a consonant, associated as it was with a broad vowel, to a now slender vowel, as it is found only before those attenuated vowels in Arran and in Kintyre.
The identity of the pronunciation of ao in aon, caomh, naomh, with that of aoi in aoine, maoin, naoi, etc., in Arran and Kintyre might lead to the supposition that there the oblique case, as in so many instances, has usurped the place of the nominative, and that the forms in which ao is sounded ì, are really aoin, caoimh, naoimh. The occurrence of the same pronunciation in caomhain, and of distinct pronunciations of oblique cases is, however, rather against the supposition. While naomh, for example, is ‘n’ìmh,’ or rather ‘n’ìf,’ in Arran, naoimh strangely enough is there ‘nûimh.’ Except in two instances, chaoidh and oidhche, in which oi generally has the sound of aoi, the vowels which get this ì sound are in contact with nasal liquids m, mh, or n, and are themselves nasalised. In other cases, though in contact with nasals, ao, however pronounced, is not nasalised. So in Argyllshire generally it is where nasalisation is found that ao gets the sound of û. What we have then is this: where ao, with or without i following, is nasalised, it has been changed from ao to û in the great part of Argyllshire, and from é to ì in Kintyre and in Arran. In other districts no apparent trace of such divergence is found; the sound of û nasal or not, as the case may be, is given to ao beside all consonants. Whether the Arran and Kintyre sounds (é and ì) are modifications of the Argyll sounds (ao and û), or whether the sounds in both cases are modifications of older sounds, may be a moot question, but there need be no doubt whatever that the starting point of the divergence from é to ì, and from ao to û has been in both cases nasalisation. The cause of the divergence is
[ 237 ]the difficulty or impossibility of nasalising the sound of ao. The difficulty is such that when a gets the sound of ao in the diphthongs ia and ua in the west of Ross-shire, for example, though i or u is nasalised, ao is not, in such words as fiamh, buan. The attempt to nasalise ao changes more or less the character of the vowel; hence the nasal û for ao in Argyll and perhaps also the universal û nasal or not for ao in other districts. The sound that at first, or, at all events, at one time took the place of ao only when nasalised, has since taken the place of that vowel entirely.
In Irish ao in general gets the sound of u in Ulster, of our Gaelic ì in Connaught, and of our é in Munster, but apparently there are more exceptions and more varieties of sound than in Scottish Gaelic.
The vowel e, like o, has an open and a close sound. The open sound, when short, is like that of e in English ‘bed,’ ‘less,’ ‘met,’ and when long is like the same sound lengthened, and is then written è. The close sound is like the vowel in English ‘whey,’ short or long as the case may be, and in the latter case is written é. It rarely stands alone as the vowel of a syllable. On the other hand it is the only vowel that may be followed by any of the others and preceded by none. The only exceptions are Gael, Gaelig, etc., which are unusual and bad renderings of Gàidheal, Gàidhlig, etc. The lengthening of short e before long liquids and the change of a long e (eu, etc.) into ia have been fully dealt with, but some other changes affecting the vowel or digraphs into which it enters remain to be noticed.
In the digraph ea the vowel that is sounded in some cases is e and in others a. In East Perthshire a is heard when the digraph is followed by l, nn, rr or rd, and e in other cases. The exceptions are few, e.g., seachd (seven) and Geamhradh (winter). In Arran a is somewhat more [ 238 ]frequent and is heard before chd and in a few other cases. It is e there before ch except in deachaidh and seach, seachad, and seachran. MacAlpine gives a in Geamhradh, seachd, seach, seachad, neach, reamhar, but e usually in the positions in question. In breac (spotted), breac (trout), breac (to spot), with breacag, breacan, etc., leac (stone), seac (withered), and deachd (indite) he gives e and French u short as alternative pronunciations of the digraph. About Inverness a is noticeable before ch and in other cases; each (horse) for example is there ‘yach.’
In North Argyll and the adjoining parts of Inverness, Lochaber, etc., e is the vowel sounded in this digraph before l, nn, rr, and rd, and gives the dialect in those parts perhaps its most distinctive peculiarity of pronunciation. Geal (white) is there ‘ge’l,’ cearr is ‘ce’rr,’ fearr ‘fe’rr,’ ceard ‘cè’rd, fearna ‘fè’rna,’ and so on. As has been indicated already ea is diphthongised before long l, n, and m in the north, much in the same way as the single vowel a. Sometimes the resulting diphthong is au, and e is represented by a y sound preceding au or by its influence upon the preceding consonant, as Bealltuinn ‘Byaulltuinn,’ seann ‘shaunn.’ That is what takes place in the north generally before long l, and in Badenoch, Strathspey, etc., before long n also. In other cases the diphthong is formed of e and u in place of a and u, as ceann ‘ceunn,’ gleann, ‘gleunn,’ meall ‘meull,’ teampull, ‘teumpull.’ This is the rule in North Argyll and Lochaber, and extends in the case of nn as far as Rannoch, West Ross, and Skye, and in some instances to Sutherland. Before long l it extends in the case of meall (deceive) and meall (lump) to Rannoch and West Ross. In some cases ea is changed into eo before ll, e.g. geall ‘gyoull’; so seall, steall also in Lochaber, etc. In Rannoch ea is similarly changed to eo and diphthongised before rn as cearn ‘cyourn,’ etc. In Glenlyon ea becomes the eu diphthong in cearn, fearna, etc., in teàruinn and teàrnadh, in ceard, feaird, and in Peairt (Perth), in which r is short. The same diphthong is heard there also in peurda (flake of wool in first carding) as though the word were pèarda.
A substitution of close o for a is general in Northern Gaelic in such words as eallach ‘yollach,’ geall, seall, steall, dreall, greallag, sgeallag, and recalls the liking remarked in Sutherland for the same o before l. In other cases also, but without giving any great distinction of dialect, o (open, however) occurs for a, as feabhas, seabhag, treabh, treabhaire (houses), dreathan-donn, sreathart. ‘Feobhas’ for feabhas seems to be universal. Seagal generally has close o. Leabhar (book) and leabhar (wide) usually have o, but open in some districts and close in others. What happens in these—feabhas, seabhag, etc.—and other instances is that ea in place of getting the single sound of e gets that of o or yo. Feabhas instead of being ‘fe-as’ is ‘fyo-as.’ So lèabag (flounder), in some places liabag, is ‘lèbag’ in Arran, etc. and ‘lyòbag’ in West Ross, in Sutherland ‘lyóbag.’ Seòmar (chamber), which is ‘shòmar’ in most places, ought strictly to be sèamar, and is ‘shèmar’ in Perthshire and in Lewis.
[ 319 ]
Charles M. Robertson
(Continued from p. 239.)
a for initial eaIn North Argyll (Sunart) initial ea in a few instances is sounded a. Ealamh or eathlamh is ‘alamh,’ eanbhruith ‘anbhruich,’ and eanghlas ‘anghlas.’ Eanchainn is here ‘anchaill.’ There is a corresponding pronunciation in the case of io and of iu. Eathlamh, however, which is althamh (‘alhu’) in West Ross, is athlamh in Irish and athlam in Early Irish.
In such words as beum, ceum, feum with feumach, feumail, etc., geum, leum, teum, breun, treun, beur, eur, speur, beuban, treubh, creuchd, beud, deud, treud, beus, etc., eu is not known to become ia but is sounded é both north and south. M and n also where they occur in those words do not nasalise the vowel. Another diphthong, however, composed of e and u is heard in North Argyll and in Mull, Tiree, Coll, Eigg, etc., in the word feumach. In some parts of that area the sound seems to be rather iu or even yu. This pronunciation is not found in any other of those words, not even in feum or in feumail, in at least a great part of that area.
[ 320 ]The change in Ross and Sutherland of e (ei) to i associated with a lengthening of the vowel before long liquids as in Bìnn for Beinn, mountain, has been noticed already. In addition to the examples given leinn, with us, becomes lìnn, there. Seann-seanair is there sì-seanair; compare sìsear the same districts for sinnsear (ì nasal in both instances).
Of the examples referred to seinn, sing, is sinn in Perthshire and creim, nibble, is crim in North Argyll.
Many other words show an interchange of the sounds of e and i in different dialects. The written vowel in these cases may be e, ea, ei, i or io. Mil, honey, and milis, sweet, have e—mel, melis—in Perth, East Inverness, West Ross and Sutherland. Meadhon, so Arran, Kintyre, and Perth, is miodhon in North Argyll, North Inverness, Skye, West Ross and Sutherland. This has been written sometimes miadhon as though it were an instance of the change of long e—eu, èa etc,—into ia, but the e (ea) of meadhon is short. Meas, esteem, meas, fruit, measg, among, measg, mix, and miosa, worse, all have e—measa, etc.,—in Perth, and i—mios, etc.—in Arran, Argyll, Skye and Sutherland. Iosgaid, hough, and lios, garden, have e—easgaid, leas—in Arran, Perth, etc. Eirich, rise, is ìrich in Arran and in Kintyre. Smig, chin, in North Argyll and West Ross is smeig, inbhir in Perth, North Inverness and Skye enbhir, and gilb, eabar, and teine respectively in West Ross, sgeilb (in part of the district), iobar, and tine. Seamrag is in North Argyll siormag, and in West Ross both searmag and silmeag. The vowel of féill, in proper names of festivals and of fairs, is changed regularly in consequence of the unaccented position then occupied by the word, from long to short, and in addition is changed in Arran, Perthshire and other districts from e to i as An Fhill Màirtinn, Martinmas; An Fhill Brìde, St. Bridget’s day, etc.
When féin, self, is used with the second and third persons its vowel, as indicated at page 113 above, is é in all dialects. In Southern Gaelic it is é also with the first person. In the [ 321 ]northern dialect, except in Sutherlandshire, when the word is associated with the first person, the vowel is changed to ì. In the south they say ‘Thu fhéin ’s mi fhéin,’ but in the north ‘Thu fhéin’s mi fhìn.’ In Sutherland with the first person, instead of either fhìn or fhéin, they say in one part of the county fhèin, (è nasal), and in another fhian—‘Thu fhéin ’s mi fhèin’ and ‘Thu fhéin ’s mi fhian.’
The Gaelic sound of i is like the English sound of e in ‘me’ or ee in ‘bee,’ ‘deep,’ long or short as the case may be. Sometimes when short, more especially in initial position, the vowel gets the sound of English i in ‘fit,’ ‘pin.’ This English sound of i is heard in Sutherland in inbhir (initially), sin, and for io in cionta and ciontach, crios, gliong, etc., and is more frequent in that county than in other districts. The lengthening of i before long liquids and the diphthongisation of long io have been dealt with already.
The digraph iu in Northern Gaelic, more especially in its western half, is very often pronounced not yu as elsewhere, but as a diphthong iu or sometimes iû. Iu, for example, is heard in iubhar, iuchair, iù in cliù, siùil (sails) and iû in iullagach, etc.
Io in many cases is pronounced yu or yû in great part of the south and east and, following out the analogy, is also made iu or iû in the north-west, as in iochd, iodhlann, iolach, fiodh. In Skye the diphthong is extended to words in which y is at least not usual elsewhere. There io is iu in iomadh, iomain, iomaire, iomchuidh, iompaidh, iomradh, iomlaid and others.
A certain number of words which have this diphthong in the north vary in spelling or in pronunciation between io and ea in the south. Ionndrain, in Arran and Kintyre i’nndrain, in Perthshire eanndrain—yanndrain in the east of the county and eunndrain (eu diphthong as in certain pronunciations of [ 322 ]ceann, gleann, etc.) in the west—is iunndrain in North Argyll, Skye, and West Ross, and yunndrain in Sutherland. Ionnsaich and ionnsuidh in like manner have i in Arran and Kintyre, ea—ya and eu—in Perth, iu in North Argyll, Skye, and West Ross, and yu in Sutherland. Fionn, fionna, fionnar, Fionnlagh, iongar, ionraic, reannag, sionnach, sionnachan, spionnadh and others follow the same analogy. Leann (ale) and peallach, which have ea in Arran and Kintyre, with others follow the analogy less completely. Mèag, whey, adds other variations to the series. It is mì’g in Arran, mè’g in Kintyre and Islay, myaog in East Perth, meóg in Rannoch, meog in North Argyll, miùg in Skye and miûng in Sutherland. In the four last forms both vowels are sounded, the first short and the second long in meóg, miùg and miûng, and both of equal or nearly equal length in meog. Generally in this connection it appears that the north has a partiality for iu while the south is divided between io (Arran, Kintyre, etc.) and ea (Perth etc.).
As ea sometimes becomes a so initial io in some instances becomes u in Sunart. Iomadh is there ‘uma’ and iomall ‘umall’ and so also iomair (ridge), iomchaidh, iomchair, iomradh, report, (‘umra’ and ‘urma’) and iomramh, rowing.
The same thing happens in one or two instances in the case of iu. Iuchair, key, and iuchair, spawn, are both ‘uchair,’ iuchar, the dog days, is ‘uchar,’ and iullag, a skip, frisk, etc., is ‘ullag.’
The vowels of unaccented syllables get most frequently the sounds of a or ao short, or of i. If i does not appear in the written syllable the sound is a or ao in most dialects. When i stands along with a broad vowel the sound is in some cases a, in some ao, and in some i. When i stands alone it has of course its own sound. [ 323 ]Where ao and also in some cases where a is heard in such syllables in other districts, open o is substituted in many instances in the west of Ross-shire. This is the case especially in the suffixed syllables ach and achd. Mabach is here ‘maboch,’ ciallach ‘cialloch,’ teallach ‘tealloch,’ seileach ‘seileoch’ (‘se’l’och’), raineach ‘raineoch,’ beannachd ‘beannochd,’ cruithneachd ‘cruithneochd,’ and so ablach, cearbach, dìonach, fàrdach, feumach, Frangach, maorach, riòghachd, imeachd, etc. Aiteachan, places, is ‘àiteochan,’ gobhlachan, ear-wig, ‘gobhlochan,’ ceatharnach ‘ceatharnoch,’ dì-chuimhneach ‘diùchonoch,’ and spaidsearachd ‘spaidsearochd.’ Beannachadh is ‘beannochdainn,’ and so with other words of the same formation, as deasachadh, dìtheachadh, fiosrachadh.
Instances of o in other unaccented syllables are sgeadas ‘sgeados,’ saoghal ‘saoghol,’ innear ‘inneor,’ cianail ‘cianoil,’ dìomhain ‘dìomhoin,’ di-chuimhne ‘diùchoin,’ Sàbaid ‘Sàboid.’
Instances occur in Lewis also as tràbhach, a kind of grass, ‘tràbhoch,’ banachdach, pox, ‘banachdoch,’ dà-ghamhnach, cow that goes two years without having a calf, ‘dughanoch,’ trì-ghamhnach, one that goes three years without having a calf, ‘traghanoch,’ Sàbaid, here ‘Sàboinn.’
When Gaelic place-names are adopted into English the vowel of a final or other unaccented syllable is often changed to o, as in Avoch, Dornoch, Rannoch, Ranochan, Cawdor, Glasgow, Greenock, Lomond, etc.
Words like fada, dalta, calma, fearna, àite, maide, fàilte, muime, duine, tròcaire, clachaire, are often heard without the final vowel, as fad, dalt, àit, tròcair. Old Irish has such a vowel in many cases in which modern Gaelic has not, as O.Ir. fírinne for fìrinn, snechta for sneachd, snáthe for snàth. In the southern dialect of Scottish Gaelic there seems to be a tendency to retain such vowels in many cases before [ 324 ]words beginning with consonants, and to drop them at other times. In the northern dialect the tendency rather is not only to keep them where they existed already, but to affix them wherever it is possible to do so, e.g., deimhinn, O.Ir. demin, is in West Ross-shire deimhinne, and suilbhir, O.Ir. sulbir, is suilbhire there and in North Argyll. In East Perth and Strathspey, and, to a less extent, in Sutherland, the tendency is to drop a final a or e in all cases and circumstances. Even words like comharradh, a mark, còmhnadh, assistance, conaltradh, company, masladh, shame, osnadh, a sigh, Geamhradh and Samhradh, come under its influence in East Perth and in Strathspey, and are respectively, in both those districts, comharr, còmhan, conaltar, masal, osunn, Geamhar and Samhar, or indeed more nearly comhr, còmhn, conaltr, masl, osn, Geamhr and Samhr. Madadh, dog, wolf, appears in Perthshire in more than one place-name, as mad, and fasadh, a dwelling, the word met with in Fasnacloich, Fassiefern, Dochanassie, etc., occurs once as Fas, the name that is Englished as Foss, but with Fasaidh as its genitive.
A w is heard in Arran in some of those cases in which a and ao are changed to e, è, or é (pp. 228, 236 supra), and in Skye and Sutherland takes the place of u in certain instances (p. 233 supra).
W sometimes arises from bh, mh, and dh. Abhag is pronounced sometimes a-ug, and sometimes awag; seanamhàthair is seanavair, seanu-air and seanawair, and odhar is o-ar and owar. Such cases as call for remark will be taken under the respective consonants.
A y sound in the south and east has taken the place, to a great extent, of e and i in the diagraphs ea, eo, io, and iu in accented syllables. Bealaidh is byalaidh and eala yala; eòlas is yòlas, eòrna yòrna, and ceòl cyòl. Other examples have been given in dealing with io and iu. The dialect of the [ 325 ]north-west in all those cases generally retains e or i, and forms it with the following broad vowel into a diphthong.
Y is the sound given to slender dh and gh at the beginning of a word, but does not give any mark of dialect.
A nasal sound is given to all vowels except ao by contact with the nasal liquids m, mh, and n, but not in all cases. The vowel is nasalised, for example, in eun, bird, and sgeun, start, but not in breun, putrid, or in treun, strong. Sometimes vowels are nasalised without nasal liquids in the words. Faigh, get, is nasalised in Arran, Skye, and Sutherland, and caith, spend, etc., in Arran and Skye. Ciabhag, lock of hair, treubh, tribe, and uabhar, pride, are nasalised in Skye and West Ross. Other instances of nasalisation of the accented vowels are oidhche, chaoidh, treibhdhireach, troigh, ubh, ubhall, uchd in Arran, dithis, fuasgail, tuaicheal, ultach in Perth, cubhaidh, cuibheas, fiach (worth), ucas, uchdach (ascent), urlar in West Ross. MacAlpine says urlar is properly unnlar; that means probably that in his dialect, as in West Ross, etc., the word is ùllar, with u nasalised, and r assimilated to l. Uaigh, grave, is nasalised generally in the north, through confusion, no doubt, with uaimh, cave. As tualaig, loosen, which is nasalised in Perth, is tuainig or tuanaig in other dialects, the word may be properly tuanlaig. Adhlac, to agree with its pronunciation, as has been said (p. 224), should be annlac, nn being assimilated to l. The first vowel of òran, song, is nasalised in Perth, though not in Arran, Kintyre, or Islay, where it is óran, or in North Argyll or Skye, where it is òran, but in Strathspey, Ross, Sutherland and Lewis, and in Ireland, the word is amhran, in Middle Irish ambrán.
Ao is not nasalised. Before nasalisation can take place, some other sound—û or ì—has to be substituted. The connection of this change of vowel with nasalisation has already been noticed (pp. 236, 237). With regard to the seeming exceptions, oidhche and chaoidh, it should be observed that [ 326 ]though they do not contain nasal liquids, their vowels nevertheless are nasalised. As a matter of fact the sounds also of o and of e, when nasalised, are changed. The nasal ò of sròn is not the ó of bó, mór, but neither is it the ó of brón, ór, though it is nearer to the latter than to the former. Also the nasal è of eun is not the é of breun, treun, nor is it the è of è, he, though it again is nearer to the latter than to the former. This pronoun è, he, is itself nasalised when preceded by a particle ending with n; compare Am b’ e, was it, with An e, is it, and Cha ’n e, it is not.
In North Argyll (Sunart) a when nasalised changes its sound and becomes e. This takes place, for example, in bàn, dàna, làn, ràn, slàn, àmhuinn, cnàmh (digest), làmh, nàmhaid, sàmhach, snàmh, tàmh, màg, màs, nàduir, smàd, snàth, mach, math, etc. The change of vowel resembles that from a to e in Arran and in Kintyre, but in this district it is found only in the case of nasalised a.
What has been called sometimes a euphonic a, to quote Munro’s Gaelic Grammar (2nd ed. pp. 96, 97), “is of constant occurrence in speaking; as in Gleanna gairidh, gacha ràidhe, gura mi, ma’sa tu, etc., where, without its intervention, the combinations nng, chr, etc., would sound extremely harsh and snappish. It is in compliance with this propensity to euphonia that the prefixes an, ban, etc., become, before certain letters, ana, bana, as in anabarrach, banacharaid, etc. Proper attention has not always been paid to this in the orthography; but as it is unquestionably a fixed principle in the pronunciation, it ought to be attended to in writing.” This parasitic vowel is found usually after liquids, as in ball-a-bùird, cam-a-chasach, sean-a-ghille, sean-a-mhàthair, barr-a-geal. Place-names having as their first part such words as cill, poll, toll, cam, druim, tom, beinn, ceann, gleann, barr, gearr, torr, often have the vowel. Cill Mhoire in Skye (‘Kilmuir’), Ardnamurchan, Knapdale, Kintyre, and Arran [ 327 ](‘Kilmory’ or ‘Kilmorie’) may be heard as Cill-a Mhoire, or, as it would be written in Gaelic, Cille Mhoire. Kilchoan (in several districts) is Cille Chòmhghain, Kilmodan, Cille Mhaodain, Kilmallie, Cille Mhàilidh, A’Chill mhór (Oban and Sleat), A Chille mhór, and so on. Drumalea in Kintyre is Druime liath, and Drumancroy at Portmahomack An Druime cruaidh, and Tomdoun in Glengarry An Toma donn. Glencoe is Gleanna Comhann, and in the districts of Ardgour, Morven, and Ardnamurchan there occur Gleanna Gobhair, Gleanna Galmadail, Gleanna Sannda, Gleanna Gùda, Gleanna Cnèapasdail, Gleanna Borrghdail, An Gleanna geal, An Gleanna dubh, An Gleanna mor, and An Gleanna beag. An Gleanna garbh is at Gruinard, Lochbroom, An Ceanna garbh on Loch Shiel, Am Barra Calltuinn (Barcaldine) and Am Barra glas near Oban, Am Barra mór in Appin, An Torra bàn in Sunart, and so on. The vowel is also heard occasionally after words ending with other consonants, as in Am Bada Beithe, An t-Easa mór.
This parasitic vowel has been mistaken sometimes in the case of names of glens for the genitive feminine of the article, and in consequence names like Glencoe have been written Gleann na Comhann, Glen Gour Gleann na Gobhair, Glen Garry Gleann na Garadh. This mistake would not be possible unless the view taken of the essential facts were so narrow as to exclude not only such instances as An Toma donn, An Ceanna garbh, Am Barra glas, etc., but also such as An Gleanna geal, An Gleanna mór, and the like, and even then it should not be possible.
Internally, that is in the middle of a word, this svarabhakti vowel is at least equally common. The consonant groups into which it inserts itself contain in the case also, as a rule, a liquid either as the first or, less frequently, as the second constituent of the group, or they may consist of two different liquids. The intercalated vowel has the sound of [ 328 ]a in some districts and of ao short in others in such words as balbh ‘balabh,’ sealg ‘sealag,’ Fearchar ‘Fearachar’; so borb, lorg, iarrtus, coslas, masladh, cosnadh, acras, easradh, calma, dearmad, Tormoid.
In such as gilb ‘gilib,’ aimsir ‘aimisir,’ caismeachd, aigne, misneach, caidreabh, aitreabh, aimlisg, ainmhidh, it is ao short in some dialects and i in others.
Guilbneach, a curlew, is ‘guilbearnach’ in Perthshire, ‘guilibearnach’ and ‘guilibneoch’ in different parts of West Ross-shire, and ‘guileabarnach’ and ‘cuileabannach’ in different parts of Sutherlandshire. Glaschu, Glasgow, one of the few instances in which there is no liquid, is in Northern Gaelic generally ‘Glasachu.’
The tendency to vowel correspondence or to particular vowel sequences shown above in such instances as ‘balabh,’ ‘gilib,’ is found further developed in the west of Ross-shire. In that district the distinctive Gaelic sounds of a, o, u, and i are all given in intercalation in different cases.
- a occurs when the preceding syllable has a, ea, or io as Alba ‘Alaba,’ armadh (oiling wool) ‘aramadh,’ carbhanach ‘carabhanach,’ lamraig ‘lamaraig’; dealrach ‘dealaraich,’ eanghlas ‘eanaghlais,’ earball ‘earaball,’ iomlan ‘iomalan,’ iomlaid ‘iomalaid,’ iorghuil ‘ioraghuil.’
- It is found also after ai, as in ama’lisg for aimlisg, dama’sir for daimsir (mud).
- Balbh is bala-abh and balahabh, garbh gara-abh and garahabh, dealbh deala-abh, and so falbh, marbh, etc.
- o is heard after o or oi as tolog for tolg, conofhodh for confhadh, conophocan for conphocan (a sea-shell), coin’ohall for coingheall (loan), borobhan for borbhan, dorocha for dorcha, and so gorm, morbhach, morghan, etc.
- u follows u, and sometimes iu and ui, as Muruchadh for Murchadh, siunnuchan for sionnchan (sionnachan), muluchag for mulchag (mulachag), cuil’ubheir for cuilbheir, guir’umean for guirmean.
- i is found after i, ui, ei, and ai, as Gibilean for Giblean, [ 329 ]iminidh for imnidh, inif for inbhe, iniwir for inbhir, cuilibheart for cuilbheart, suilibhire for suilbhir, seilicheag for seilcheag, eirimis for eirmis, seirim for seirm, ainim for ainm, farrige for fairge. A number of examples combine metathesis, as ilimich for imlich, iorimall for iomrall, and so imleag, imrich, imridh (must), iomradh (report), iomramh (rowing), and others. Words like Bailbh, gairbhe, deilbh, are bailahi, gairahi, deilaohi.
The more usual pronunciations also are heard sometimes in the district; e.g., iomradh is both iomaradh and irimeadh and coingheall is coin’ahall as well as coin’ohall. Those developed vowel sequences prevail especially throughout the district from Loch Torridon to Loch Broom. Further south, as in Lochcarron, they less frequently replace the ordinary pronunciations.
In some few instances this parasitic vowel has been admitted into the standard orthography. Iarunn, iron, if written according to the best analogy, would be ‘iarn’ and was so written in Old Irish. As it appears as iarund in Middle Irish, however, the current spelling may claim in this instance some of the respect due to age. Seanchaidh, Irish seanchuidh, is generally written seanachaidh, and seanchas, Old Irish senchas, is almost invariably seanachas. Donnchadh, Duncan, is usually Donnachadh which is quite the same as when Fearachar is substituted for Fearchar, and Murachadh for Murchadh, and is not to be defended. Fionnaghal in the same way is usually and quite erroneously written for Fionnghal, Flora. Banachag, milkmaid, meiligeag, pea-pod, muinichill, sleeve, muinighin, trust, muirichinn, family, mulachag, a cheese, spiligean, seedling, are examples of words written with a vowel that in pronunciation is only a svarabhakti, and, in order to be in agreement with Gaelic phonetics, they should be written banchag, meilgeag, muinchill (which is written sometimes) muinghin, muirchinn, mulchag (mulchan in Middle Irish) spilgean. This last word is Scottish spilkins, split-pease, from spilk, to shell peas, etc., [ 330 ]whence Gaelic spiolg, to unhusk. Muinighin is muinigin in Early Irish, and may have had its pronunciation affected by analogy or some other influence. The old Irish colum, a dove, for example, is written now columan, calaman, and calman, and according to current pronunciation the best form phonetically is the last named.
In all these instances the liquids that precede the svarabhakti have those sustained or lengthened pronunciations already noticed (p. 99). Wherever indeed a long liquid is followed immediately by a vowel in the written word, that vowel, so far at least as its present value in the spoken language is concerned, is a svarabhakti. Such vowels are rather to be extirpated where they have appeared especially if there are alternative spellings without them already, than to be made by their insertion a cause of increased confusion in the orthography. They have no place in the old language; they may be absent in particular cases or in classes of words in one dialect though present in other dialects, and in any case they are merely parasitic. They are exactly of the same kind as the intercalated vowels in pronunciations of English such as ‘warum’ for warm, ‘woruld’ for world, and ‘kerub’ for kerb, and are doubtfully euphonious and certainly incorrect.
When liquids are short before other consonants, e.g., the tenues, the svarabhakti is not heard, as in Ailpean, alp, olc, corp, torc. A seeming exception is calpa, calf of the leg, but this, besides being a borrowed word, is more often perhaps calba in the spoken language.
In general the svarabhakti is most frequent in the north-west, and least frequent in East Perthshire and Strathspey. In Glenlyon it may be heard from some natives—by no means from all or perhaps even from the majority—in forms quite as exaggerated, though not in so many instances, as in West Ross-shire. In Sutherland it is at least not more frequent than in the southern dialect (exclusive of East Perth).
[ 331 ]Somewhat similar in appearance to the above is the change by which words like cuisle, cuimse, sùiste, oidhirp, become in pronunciation respectively cuisil, cuimis or cumais, sùsait, oidhrip. Certain words ending in rc are in particular subject to this change. Adhrac is heard for adharc, fradhrac for fradharc, amhraic for amhairc, pàiric for pàirce, suairic for suairc. Iomchorc, respects, regards, compliments, is pronounced ‘iomachorac’ and ‘iomacharac’ in Sutherland and Ross, and is written iomacharag (in Rob Dunn) and with more extended metathesis iomachagar. Another example is the word usually written làirig. It is common in place-names in Lochaber, Lorne, and especially about Breadalbane. It occurs ten times in Glenlyon, or rather between that glen and the valleys on either side. One between the heads of Glenlyon and Glenlochay where ‘Allt Learg Mac Bheattie’ is marked in maps, is classical:—
- ‘Tha sliabh na làirig an robh Mac Bhaidi
- ’N a mhothar fàsaich, ’s ’n a stràca trom.’
The term is applied to the ‘col’ or pass connecting two glens whose streams flow in opposite directions. Two are traversed by the Callander and Oban Railway. The first is at the head of Glen Ogle and of a small glen sloping down to the Dochart where the maps have Loch Lairig Eala. The other is to the west of Tyndrum between Strathfillan and the Glen Lochy that runs towards Dalmally. The probable explanation of Finlarig, in Gaelic Fionnlairic, lying low by the side of Loch Tay with no pass near apparently of the usual kind, is that the name originated high in the hills where ‘Coire Fionn Lairige’ and ‘Druim na Lairige’ appear in maps, and add one more to the number on the borders of Glenlyon. The word is properly làirc and is pronounced in that district ‘làiric,’ and, perhaps more frequently, ‘làirichc,’ exactly as suairc is ‘suairic’ and ‘suairichc.’ The one referred to by Duncan Ban Macintyre is locally Làirc (‘Làirichc’) [ 332 ]MacBhàididh, and the one at Tyndrum Làirc Lòcha, or to distinguish from the Lochay at Killin, Làirc Locha Urcha. The word is lairge and lathairce in Irish with the meaning of thigh, in Middle Irish laarg, fork, leg and thigh, Old Irish loarcc, fork. Mr. Quiggin gives the Donegal form of the word as láiric.
These cases—cuisle, adharc, etc.—do not have the liquids long—not even in pairce or suairc—and show metathesis, or a change of place, by the vowel and the liquid or other consonant in most of the examples, rather than intercalation of a svarabhakti. This kind of metathesis is most frequent in East Perthshire and in Strathspey. It occurs in one or other, or in both of those districts, in the case of—
- la, le as in Beurla, atharla, comhairle, mèirle, sgeimhle.
- na, ne as in ceudna, eorna, tighearna. Di-Sathuirn, in Arran etc., ‘Di-Sathuirne,’ is in East Perth ‘Di-Sathrainn.’
- sa, se as in the emphatic prepositional pronouns agamsa, asamsa, etc., and in tuairmse. Leamsa may be heard in Glenlyon as liuma-as, and riumsa as riuma-as, m being long in these instances.
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