‘two pence’; dən fʹiʃi꞉nʹ, ‘to the kitten’; fʹiLʹ ʃə, ‘he returned (pʹiLʹuw).
§ 319. Medially combinations of th or sh with bh, mh produce fʹ. (a) bh + th, mh + th, e.g. jɛfʹər, pres. pass. of jɛvəm, ‘I get’, cp. Nerʹ ə χæLʹtʹər ə ꬶ⅄꞉ jɛfʹər ə jαs i꞉, ‘when the wind is lost, it is found in the south’; gα꞉fʹαχ, ‘spongy (of land)’, Di. gaibhtheach; ki꞉fʹαχ, ‘bed-fellow’, Meyer comthach; krα꞉fʹαχ, ‘devout’, Meyer cráibdech. (b) th + bh, th + mh, e.g. dʹefʹrʹə, ‘haste’, cp. O’Clery deithbireach; kα꞉fʹαχ, ‘spendthrift’, Di. caithmheach; klα̃ifʹαχə (klə̃ifʹαχə), ‘swords’, cp. M.Ir. claidbiu (acc. plur.); ʃifʹi꞉nʹ, ‘bulrush’, Wi. síthbe, síthfe; tuəfʹəL, ‘a whirl, the wrong way’, M.Ir. tuaithbel; uəfʹiαLtə, ‘wild-looking’, Di. uaithbhéalta (due to a confusion of Wi. óibéla with úath, ‘terror’), (c) bh + sh in dʹerʹəfər, ‘sister’, O.Ir. derb + siur. (d) In tʹifʹə, comparative of tʹUw̥, ‘thick, frequent’.
§ 320. fʹ is inserted before tʹ in skαfʹtʹə, ‘group, lot, flock’, spelt sgaifte Cl. S. 10 x ’03 p. 3 col. 5, Di. scata, cp. § 312. fʹrʹ has taken the place of r̥ʹ in fʹrʹi꞉dʹ, ‘through’, O.Ir. triit, on Aran with hr or xr (KZ. xxxv 337).
§ 321. On aspiration fʹ disappears, e.g. mʹαr, ‘my husband’; dʹeʃtʹi mʹə, ‘I furnished’, Di. feistighim; tα꞉ ʃïnʹ ə jeimʹ ɔrəm, ‘I need that’, Di. feidhm; ꬶα꞉ iəkilʹ, ‘two teeth’; ĩ꞉çə lʹïχ, ‘a wet night’. Consequently as f and fʹ when aspirated give the same result, confusion is liable to arise as in the case of fʹjɔ꞉ləmʹ, ‘to learn’, < fɔ꞉ləmʹ, O.Ir. foglaim. We have further fʹαstə, ‘yet’, < M.Ir. fodesta but fɔstə, fɔstαt, fɔstαχt = O.Ir. beus.
§ 322. In monosyllables ending in v there is a tendency with some speakers to unvoice the final and make it into fʹ (J. H. always has v), e.g. in Lïfʹ, ‘weed’, = Lïv, O.Ir. luib; ə Nʹïfʹ, ‘the egg’ (§ 326); Nʹïfʹ, ‘poison’, M.Ir. neim; Lʹefʹrʹi꞉nαχ, also Lʹevrʹi꞉nαχ, ‘half-witted’, subst. Lʹevrʹi꞉nʹ, cp. Di. leimhe.
3. v.
§ 323. The Donegal v is a voiced bilabial sound corresponding in formation to fʹ. The corners of the mouth seem to be left open and the portions of the lips on either side of the point of contact in the middle (§ 309) approach very nearly to one another and vibrate. Hence when this sound is strongly nasalised and a large part of the breath passes through the nose, it has a distinct tendency to develope into mʹ (§ 298). The younger people however are substituting a labio-dental for the bilabial v.
