(not ao as is usual before gh and dh); cf. làghaich there for làthaich, mire, and the hill name Liaghach for Liathach from liath, hoary. The root of làthach, mire, is suggested doubtfully by Macbain for làgan.
Final gh in monosyllables, as agh, heifer, dragh, trouble, laogh, calf, leagh, melt, is heard more or less distinctly in great part of the west and north—North Argyll, Skye, West Ross, and Sutherland.
The sound of bh, i.e. v, is given to gh in Easter Ross and in Sutherland in a few instances, e.g.: truaghan, in Sutherland truaowan, is truaobhan in Easter Ross, although truagh is there truaow, and saoghal, the world, is sûbhal in Sutherland.
gh slender.
Medially slender gh is often heard in a few words, as àilgheas, fastidiousness, doilgheas, sorrow, duilghe, more dillicult, muinighin, or, as in the Gaelic Scriptures, muinghin, trust. MacAlpine has it silent in duilghe and muinighin. It is heard in West Ross in builghionn, a half-quartern loaf, a form marked obsolete in the dictionaries, usually written builionn.
At the end of words, mostly monosyllables, it is sometimes heard in North Argyll and several of the islands, e.g.: in brìgh, substance, rìgh, king, uaigh, grave, luigh, lie, in North Argyll. It is heard in laoigh, calves, in Arran. MacAlpine represents gh in his phonetic spellings of such words often by yh, by y, and by gh, by all which, doubtless, he means the slender gh sound. He gives yh in brìgh, but gh in brìgheil, substantial, and yh in dòigh in the Dictionary but y in his Grammar (p. xvi), and at the same page he says, not distinguishing broad from slender, ‘Dh initial sounds often like y, and sometimes like gh.’
Dentals.
T is formed with the point of the tongue pressed against the gum, and is more explosive than in English. In contact
