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§ 59. As the reduction of ö̤꞉ we get o̤ in o̤lkuw, ‘to bury’, M.Ir. adlacaim < adnacim; No̤nu꞉r, ‘set of nine’, O.Ir. nónbor (also Nïnu꞉r through association with dʹin̥ʹu꞉r); ro̤d, ‘thing’, O.Ir. rét, the depalatalisation of initial *Rʹ caused é to become ö̤꞉ (v. § 73) and when the word was used enclitically ö̤꞉ was reduced to o̤, it is the enclitic form of the word which has survived; similarly o̤rəd, ‘amount’, αχ o̤rəd, ‘at all’, O.Ir. airet, eret. Di. writes oiread, Macbain uiread but also Sc. G. urad, cp. Waifs and Strays of Celtic Tradition vol. iii p. 43, Finck erʹəd, erʹid, so that the depalatalisation is peculiar. Craig usually writes urad, ach urad (Derry People 30 iv ’04 p. 3 col. 4). Perhaps the r is due to association with ro̤d.
§ 60. In a few words o̤ has taken the place of other vowels. This is the case in ko̤rsαn, ‘wheezing’, Di. cársán, Macbain carrasan; kro̤puw, ‘to shrink’, Meyer crapaim but also crúpán; Lo̤g, ‘weak’, M.Ir. lac perhaps influenced by bo̤g, ‘soft’; to̤məL(t) beside tαməL(t), ‘a while’, Di. tamall; sro̤n̥uw, ‘to scatter, spread’, Di. sreathuighim, srathuighim, srathnuighim. o̤ occurs exceptionally before r < *Rʹ in o̤rdʹə, ‘height’, Wi. arde, airde, cp. Manx yrjey but in phrases we find α꞉rdʹə, as in erʹ kɔs ə Nα꞉rdʹə, ‘galloping’, Di. cos i n‑áirde; also α꞉rdʹ, ‘point of the sky’, M.Ir. aird but the comparative of α꞉rd, ‘high’ is o̤rdʹə (the inflected forms of α꞉rd follow the nominative, gen. sing. fem. α꞉rdʹə). Further o̤rdʹ, nom. plur. of ɔ꞉rd, ‘sledge-hammer’, M.Ir. ord.
10. ⅄꞉.
§ 61. This symbol is here used to denote the peculiar sound given to the digraph ao, which appears to be similar to the corresponding sound in Scotch Gaelic and on Aran, though I cannot say whether they are identical. The Donegal sound is the unrounded form of close u꞉ in German ‘gut’ and is therefore high-back-narrow. ⅄꞉ is always long except when shortening occurs before h < th, as in s⅄hər, ‘labour’, O.Ir. sáithar and in r⅄h, ‘run’, O.Ir. rith, where ⅄ is due to the depalatalisation of *Rʹ. The younger people as a general rule have not got this sound and substitute for it i꞉ and y꞉, cp. Craig’s statement (Grammar² p. 4) “ao is pronounced like ee in heel”. High-front articulation has also taken the place of high-back in some dialects of Scotch Gaelic, cp. Henderson, ZCP. iv 100. That this pronunciation of ao has been pretty general in Ulster may be gathered from notes by J. H. Lloyd in the Gaelic Journal, e.g.
