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15. ɲ.
§ 305. This symbol denotes a palatal ng formed with the back of the tongue against the place where the hard and soft palates meet and is therefore similar to the French gn in ‘signe’. Initially ɲ can only occur as the eclipsed form of gʹ, as in ə ɲα꞉r̥ə mʹə, ‘shall I cut’; ə ɲe꞉, ‘their goose’; tα꞉ mʹɛ i ɲeivəN, ‘I am in distress’; kʹlʹiuw Nə ɲlʹïmαχ, ‘lobster-pot’; ⅄꞉nαχ Nə ɲlʹαNtαχ, ‘Glenties fair’. Before kʹ ɲ is very long.
§ 306. ɲ corresponds to O.Ir. ng before an original palatal vowel which may be preserved or lost, e.g. αχyɲə, ‘request’, M.Ir. athchuingid; æɲkʹαl, ‘irritability’, Meyer an-cél, also adj. æɲkʹαLtə, subst. æɲkʹαLtəs, cp. Nʹi꞉lʹ əN də ꬶrẽ꞉hə αχ æɲkʹαl, ‘you can do nothing but complain’; æɲəl, ‘angel’, O.Ir. angel; æɲgʹiαχ, ‘given to complaining’, cp. Meyer andgid, andgidecht; kyɲ, ‘bond, obligation’, M.Ir. cuing; kyɲirʹ, ‘team of oxen’, Di. cuingir (according to J. H. the actual yoke in Donegal is termed hαmwi꞉ < Scotch ‘hames’); kyɲkʹ, ‘verdigris’, adj. kyɲkʹαχ; kʹiɲkʹi꞉ʃ, ‘Whitsuntide’, M.Ir. cengciges; Lyɲ, dat. sing. of Lo̤ŋ ‘ship’, Lyɲiʃ, ‘ships, fleet’, Di. luingeas; ə ræɲkʹ, ‘France’, Di. Frainnc; spʹiɲkʹ, ‘precipice’, Di. spinnc < splinnc; ʃkʹi ·æɲkʹiʃ, ‘quinsy’, Di. sceith-aingcís.
§ 307. In Munster a very natural confusion of Nʹ and ɲ has taken place but in Donegal the two sounds are kept rigidly apart. The only example known to me of ɲ for Nʹ is gʹiɲ, ‘wedge’, M.Ir. geind, where ɲ is probably due to assimilation. The plural is gʹαNtrαχə.
§ 308. ɲ̥ does not occur as far as I am aware.
(c) The spirants f, fʹ, v, χ, ꬶ, ç, s, ʃ
1. f.
§ 309. f denotes a bilabial f with the lips in the position described for m in § 289. The normal mode of production seems to be as follows – the lips meet in the middle and the breath escapes either on both sides of this point of contact, the corners being closed, or at the corners of the mouth. For a long time I doubted the correctness of Henebry’s statement that labio-dental sounds are non-existent in Irish (p. 49). But after repeated observations I have not been able to discover labio-dental f or v in people over forty years of age either in Irish or English but
