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tʹ is prefixed to a feminine substantive beginning with ʃ followed by a vowel or Lʹ, Nʹ, when the article an precedes, and also to masculine and feminine substantives under similar conditions when preceded by a preposition and the definite article, e.g. ə tʹαnvαn, ‘the old woman’; ə tʹlʹiʃ, ‘the chip’; erʹ ə tʹrʹαχtə, ‘on the snow’. Masculine substantives which in O.Ir. began with e, i take tʹ after the article in the nominative singular, e.g. ə tʹαLαχ, ‘the cattle’, but lʹeʃ ə NʹαLαχ, ‘with the cattle’. However the younger generation is beginning to introduce tʹ in the latter case also.
§ 389. Medially and finally tʹ arises from an earlier tt which originally stood before e or i. In O. and M.Ir. tt, t is written. Examples – α꞉tʹ, ‘place’, M.Ir. áit; ætʹənαχ, ‘furze’, M.Ir. aittenn; etʹɔg, ‘wing’, O.Ir. ette. Similarly in the loan-word Lʹitʹirʹ, ‘letter’, O.Ir. liter, Welsh llythyr. tʹ (< t) also occurs after Lʹ, Nʹ, r, ʃ in native and borrowed words, e.g. ku꞉rtʹ, ‘visit’, O.Ir. cúairt: kʹeʃtʹ, ‘question’, M.Ir. ceist, < Lat. quaestio; kyNʹtʹiNʹ, ‘dispute’, < Lat. contentio; dʹα mα꞉rtʹ, ‘Tuesday’, Lat. Martis; sLα꞉Nʹtʹə, ‘health’, M.Ir. sláinte.
§ 390. t and tʹ frequently interchange initially, see § 383. tʹ regularly appears in tʹïtʹəmʹ, ‘to fall’, M.Ir. tuitim; tʹiLʹuw, ‘to deserve, additional amount’, M.Ir. tuilled. The Donegal form of Di. aistear is αstər (χlïNʹə), ‘labour’.
§ 391. tʹ results from i. dʹ + h (< fh, th) in gytʹə mʹə, ‘I shall steal’, pres. pass. gytʹər, past part. gytʹə; trïtʹə mʹə, ‘I shall fight’, imperf. pass. r̥ïtʹi꞉; brïtʹə mʹə, ‘I shall nudge’, Di. broidighim; ʃeitʹi ʃə, ‘it will blow’, Di. séidim. ii. th + sh in Lʹetʹeçə, ‘a half-hide’, = leath-sheithche (also called Lʹα`ʃeçə), but ·Lʹα·hα꞉stə, ‘half-satisfied’. iii. d + ch in tʹi꞉m, ‘I see’, M.Ir. atchímm. iv. the third singular termination ‑adh becomes ‑ït(ʹ), ət(ʹ), ‑itʹ when followed by one of the pronouns e꞉ ʃi꞉ ʃiəd, e.g. gə wi꞉tʹ ʃə, ‘that he would get’. Pedersen maintains that the syllable is ‑əd and not ‑itʹ (p. 161). What I believe I hear is t(ʹ) or a lenis t(ʹ) (see infra § 393).
In αχmwirtʹ, ‘heat in horses’, tʹ has taken the place of kʹ, cp. Di. eachmairc.
§ 392. A parasitic tʹ is frequently added to words ending in lʹ, nʹ, ʃ, e.g. sα͠uwiLʹtʹ in Nʹi꞉ αkə mʹə ə sα͠uwiLʹtʹ də wrĩ꞉, ‘I never saw such a woman’, Di. samhail; kyNʹæLʹtʹ, ‘to keep’, Di. congbháil; fα꞉gæLʹtʹ, ‘to leave’, M.Ir. fácbáil and so with other infinitives in ‑ælʹ, kʹrʹedʹvæLʹtʹ, ædʹvæLʹtʹ; bwiNʹtʹ, ‘to pull,
