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134

joicing’, is the Donegal for Di. iol­gháirdeas; dʹαr·di꞉nʹ, ‘Thursday’, O.Ir. dardóen, has by analogy with dʹα Lu꞉nʹ, ‘Monday’ &c.

do, ‘tuus’, and the verbal particle do before an O.Ir. palatal initial usually appear as , e.g. dʹαr, ‘your husband’; dʹɛədən, ‘your face’; but generally tα꞉ Lʹeʃkʹ ɔrəm detʹuw, ‘I am loath to refuse you’; dʹiNiʃ mʹə, ‘I related’.

§ 405. The relation of mʹihidʹ, ‘due time’, to Wi. mithich, mithig is not clear. Donegal also has a sub­stantive mʹihəs. It is perhaps worthy of note that mʹihidʹ is commonly accom­panied by the prepo­sition , ‘to’, and both *mʹihih and mʹihidʹ would appear as mʹihi before . bwi꞉dʹαχ, ‘tiny’, is perhaps the same as Scotch G. bóidheach, ‘pretty’, < M.Ir. buadech, ‘victori­ous’. bwi꞉dʹαχ is generally used along with ïg, as in ïtə bʹïg bwi꞉dʹαχ, ‘a tiny, little bit’. The is due to such adjec­tives as mʹieidʹαχ, ‘impatient’. For the meaning cp. German klein with Engl. clean.

§ 406. disappears after the negative Nʹi꞉ in the parts of dʹerʹəm, ‘I say’, e.g. Nʹi꞉ ɛrsə, ‘he does not say’; Nʹi꞉ ɛ꞉r̥ə mʹə, ‘I shall not say’; Nʹi꞉ u꞉rtʹ mʹə, ‘I did not say’ (more commonly Nʹi꞉rʹ u꞉rtʹ mʹə); but mα dʹɛrsə, ‘if he says’.

§ 407. The off-glide which accompanies is frequently not heard before a following consonant. This we denote by writing d(ʹ), e.g. vi꞉ bαskɔd(ʹ) lʹeihə, ə mʹɛd(ʹ) klɔχ, du꞉rt(ʹ) mʹə.

§ 408. In dʹαləgαn, ‘the white of an egg’, arises by dissimi­lation from cp. Di. gealacán, Macleod gealagán.

9. k.

§ 409. The Irish k is formed much further back against the soft palate than is the case in English or German. This marked velar quality is not without influence on neighbour­ing vowels, thus i() commonly becomes retracted to y() after k and g. Before palatal vowels an off-glide resemb­ling a w-sound is clearly heard. Like p and t k is strongly aspirated and therefore a verb with stem ending in k may be identical in the present and future, e.g. dʹαrky() ʃə, ‘he looks’ or ‘will look’. For k as a lenis see § 438.

§ 410. Initially k corresponds to O.Ir. c before other vowels than e or i, or preceding l and r[1] followed by these vowels, e.g. kαm, ‘bent’, O.Ir. camm; kαridʹ, ‘friend’, O.Ir. cara; kïlʹαn, ‘pup’, M.Ir. cuilen; kɔləg, ‘awn’, M.Ir. colg; kɔsu꞉lʹ, ‘similar’,

  1. Also n.