The simplest forms of words containing short vowels and long liquids are such as—
- call, cam, bann, barr, poll, com, bonn, corr, null, cum, lunn, curr, fill, im, binn.
Examples with the liquid supported by another liquid are—
- annlan, dorn, burn, urlar,
or by another consonant—
- lombair, umpa, impidh, Gallda, allt, fallsa, drannd, sunnd, binndich, sannt, connsaich, long, bard, ordag.
The broad vowels may be preceded by slender vowels—e before a and o, i before u—representing a y sound in pronunciation, and may be followed by i, if required, before rd and rn, as—
- bealltuinn, dream, teanndadh, cearr, ceard, cearn, eorna, ciurr; cairdean, uird, cuirn, feaird, smeoirn, ciuirteach.
E in the few cases in which it occurs before long liquids is written ei, as steill, creim, beinn. Other types of words with short vowels before long liquids such as caill, druim, cainnt, fionn, etc., are not affected by the changes to be noticed.
The changes to which the vowels are liable in the positions in question are two in number. In other words a short vowel followed by a long liquid may be dealt with in one or other of three ways in Scottish Gaelic; it may be left unchanged, it may be lengthened, or it may be diphthongised. In this as in other cases the area of the fewest changes is the extreme south, and that in which the greatest number of changes is found is the far north mainland.
vowels unaltered
The vowels are unchanged before l, n, and m, in Argyllshire south of Lorne, in Arran, and in east Perthshire. All, except a and o before l and n, remain unchanged before the same three liquids as far north as Loch Linnhe and the Inverness county march. With the additional exception of a and o before m, they are unchanged as far north as the Ross-shire border; in other words u, e, and i are unchanged
