its tendency, though differing in this instance from East Perthshire, to conform to Southern Gaelic.
In West Ross-shire and in Skye the words in question, with scarcely an exception, have iao, and in contact with m or n, as ao cannot be nasalised, only i of the diphthong is nasal.
Sgìos, because it is for ‘sgìtheas,’ has ì generally, but in Sutherland it is sgiaos. Iobairt and iodhal also have iao in the same county, ‘iaobairt,’ ‘iaowalt.’ The latter is ‘iaodhal’ in Skye. The borrowed word tim, ‘time,’ in Sutherland has become, not tìm, as might be expected on the analogy of im, etc., but tiam, as though the word were tìom, and followed the analogy of sìoman, etc. Féin, self, which is ‘fhìn’ with the first personal pronouns in the Northern Dialect generally—‘Thu fhéin ’s mi fhìn,’ (never in the North ‘mi fhéin’)—is fhèin (è nasal) in the north of Sutherland except Strathy, and fhian in Strathy and the south-east of the county, with first personal pronouns, but with the other persons fhéin (é not nasal), as in the rest of the Highlands. Fhian might be a diphthongisation of fhìn, as though it were fhìon, like crìon, lìon, but is perhaps more likely to have come from the local fhèin on the analogy of eun, dèan.
(To be continued.)
