number of districts, and it may be argued, that the close e here simply follows the Arran pronunciation of é (i.e. long close e) for long ao. Aig (at), which has close e almost universally, has ai in Arran and open e in Kintyre. Two words that have ai in place of a in those districts are ainnleann for annlan, in Arran à’lleann, in Kintyre eileann (eilleann?), and baintreach for bantrach, with ai as a in Arran and as e both in Kintyre and in MacAlpine’s Dictionary.
a and o
The Rev. John Forbes in his Grammar gives a preference for o as against a as one of the features of the northern as distinguished from the interior and southern dialects of Gaelic. More recently a partiality for a has been claimed as a feature of the Gaelic of Sutherlandshire. So far as that county is concerned the question has been discussed in full in the papers already mentioned on its dialect. All that can be said is that a does take the place of o in a number of instances in that county, and that o on the other hand in nearly as many instances displaces a, but somehow the latter do not strike the observer as the former do. A distinct feature is the substitution of close o for a before l, as in alt, altruim, allt, call, etc., also in dealt, pailt, etc.
Coileach, coire (fault), goil, and some others, it may be remarked, have ai—caileach, etc.—in Sutherland as in Arran.
o
The two sounds of o are distinguished as open and close and in writing, when long, as ò and ó. When short they are not distinguished in writing. The open sound ò is like that of o in English cot, lord, and the close sound ó like that of note, quote. In printing care has not been taken always, even in dictionaries, to distinguish ò and ó. Bó (cow), for example, is often given as bò. Mór (great) also generally appears as mòr. In this case there are in fact two pronunciations, the one ‘mór’ for ordinary use and the other ‘mòr’ kept for emphatic
