Eigg, parts of Skye, Lewis &c.—is lh. This is what is meant by the not wholly exhaustive description of it in Stewart's Grammar as being like l in Eng. loom, fool. As examples he gives labhair '(he) spoke'; lom 'feminine of adjective lom, 'bare'; mol 'to praise'; blāth 'a blossom'; shlānuich 'healed'; dhlū fem. of adj. dlū 'near'. It has a sort of 'clucking' sound and the inhabitants of Eigg are caricatured for it, their prommciation of it in medial position being known among Outer Hebrideans who use ḷ + h for it as An Glug Eiggach 'the isle of Egg cluck'; see sub Dia- lectal Tests Sounds where the examples there noted for Tiree show it exists where it is flanked by broad vowels, either before or after. The colour of the vowel it is which lends its character to the combined effect, if lh be the mutation for both ł and ḷ. And I therefore find my own analysis in agreement so far with Mac Curtin who in his Elements of the Irish Language said long ago:—The letter l when an initial or joined with another consonant in the body of a Word, or in the latter end, is pronounced as if double, as long 'a ship', na colna 'of the body', Domhnall . . . When it comes in the body of a word with a vowel on each side, it is pronounced as in the latin, as Solamh, Soloman, sileadh 'dropping'.
Further Changes And Interchanges Of l.
(1) N. Inverness has a fondness for l in place of attenuated front r e. g. Griogail for Griogair 'of Gregor'; ˑṭḍoo̯-aḷ ˑkgrikɑḷ = Donald (son) of Gregor, Donald Mac Gregor:
mjœ-əl memory meamhair
kulœ-im feast cuirm
kglijññ pretty, neat grinn
ilœmiç to flit imrich
ˑmɑ̯łə ˑłii 'blemish, imperfection', heard also as marr ˑi (a corruption of mar bhith 'if not').
In some words such as glinn, cuilm Strathspey and Harris share in this peculiarity; and (lic) for rig, ruig (in phrase: cha ruig thu leas = you need not) is frequent in Uist and occurs
