kũ꞉gʹə, compar. of kũ꞉N, ‘narrow’, O.Ir. cumung, kũ꞉glαχ, ‘strait of the sea’, Di. cumhanglach for cumhangrach, Macleod cunglach. Here we may mention the cases where n has become r̃, e.g. grĩ꞉, ‘good looks’, Di. gnaoi; grẽ꞉hə, ‘business’, Di. gnó; krõ꞉, ‘nut’, O.Ir. cnú. On the other hand several words such as kʹrʹαdi꞉, ‘to pant, groan’, Meyer cnetaigim and kʹrʹαsuw, ‘to heal’, Meyer cnessaigim, have given up the nasal. drũ꞉ʃ, ‘lechery’, Atk. drúis, doubtless owes its ˜ to some word like gnúis. The nasal in this word seems to be general, cp. O’Donovan, Grammar p. 37, Pedersen p. 66. But whence the nasal in klə͠ıəv, klɛ͠ıəv, ‘sword’, O.Ir. claideb? For sõ꞉ruw, ‘to observe’, Craig somhrughadh, beside the more frequent so꞉nṟuw and other cases of loss of nasal see § 443.
B. The consonants.
§ 173. Corresponding to the two main vowel-divisions, back and front, we find the consonants grouped into palatal (palatalised) and non-palatal (non-palatalised) consonants, so that to every non-palatal sound there answers one of the other group[A 1]. In some cases separate symbols are used to denote the palatal sound as in the case of j, v, ɲ, ç, ʃ, but in the majority of cases the palatal sound is represented by writing ʹ after the consonant, thus tʹ. It will be seen later that strictly speaking it is incorrect to call Donegal pʹ, bʹ, mʹ palatal sounds, but as they correspond to the palatal forms of the other consonants it will be convenient to include them among the latter. We propose to deal with the consonants in the following order:
- (a) h, j, w.
- (b) the liquids and nasals L, l, Lʹ, lʹ; N, n, Nʹ, nʹ; R, r, rʹ; m, mʹ; ŋ, ɲ.
- (c) the spirants f, fʹ, v; χ, ꬶ, ç; s, ʃ.
- (d) the labial, dental and guttural stops p, pʹ, b, bʹ; t, tʹ, d, dʹ; k, kʹ, g, gʹ.
- ↑ Nearly all the Irish sounds which are usually termed palatalised are palatal but for purposes of convenience the same symbol is used for both indiscriminately in this book. The palatal articulation has of course developed out of palatalisation.
