réid; ri꞉, ‘king’, O.Ir. rí; ri꞉nʹ, ‘tough’, M.Ir. rigin; rïχt, ‘strength, state’, O.Ir. richt; rö̤꞉χtənəs, ‘need, necessity’, M.Ir. riachtanus.
§ 272. Initial r is unaffected by aspirating words. The aspirated form of fr is r, e.g. kʹαrk ri꞉, ‘a moor-hen’, cearc fhraoich; sə ræɲkʹ, ‘in France’.
§ 273. Initial sr whether standing before O.Ir. a, o, u, or e, i, has a sound peculiar to itself. The r is not trilled in this case and seems to cause the tongue to be retracted from the ordinary s position. The two sounds coalesce and a kind of modified s is produced. Cp. Chr. Bros. Aids to the Pron. of Irish (p. 18)꞉ “The two consonants are often pronounced almost simultaneously, so that it is difficult to know which consonant is pronounced the first”. Examples—srα`, ‘holm, field lying by a river’, M.Ir. srath; srα꞉dʹ, ‘street, space round a cottage’, M.Ir. sráit; srα꞉dʹɔg, ‘a bed on the floor’, Di. sráideóg; srαhər, ‘straddle’, O.Ir. srathar; srɛən, ‘bridle’, M.Ir. srían; srUhαn, ‘stream’, O.Ir. sruth. Initially ʃRʹ has become sr but medially we find ʃrʹ (§ 283) except in αsrïgər, ‘a sharp retort’, < ais + freagar.
The aspirated form of initial sr is always r, never r̥, e.g. ro̤n̥ə mʹə, ‘I scattered’, Di. srathnuighim; Nʹi꞉ rihαχi ʃə, ‘he will not reach’, Di. sroichim; ko̤r fo̤l ṟo꞉nə, ‘to have nose-bleeding’.
§ 274. r arises from n in the groups cn, gn, tn, but the nasal character of the syllable is generally retained, e.g. krαguw, ‘to strike’, < Engl. ‘knock’; krα̃꞉bʹə, ‘hemp’, Meyer cnáip; krα̃꞉v, ‘bone’, O.Ir. cnáim; krɛpʹə, ‘button’, M.Ir. cnap; krõ꞉, ‘nut’, O.Ir. cnú; kro̤k, ‘hill’, O.Ir. cnocc; kʹrʹitʹαl, ‘to knit’, < Engl.; grẽ꞉hə, ‘business’, Di. gnó; grĩ꞉, ‘good looks’, Di. gnaoi. lʹeʃ ə trα̃hidʹ, ‘with the needle’; mʹeidʹ ə trα̃꞉, ‘the size of the yarn’; fαd ə trα̃꞉içə, ‘the length of the thread’; χUi ʃiəd əmαχ erʹ ə trα̃꞉uw, ‘they went out swimming’; erʹ ə trĩ꞉, ‘on the bier’; erʹ ə trĩ꞉mʹ, ‘on the knot’; erʹ ə trũw, ‘on the complexion’.
§ 275. Before L, N, t, d, where r arises from R, and also before Lʹ, Nʹ, tʹ, dʹ, where r represents Rʹ, r is not trilled and in stressed syllables is perhaps slightly longer than the ordinary sound. The point of the tongue is raised towards the arch-rim and then slides along the alveoles into the position for the following sound. It is unfortunate that Pedersen has not given us a description of the corresponding sound on Aran l.c. pp. 28, 67. After r in the final position N, Nʹ, Lʹ are almost syllabic.
