15. ɲ.
§ 305. This symbol denotes a palatal ng formed with the back of the tongue against the place where the hard and soft palates meet and is therefore similar to the French gn in ‘signe’. Initially ɲ can only occur as the eclipsed form of g′, as in ə ɲα:r̥ə m′ə, ‘shall I cut’; ə ɲe:, ‘their goose’; tα: m′ɛ i ɲeivəN, ‘I am in distress’; k′l′iuw Nə ɲl′ïmαχ, ‘lobster-pot’; ⅄:nαχ Nə ɲl′αNtαχ, ‘Glenties fair’. Before k′ ɲ is very long.
§ 306. ɲ corresponds to O.Ir. ng before an original palatal vowel which may be preserved or lost, e.g. αχyɲə, ‘request’, M.Ir. athchuingid; æɲk′αl, ‘irritability’, Meyer an-cél, also adj. æɲk′αLtə, subst. æɲk′αLtəs, cp. N′i:l′ əN də ꬶrẽ:hə αχ æɲk′αl, ‘you can do nothing but complain’; æɲəl, ‘angel’, O.Ir. angel; æɲg′iαχ, ‘given to complaining’, cp. Meyer andgid, andgidecht; kyɲ, ‘bond, obligation’, M.Ir. cuing; kyɲir′, ‘team of oxen’, Di. cuingir (according to J. H. the actual yoke in Donegal is termed hαmwi: < Scotch ‘hames’); kyɲk′, ‘verdigris’, adj. kyɲk′αχ; k′iɲk′i:ʃ, ‘Whitsuntide’, M.Ir. cengciges; Lyɲ, dat. sing. of Lo̤ŋ ‘ship’, Lyɲiʃ, ‘ships, fleet’, Di. luingeas; ə ræɲk′, ‘France’, Di. Frainnc; sp′iɲk′, ‘precipice’, Di. spinnc < splinnc; ʃk′i ·æɲk′iʃ, ‘quinsy’, Di. sceith-aingcís.
§ 307. In Munster a very natural confusion of N′ and ɲ has taken place but in Donegal the two sounds are kept rigidly apart. The only example known to me of ɲ for N′ is g′iɲ, ‘wedge’, M.Ir. geind, where ɲ is probably due to assimilation. The plural is g′αNtrαχə.
§ 308. ɲ̥ does not occur as far as I am aware.
(c) The spirants f, f′, v, χ, ꬶ, ç, s, ʃ
1. f.
§ 309. f denotes a bilabial f with the lips in the position described for m in § 289. The normal mode of production seems to be as follows – the lips meet in the middle and the breath escapes either on both sides of this point of contact, the corners being closed, or at the corners of the mouth. For a long time I doubted the correctness of Henebry’s statement that labio-dental sounds are non-existent in Irish (p. 49). But after repeated observations I have not been able to discover labio-dental f or v in people over forty years of age either in Irish or English but
