Page:Quiggin Dialect of Donegal 0127.png

‘year’, O.Ir. bliadain; bʹrʹi꞉, ‘vigour, force’, O.Ir. bríg; bʹrʹi꞉hər, ‘speech’, O.Ir. bríathar.

The eclipsed form of initial pʹ is bʹ, e.g. α bʹαtə, ‘their pet’; pʹi꞉sə he꞉ bʹi꞉Nʹ, ‘a sixpenny bit’.

§ 375. Medial and final bʹ arises from the same sources as b in §§ 371, 372 before originally palatal vowels. bʹ is far from being as frequent as b and a number of words in which it occurs are somewhat obscure. Examples – kʹi꞉bʹ, ‘sedge’, Di. cíb; kʹlʹibʹi꞉nʹ, ‘lump of dirt on the legs of a beast, matted hair on a person’, Di. clib, Macbain cliob, cp. ʃïnʹ ɛən çlʹibʹi꞉nʹ əwα̃꞉nʹ, ‘that is all one kettle of fish’; rïbʹə, ‘hair’, Di. ribe, ruibe, Macbain rib, ribeag < Engl. riban. In foreign words < p in ebʹrʹαn, ‘April’, Lat. aprilis (see ZCP. i 358); ïbʹrʹuw, ‘to work’, ïbʹrʹi꞉, ‘workman’, cp. O.Ir. oipred; pʹïbʹər, ‘pepper’, Lat. piper.

§ 376. bʹ has been analogically substituted for v in bʹigʹilʹ, ‘abstinence, vigil’, < Lat. vigilia; bʹi꞉ʃ ‘vice’, < Engl. ‘vice’. dʹirʹibʹ, ‘the name of a creeping thing that lives at the bottom of pools and is liable to be swallowed by cattle’, = Di. doirbh.

§ 377. sïbʹəLtə, ‘impudent’, seems to correspond to O’R. sodalta, Macbain saidealta, cp. Di. sotal.

§ 378. t is formed by firmly pressing the front rim of the tongue against the upper teeth as in the case of L and N. The compression is very great and as contact is loosened very gradually a θ glide is distinctly heard. For t as a lenis see § 438.

§ 379. Initial t represents O.Ir. t before a, o, u or preceding r, l followed by these vowels, e.g. tαluw, ‘land’, O.Ir. talam; tαrgirʹə, ‘prophet’, cp. O.Ir. tairrngire; tαruw, ‘bull’, O.Ir. tarb; tïgʹəm, ‘I understand’, O.Ir. tuiccim; tɔlʹ, ‘will’, O.Ir. tol; tɔruw, ‘fruit’, M.Ir. torad; to꞉gælʹ ‘to raise’, M.Ir. tócbáil; tui (çαhə), ‘rainbow’, O.Ir. tuag; tyuw, ‘side’, O.Ir. tóib; tlUw̥, ‘tongs’, Di. tlúgh; trα꞉, ‘meal’, M.Ir. tráth; trα꞉i, ‘shore’, M.Ir. trág, tráig.

t is prefixed in the nominative case to masculine substantives which began with a, o, u in O.Ir. when preceded by the article, e.g. ə tαhærʹ, ‘the father’. In the case of O.Ir. áis, óis, ‘people’, the t has become part and parcel of the word, e.g. dəN ti꞉s ɔ꞉g, ‘to the young people’. t is further prefixed to a feminine substantive with initial s followed in O.Ir. by one of the vowels