107
with his fist but I did not flinch’, ho̤bwirʹ gə dʹitʹiNʹ əNuəs əs ə χαiçirʹ αχ bwinʹuw bʹïŋguw əsəm, ‘I almost fell down off the chair but I staggered on to my feet (and saved myself)’. These two forms look as if they represented M.Ir. bidcim but I am at a loss to account for the ŋ. bʹïŋguw may have come in from outside. For ŋg cp. Chr. Bros. Aids to Irish Pron. p. 22. Latin ungere also appears with ŋg, infin. o̤ŋguw, pres. o̤ŋgy꞉m, Atk. ongad. ŋk occurs in mαŋkαn, ‘a fair for selling stockings’, pαŋk, ‘a cow-market’, Di. panc, both ultimately from Engl. ‘bank’, v. Di. pancán, bancán; splαŋk, ‘lightning’, Di. splannc; spo̤ŋk, ‘tinder’, Cormac spongc < Lat. spongia. Before k ŋ is very long.
§ 303. In parts of Ulster and in Scotch Gaelic (cp. ZCP. iv 522) ng is apt to disappear leaving behind as only trace nasalisation of the vowel in stressed syllables. Lloyd writes (G. J. 1890 p. 146 col. 2): “In Orrery when medial or final, it is equivalent to gh, i.e., it is silent and lengthens preceding vowel which is often nasal, e.g. luing = luigh, ceangal = céaghal, teanga = téagha, aingeal = aigheal &c.” In Donegal ŋ (ɲ) disappears in a number of instances but only when there is another nasal in the word. Examples – dα͠ıən, ‘firm, tight’, O.Ir. daingen; i꞉Ntαχ, y꞉Ntαχ, ö̤꞉Ntαχ, ⅄꞉Ntαχ, ‘wonderful, strange’, M.Ir. ingantach, i꞉Ntəs, ‘wonder’, cp. Manx yindys; pʹi꞉Nʹ, ‘penny’, M.Ir. pinginn; wĩ꞉, ‘mane’, M.Ir. moing (acc.), cp. G. J. 1896 p. 185 col. 1 an mhuigh, and muighe in Molloy’s fourth dialect-list. In some cases ŋ, ɲ have become g, gʹ, Nʹi꞉s kũ꞉gʹə, compar. of ku꞉N, ‘narrow’, O.Ir. cumung (but also O.Ir. cumce in the compar.); kũ꞉glαχ, ‘strait of the sea’, Dinneen gives cumhanglach as the Donegal form of cumhangrach, Macleod cunglach; kũ꞉gəs, ‘remedy’, Di. coguisidhe, Macleod cungaidh-leighis under ‘medicine’, ‘remedy’, Macbain has cungaidh, cungaisich, Ir. cunghas, cungnaighim, cungnam. In tαrgirʹə, ‘prophet’, tαrgirʹαχt, ‘prophecy’, O.Ir. tairngire, there is no trace of the nasal. Note also the absence of the svarabhakti vowel between r and g. ŋ has further disappeared before l in α̃꞉liʃ, ‘a mixture of milk and water’, Meyer anglas = englas, Di. eanglais, anglais. kynʹigəL, ‘condition’, Meyer coingell is a late formation and has developed i between nʹ and gʹ.
§ 304. A voiceless ŋ with strongly breathed off-glide arises from ng followed by th, e.g. in gʹɛ꞉r̥αŋ̥αχ, ‘sharp-tongued’, < géartheangthach; srαŋ̥αχə, plur. of srαŋ, ‘band, string’, M.Ir. sreng; tʹαŋ̥αχə, ‘tongues’, Di. teangthacha.
