dair

(darach oak) the fourth letter of the Gaelic alphabet now in use. The letters d and s at the commencement of a word often give it opposite meanings, as, daor, dear; saor, cheap. D has various sounds: (1) Broad — more dental, e.g. more explosive than in English and with the tip of the tongue right up to the teeth, as in dàn, a song; duine, a man; dlagh, a handful. (2) Small like g in genius, when flanked by a small vowel (e, or i), that is when small vowels are the nearest to it, as, faide, length; cèaird, a trade. (3) D after ch sounds like k in English, thus lochd is pronounced lochk, the combination chd is thus the exact equivalent of final or medial c. (Boc, a buck and bochd, poor, sound exactly the same). (4) Dh, when broad, is very soft and resembles a soft English g. Thus, MacDhonnachaidh, a son of Duncan, usually Englished as Robertson, has also crept into English as MacConachy. MacDhaibhidh, a Davidson, has also been Englished as MacKay, so that some suppose that it was the MacKays who fought at the North Inch of Perth, whereas a little knowledge of Gaelic would have shown that it was the Davidsons. As a final, broad dh usually gets its full value in pronunciation, thus, Odh has practically the force of O only, as in Loch Odha, the best English representation of which is Lochow. Odha, a grandson, is well known in Lowland Scots as oë. Bodhar, deaf; odhar, dun-coloured; modh, politeness; crodh, cattle; are practically pronounced bohr, ohr, mow and crow. In Skye, however, in some words, as, fiodhol, fiodha, the odh gets its full value. Adh when medial, as in adharc, a horn; cladhach, digging; sounds as though the speaker checked or interrupted his breathing, besides which, the first a is sounded like ao. (5) Dh, when narrow, sounds like English y, as, dheth, off him; dhi, off her, (pron. yea, ye). When final, as, in buailidh, shall strike; fàidh, a prophet; aghaidh, face; it has the same y sound, except in Skye, Mull and some other parts, where a final idh is pronounced almost as if written ich. Dh followed by l, or r, has no similar sound to them in English. The nearest approach to explaining it is to say that it is much softer than the softest English g, as in, a dhlighe, his right; dhrùidh, (lit. penetrated, did impress). In Old Gaelic the article sometimes ended in d. In Skye that d of the article has sometimes been retained before fh, as, an d-fhàidhe, of the prophet and sometimes the d is absent, as, an fhir, of the man. This d appears with great irregularity in connection with feminine nouns, as, an d-fhois, the rest, an d-fhairge, the sea. Traces of d before initial vowels as in the old language, also occur. As, ceann an d-aigh, the heifer's head; sgohan air an d-athar, clouds on the sky. Féile, kilt, in Skye has nom. sing an t-éile, gen & dat. an d-fhéile. “Dobhran donn and sruth” is another example. We do not know the precise circumstances under which this d of the article appears. The n of chan frequently becomes d before verbs beginning with t, especially irregular ones, thus, cha d'thoir, cha d'thig, cha d'théid, which are usually thus spelt, should be cha dtoir, cha dtig, dha dtéid. This is called the eclipsis of t. D can also suffer eclipsis, as, a dh'aindeoin, in spite of, (pron. a ganyon). Nan damh is pronounced nan amh in many parts of the North, is eudar dhomh, I must, is also sometimes contracted is eudar 'omh.

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