Relaciones laborales y participación sindical

'consoles'), has written th for d three times in succession (comdíthnad also Sg. 90a_{7). It would seem}

that the pronunciation of spirants at the end of a medial syllable often fluctuated in the same way as in wordauslaut ( § 130 ). For b (β) instead of f in syllabic auslaut, see § 635.

127. (c) In our sources there are as yet but few instances of the reduction of the sound-group thch or δch to ch. It takes place consistently only (before n) in súaichnid (súaignid twice, Wb. 8c_{15, 18}c_{6) 'well-}

known' for *_{su-aith-gnid. Apart from this, Wb. has the isolated forms prechite and ro·priched (5}a_{5, 23}a₃₎

beside normal predchid pridchid 'preaches'. These forms are more frequent in Ml., where we also find tachur 34a_{20, taichur 115}d_{9 beside taidchor 'restoration' 117}b_{5, 131}a_{12; fris·tuichetar 'they opposed'}

21c_{2, normally ·tuidchetar. Accordingly this pronunciation had not yet become general.}

Cp. also taibsiu Wb. 6d_{6, Sg. 209}b_{28 for more frequent taidbsiu (-αβs-) 'showing', 3 sg. past subj.}

·taibsed Sg. 6b_25.

128. 3. At first sight single spirants between unstressed vowels do not appear to be governed by any rules, for voiceless and voiced spirants are often used indifferently in the same word or suffix, e.g. oirdnithe and oirdnide 'ordained', ·comalnathar and ·comalnadar 'completes', sóinmiche and sóinmige 'prosperity', etc. The fluctuation, however, is almost wholly confined to cases where the voiceless spirant is the original. Of the rare exceptions, some may be explained by analogy; e.g. cuimrecha 'fetters' Wb. 23a_{5 beside cuimrega 27}c_{36 (to con·rig 'binds'), modelled on the singular}

cuimrech; ass·indethar 'is explained' Ml. 90b_{18 beside ass·indedar 17}a_{9 (-ind-fēd-), attracted by the}

frequent passive ending -thar; cúrsachad beside cúrsagad 'reproving' vb.n. (from Lat. curas agere), modelled on maldachad 'cursing', bendachad 'blessing'. Others are doubtless isolated scribal aberrations; e.g. humaithe 'brazen' Tur. 129 for normal umaide; cubaithiu 'more harmonious' Ml. 145b_{3, compar. of cubaid (com-fid).}

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129. Original voiceless spirants between unstressed vowels are in process of becoming voiced, and have already in great measure attained that condition in the earliest manuscripts. Only -ach- seems to resist the change. In certain examples the transition can be followed by means of a comparison between Wb. and Ml. Thus dílgud (vb.n.) 'forgiving' (with -d from -th) makes gen. dílgotho dílgutha in Wb., whereas in Ml.dílguda -do is as common as dílgutha ; comalnad (vb.n.) 'completing' makes gen. comalnatha in Wb., comallada in Ml. Cp. further atligid 'give thanks' (ipv. pl.), vb.n. attlugud (already in Wb.), from atluchedar (ad·tluchedar) ; sechtmogo, gen. -ogat, 'seventy' as opposed to tricho -a, gen. trichat, 'thirty'; du·écigi 'he shall see' for reduplicated -cichi; ad·co-tedae 'he obtained' Thes. II. 240, 23 ( Arm.) for -teth. .; sechmadachtae 'preterite' to tíagu 'I go'. As a rule th at the beginning of a syllable ending in r is replaced by δ only where it is separated from the stress by at least two other syllables; cp. the equatives ( § 368 ) suthainidir, dínnímidir, sonartaidir, erlamaidir beside dénithir, lérithir, demnithir, soirbithir (soirbidir only once, Ml. 75b_{7); or the 3 sg. depon. of verbs with stem}

ending in -ig- ( § 524 ), which always terminates in -idir -edar (the only exceptions being erbirigithir Ml. 35b_{6, adamrigethar Wb. 5}c_{16, érasigethar ZCP. VII. 481). After monosyllabic stems, on the contrary,}

-ithir -ethar is more common; e.g. always ·cluinethar 'hears' (6 instances), ·ágathar (7) 'fears' (beside ·ágadar once), midithir ·midethar (5) 'judges' (beside ·midedar once), etc.Here, too, there has obviously been much levelling. Thus sóinmiche beside sóinmige may have been influenced by the adjective sóinmech 'prosperous, lucky'. For f in this position see § 635.130. In final position (word- auslaut) there is complete confusion between the two classes of spirant. Here the determining factors are the phonetic character of the spirant and its quality (§ 156 f.).

1. (a) The neutral ( §§ 156, 157 ) guttural spirant is nearly always written -ch, irrespective of whether it was originally voiced or voiceless; e.g., iressach hiressac 'faithful', suffix Gaul. -āco- ācā-; teglach 'household' from teg 'house' and

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slóg 'troop'. Instances such as coibdelag Wb. 9c_{32 'related, relationship', beside coibdelach, and}

éicndag 'slander' 1c_{6, beside Y+00E9cndach, are rare.}

(b) The palatal guttural spirant is generally represented by -g, though -ch also occurs; e.g. nom. pl. (h)iressig (more common than iressich ), teglig 'of a household'; but also atob·aich 'which impels you' Wb. 9c_{20 beside normal ·aig (cp. Lat. agere).}

dat. sg. teglug; errug, nom. errach, 'spring'; tossug beside tossuch, nom. tossach, 'beginning'; díriug beside díriuch 'straight'; do·fonug and do·fonuch 'I wash'; deug (later also deoch ) 'drink', gen. dige. In all these examples, however, -g is original.

2. Dental spirants of whatever quality are more frequently represented by -d than by -th. Thus peccad 'sin' is much commoner than peccath ( Wb. 9c_{19), sluindid 'designates' than sluindith (ending}

originally had -t-), díltud 'denial' than díltuth (suffix-tu-. But there are also sporadic instances of -th for -d, e.g. (in a fully stressed syllable) búaith 'victory' Wb. 11a_{7 beside normal búaid, gen.}

búada.

3. For the labial spirants -b is almost invariably written, and represents not merely earlier γ, as in atrab 'dwelling' to atreba (ad·treba) 'dwells' or in the dat. pl. and du. -ib, but also an originally voiceless spirant ph (= f), as in felsub 'philosophus', angraib 'exemplar, antioraphum'. Exceptions are very rare: oíph 'appearance' Wb. and its compound cammaif camaiph 'still, however' ( § 907 ) beside cammaib Wb. 3d_{16 (where we should perhaps read -aíf -aíph -aíb; camai Wb. 3}d_{8 has been}

attracted by ar-aí 'however').

The above rules are often crossed, particularly in monosyllables, by levelling, the influence of other case- forms serving to restore the etymologically correct sound; e.g. mag 'field', influenced by gen. sg. nom. pl. maige, but. i-mmach (i.e. in _{mag) 'out(wards)', where the connexion was less clearly felt. Similarly lóg}

'pay, price', gen. lóge, the usual form, but also lúach (acc.) Sg. 41b_{6; teg beside tech 'house', pl. tige;}

leth and led 'side', gen. lethe; maith and maid 'good', pl. ma(i)thi. oíph too probably had gen. oífe (but Mid.Ir. nom. æ + ́b, gen. aíbe ).

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II. LENITION OF THE CONTINUANTS

131. Lenited s first became the aspirate h, which has been preserved down to the present day at the beginning of fully stressed syllables. For its representation by s, ṡ, see § 231, 7.

In intervocalic medial position it disappears; but at the beginning of the second element of a compound it is sometimes treated as in word-anlaut. Early examples are fochith fochaid 'torture, tribulation' from

*_{fo-ṡagith,fotha (}*_{fothae ) 'basis' from fo+suide 'seat', míathamle 'magnificence' from míad 'honour'}

and samail, where the contact with h after syncope has caused γ and δ to become voiceless ch and th. So also impu(i)de 'besieging' from imb-su(i)de, etc. ( § 187 ). Similar treatment is indicated by spellings like déserc deserc 'charity' Wb. (acc. misspelt desseirc 23b_{1) beside dearc Wb. II. 33}d_{6, dat. deircc}

Wb. 25a_{36, to serc 'love'; cp. comṡuidigud 'composition' Sg.}

On the other hand, this h has no such effect on non-compound words; thus the dat. pl. of teg tech 'house' is tigib < *_{tegesobis, never} *_{tichib. Here, then, it was already silent before the period of syncope.}

For traces of final lenited s see §§ 240 ff.

Lenition of s in the groups sl sr sn caused the second consonant to become voiceless; (e.g. díltud (Mod.Ir. diúltadh ) 'denial' < *_{dí-ṡl(on)duth, where d has become t after voiceless l. Cp. the spellings of}

the prototonic forms of di·sruthaigedar 'deriuat', from sruth 'stream': ·dírrudigeddar, vb.n. dírruidiguth díruidigud dirṡuidigud (all in Sg.); here, however, the influence of suidigud 'setting' (vb.n.) plays some part. For sl, sr, sn in the interior of words see §§ 153b, 216, 151a, in reduplicated verbal forms § 216.

132. 2. Whereas unlenited sw becomes s ( § 203 ), lenited sw becomes f ( < hw), which, in accordance with § 126, can further develop to b (β). Examples: siur 'sister', Goth. swistar, lenited fiur; sesser 'six persons', but mór-fesser

'seven persons', lit. 'great six'; do·seinn 'pursues' (stem swenn-), reduplicated pret. do·sephainn (written ·sepfainn Ml. 36d_{17), 3 sg. ipv. toibned Ml. 44}a_{13 (syncopated from} *_tophenneth).

133. 3. Lenited initial w was silent. Since unlenited w in this position becomes f ( § 202 ), alternation between f and zero develops; e.g. unlenited fer 'man', lenited *_{er (basic form} *_{wiros). For the spelling of}

the lenited forms see § 231, 7.

In medial position after stressed vowels lenited w, though frequently silent, is occasionally preserved as u or o; see § 204 ff.

134. 4. Lenited m (μ, Mod.Ir. mh) was a nasalized labial fricative ( § 29 ), a nasalised v. In the seventeenth century O'Molloy, Grammatica Latino-Hibernica p. 30, describes it: 'mh sonat quod v digamma seu consonans, quasi elata tamen per nares'. By the Mid.Ir. period it has in many cases fallen together with non-nasal v (γ); at the present day, where it remains nasal after a vowel, the latter is also nasalized.

135. 5. Lenited n, l, r (v, λ, ρ) correspond, as is shown by their pronunciation in the modern dialects, to the n, l, r (i.e. the frontal trilled r) of most European languages. When unlenited they are articulated with much greater energy: the tongue is tense, with the blade spread out fan-wise, and the other speech- organs also, such as the soft palate, seem to articulate with greatly increased energy. These differences are not expressed in writing, except that the unlenited sounds are often written as geminates ( § 136 ).

The fact that it is their unlenited rather than their lenited sound that has diverged from the original norm may explain why lenition of the above consonants ( § 120 ) is governed by rules somewhat different from those applying to the other consonants.

III. LENGTHENING OF UNLENITED

CONSONANTS

136. The unlenited consonants seem to have been sounded longer, as well as more energetically, than the lenited; in the modern dialects they are still so sounded in certain positions.

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Even where they do not derive from earlier geminates, they are often written double (in Wb. stops are doubled chiefly in auslaut); e.g. locc 'locus' Wb. 10d_{15, dat. lucc 7}d_{1, acc. pl. luccu 20}a_{7 (more}

frequently loc, luc, lucu ); sercc 'love' 4b_{10; olcc 'bad' 1}c_{10; corpp 'corpus' 3}d_{11; cumactte 'power' 6}a₁

beside cumachte cumacte; erchisechttæ 'of compassion Ml. 120a_{5condeilgg (gen.) 'of comparison'}

Sg. 42a_{4forbbart 'increase' 52}a_{8; armma 'weapons' Wb. 22}d_{11.Normally scribes refrain from doubling}

both consonants in an unlenited group, as in cosscc 'correction' Wb. 9a_{23; instead, they geminate now}

the one now the other.Examples: béssti 'beasts' Wb. 31b_{21; dussceulat (du·scéulat) 'they experience'}

Ml. 83b_{8; clainnd Wb. 29}d_{23, dat. of cland 'children' (gen. claindde 28}b_{17) inntṡliuchto 'of intelligence'}

Sg. 26a_{9; immbi 'about him' Wb. 13}d_{22; caimmse 'camisia' Sg. 23}b_{4; melltach Wb. 9}d_{17 beside}