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Article "n"

Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2015 12:57 pm
by Zwalla28
Do the final "n"s in the article blend into the next word as dark/palatized version of themselves, or do they stay as weak "n"s? For example, is the "n" in "fon" in "fon fhòid" dark or weak? And is the "n" in "san" in "san iar..." palatized or weak?

Re: Article "n"

Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2015 3:32 pm
by akerbeltz
There's a long chapter in Blas na Gàidhlig about this ;)

But yes, in a nutshell any final -n of the definite article (an, nan, dhan, dhen...) assimilates into the next phoneme from a weak /n/ into:

/n/ > /N/ before a/o/u (including fh + vowel)
/n/ > /Nʲ/ before i/e (including fh + vowel)
/n/ > /ŋ/ before g/c

Elsewhere it gets deleted a lot, especially before l n r:
an rathad /ə'Ra.əd/