‘ao’ - [ʎ]

Tá fianaise láidre ann ó logainmneacha gur caomhnaíodh an guta cúil ard (high back vowel), cuid den am ar a laghad, ar ‘ao’ i nGaeilge Chontae an Dúin.

[Mar a bhí le fáil go coitianta in Oirthear Uladh agus i nGaeilge na hAlbain. Gné caomhnaithe ón teanga níos sine is ea seo.]

Léiríonn roinnt de na foirmeacha stairiúil do Fhormaol[1][2] an tréith seo.

The early anglicised spelling of our Formal ... provide clear evidence of that dialectal feature of Ulster Irish whereby orthographic ao is realised phonetically as a high-back-unrounded vowel u sound [ʎ].

Léiríonn Maolshliabh, galldaithe ‘Moolieve’[3] an tréith seo go fíormhaith sa Bhéarla.

It is interesting that the high-back-unrounded u sound [ʎː] in maol is reflected in the local pronunciation of the anglicised form ... at least among older speakers. (Ó Mainnín, 146)

Ar ndóigh, léiríonn an leagan gallda den sloinne Ó Maonaigh, ‘Mooney’, an tréith seo go maith.

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[1] Ó Mainnín, 140

[2] L. 140.

[3] L. 146