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compares N. Inverness ʃ with Danish sj ZCP. iv 516. I am not familiar with the latter sound but from Jespersen’s description (Fonetik p. 244) it appears to be formed in somewhat similar manner to Donegal ʃ.
§ 352. ʃ represents O.Ir. initial s before palatal vowels and before O.Ir. c, l, n, t followed by the same vowels, e.g. ʃαχtinʹ, ‘week’, O.Ir. sechtman; ʃαn, ‘old’, O.Ir. sen; ʃiNʹimʹ, ‘to play a musical instrument’, M.Ir. senim; ʃo꞉k, ‘hawk’, M.Ir. sebac; ʃu꞉l, ‘to walk’, M.Ir. siubal; ʃkʹαχ, ‘hawthorn-bush’, M.Ir. scé; ʃtʹiəL, ‘strip, stripe’, M.Ir. stíall. For examples of ʃLʹ, ʃNʹ see §§ 226, 255.
§ 353. Medially and finally ʃ arises from O.Ir. ss, s followed by e or i. This ss, s generally arose from the assimilation of two consonants. Examples – αmʹʃirʹ, ‘weather’, O.Ir. amser; bʹrʹiʃuw, ‘to break’, M.Ir. brissiud; iNʹiʃ imper. ‘tell’, M.Ir. innissim; klæʃ ‘furrow’, M.Ir. claiss (dat.). ʃ also stands medially before Lʹ, Nʹ, rʹ, mʹ, tʹ, kʹ, e.g. pʹiʃrʹɔg, ‘charm’, Di. pisreóg; ʃeʃrʹαχ ‘plough’, M.Ir. sesrech; kæʃmʹərtʹ, ‘squabble’, Meyer caismert; kʹlʹiʃmʹərNy꞉, ‘starting up in sleep’, Di. clisim; tæʃmʹə, ‘accident’, Di. taisme; gæʃtʹə, ‘trap’, O.Ir. goiste; iʃkʹə, ‘water’, O.Ir. usce; kæʃkʹïmʹ, ‘step’, Meyer coss-céimm. Examples of ʃ before pʹ do not occur to my knowledge.
§ 354. As the aspirated form of both s and ʃ is h, confusion is apt to arise. Hence we get ʃ for s in ʃɔ꞉rt, ‘kind, sort’, spelt seórt Cl. S. 10 x ’03 p. 3 col. 5, Craig Iasg. < Engl. ‘sort’; ʃïlʹəstrαχ, ‘yellow iris’, Di. soileastar, M.Ir. soileastar; ʃïlαg, ‘spit’, Di. seil, O.Ir. saile; cp. further Macbain seileach with Di. saileóg; ʃi꞉lʹəm, ‘I think’, M.Ir. sáilim. Conversely su꞉Ntə, ‘seam in quarry’, stands for ʃu꞉Ntə = Di. siúnta < Engl. ‘joint’. ʃerʹ, ‘eastwards’, has been influenced by ʃiər, ‘westwards’, cp. Rhys p. 53.
§ 355. In loan-words from English ʃ represents Engl. s before e and i sounds and also Engl. j, e.g. ʃɛ꞉ʃu꞉r, ‘season’; ʃɛ꞉məs, ‘James’; ʃα꞉n, ‘John’; ʃu꞉krə, ‘sugar’.
§ 356. The past participle of verbs of the second declension ends in ‑i꞉ < uighthe or ‑i(꞉)ʃtʹə. The latter probably arose in some word like iNʹiʃ. The two conjugations have been hopelessly confused and we may safely assume that iNʹiʃtʹə and iNʹʃi꞉ existed side by side, whence the modern iNʹʃi(꞉)ʃtʹə.
