kimkat2055k The Dialects Of Wales And The Study Of The
Brythonic Languages. Edward Anwyl. Trafodion Urdd y Graddedigion, Prifysgol
Cymru 1905.
Transactions of the Guild of Graduates, University of Wales, 1905.
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Trafodion Urdd y
Graddedigion, Prifysgol Cymru 1905, Transactions of the Guild of
Graduates , University of Wales, 1905 REPORT OF THE DIALECT SECTION
OF THE GUILD OF GRADUATES, APRIL, 1905. The Dialect Section consists
of the following Members of the Guild: Rev. W. CHARLES, M.A. and, in addition, the
following Corresponding Members:— ROBERT BRYAN Esq. T. THE DIALECTS OF WALES AND
THE STUDY OF THE BRYTHONIC LANGUAGES. One important advantage
derived from the study of the dialects of Wales is that incidentally their
forms offer closer analogies than the forms of the literary language, with
certain features and tendencies of the cognate languages, Cornish and Breton.
This aspect of dialect research has been brought |
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9 prominently
before the writer while reading Mr. Henry Jenner’s “Handbook of the Cornish
Language, chiefly in its latest stages," and in the present paper this
very serviceable book will be taken as a basis, and points of contact between
Cornish and the Welsh dialects will be noted in order as they occur in that
book. It is to be hoped that the points here indicated will be a further
stimulus to Celtic students, and Welshmen in particular, to search for
further points of a similar character. Before proceeding to detail, it would
be well for the investigator to consider the general possibility that in the dialects
of Wales which border on England, as well as in Cornish, English influences
through the prevalence of bilingualism have made themselves felt on the
phonology. Undoubtedly Breton through its contact with French, has come under
such influences, and it is not improbable that in Cornish and the border
dialects of Welsh. similar influences from the side of English are to be
traced. It would be of interest, too, to investigate whether English on the
borders of Wales and Cornwall has similarly been affected by Welsh and
Cornish pronunciation. There is abundant material for any Welshman who may
wish to investigate this question, in Dr. Joseph Wright’s English Dialect
Dictionary. As for English influence on Welsh pronunciation, Mr. T.
Darlington, H.M.I.S., in an able paper read by him before the Cymmrodorion
Society, has advanced strong arguments in favour of the view that the
narrowing of the broad ‘a’ sound to ‘ä’ in Mid-Wales and S.E. Wales is due to
the influence of the corresponding change in English pro.nunciation from
about the middle of the 16th century. From the following notes it will be
seen that a similar change has taken place in Cornish. Possibly, too, the
tendency to drop the aspirate in the dialects of Glamorganshire and
Monmouthshire may have a similar origin. It may be the case, too, that the
tendency which Cornish, as distinguished from Welsh, shows to turn short
final vowels into the neutral or obscure vowel, has been affected by the
similar tendency found in English. It is related to the increase of the
stress on the accented syllable as compared with the other syllables of a
word, and often goes pari passu with the loss of musical intonation in
pronunciation. |
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10 THE CORNISH
VOWELS. (Jenner, p. 56.) The pronunciation of short
‘a’ before I and r appears to have been like o in not. In Welsh dialect forms
we have parallels of a more extensive type to this pronunciation in the
Carnarvonshire. and Anglesey forms adlodd, aftermath. neuodd, hall, for
neuadd; cawod, shower, for for adladd; the word cawod exemplifies an early
tendency to cawad; variation in the pronunciation of ‘ă‘ where it came
in contact with a labial such as ‘w’ or ‘f’. In Anglesey (but not in
Carnarvonshire) afal, apple, is pronounced afol, and dafad. sheep, as dafod.
The English word ‘royal’ in both dialects has become ‘reiol.’ (Jenner, p. 56.)
Long ‘a’ is pronounced in Cornish. a according to Mr. Jenner, as something between
the sound of ‘a’ in the English word ‘bare,’ and the actual sound of the
bleat of a sheep. There is in other words a sound very similar to that of ‘a’
in tad in the Mid-Wales and S.E. Wales dialects, which has been previously
discussed in the Transactions of the Guild. We thus have here a very
interesting parallel between Cornish and the dialects of Welsh, more
especially the. Gwentian, which might be expected to resemble it most. Mr.
Jenner points out, however, that in certain words, ‘a’ whether long or short,
tends to the a" sound (English aw) as in âls (pron. awls), gwander
(pron. gwonder), brâs (pron. brawz). The lengthening of the ‘a’ in als finds
a parallel in the Gwynedd allt, as distinguished from the South Wales ăllt, but Welsh dialect parallels to the quality of the vowel (apart
from those mentioned under ă) do not seem to
present themselves. (Jenner, p. 57.)
Long ‘e’ in Cornish appears to have been closer in sound than the normal Welsh
‘e,’ which is half-open. It may be noted that the Montgomeryshire dialect of
Welsh tends to rnake both ‘e’ and ‘o’ (as well as ‘a’ as previously
mentioned) closer than is the case, for example, in Anglesey and
Carnarvonshire, which inclines towards the open sound of these vowels. (Jenner, p. 57.)
Long ‘o’ in Cornish, according to Mr. Jenner, seems to have been open like
‘aw’ in dawn, not close. It would be of interest if it could be discovered
whether all Cornish dialects were alike in this respect. |
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11 Long ‘u’ is said
to have been the same as ‘oo’ in fool. Where ‘u’ in Mr. Jenner’s orthography is
equivalent to Welsh w’ this may be the case, but where u = Welsh u, it is
known to have been changed like ‘u’ of Mid and S. Wales into ‘i.’ Welsh,
Breton, and Cornish clearly show that Indo-European ‘u’ was turned in them,
as it was in Gaulish, first into ‘ii’ (like the German ü), and then by
delabialisation in Welsh and Cornish (but not in Breton) into u (as Mod.
Welsh), then in some Welsh dialects and in Cornish into ‘i,’ so that its
history was precisely identical in these dialects with that of Indo-European
‘ü’ in Brythonic. On p. 58, Mr. Jenner has a note to the same effect, which
shows that the ‘ii’ sound has survived in the English pronunciation of Devon
and East Cornwall English. (Jenner, p. 59.)
Cornish appears to have had a sound written u, eu or ue approximating to ö in
German or eu in French. This sound in Cornish, as in Breton, was a
development from ‘ew’ a modified form of `aw.’ Ew probably developed
differently in different dialects of Cornish, in some becoming eu as
pronounced in Welsh, and then ĕ; in others
becoming ‘yw’ (with ‘y’ not ‘u’) then ö by merging the y and its
labialisation in one sound. Welsh probably had the ö sound as an intermediate
stage in the development of original ‘u’ to ‘y’: e.g., trymion. pl. of trwm,
was probably once pronounced trömion. (Jenner. p. 59.)
Where Cornish ‘ew’ stood for the equivalent of Welsh ‘yw’ as in bewnans,
life, there was probably a dialect tendency as in Welsh (e.g., Anglesey,
Carn.) to pronounce ‘yw’ as ‘ow,’ as is indicated by the spelling bownans
given by Mr. Jenner. The Welsh pronunciation in question is well-known in
such forms as bowyd = bywyd, towydd = tywydd, Howel = Hywel, etc. The form
bowjy ( = beudy) given by Mr. Jenner, finds its Welsh analogue in the form
found in the Glosses, as boutig. In the Dimetian dialect the original ‘ow’
sound became ‘ou,’ and later ‘oi,’ as in Ioi ( = Iau), Moirig ( = Meurig).
coi ( = cau), etc. PRONUNCIATION OF
THE CONSONANTS. (Jenner, p. 61.)
In the pronunciation of ‘d’ before e, i, y, there is an interesting point of
contact with a tendency of the |
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12 Gwentian dialect
to pronounce ‘di’ as ‘j’ in such words as jogal for diogel. ‘H’ is said to
be pronounced as an initial, rather more lightly than in English; this
probably indicates the intermediate stage towards its complete loss as an
initial; the ‘h’ of the Gwentian dialect probably went through the same stage
before it finally disappeared. Where ‘h’ is written as the mutation of ‘c,’
it indicates a ‘ch’ of a softer and smoother kind than the ‘ch’ of Welsh.
This, again, indicates the affinity of Cornish with those dialects of Welsh
which prefer the pronunciation ‘wh’ or ‘hw’ to ‘chw’ as the initial sound of
such words as chwaer, chwedl, etc. (Jenner, p. 62.)
In late Cornish, normal ‘l’ took the place of all the varieties of that
sound, whether mouillé, broad (as in Irish and Gaelic laogh), voiceless (as
Welsh ll), or voiced (as Welsh or English l). Welsh dialect investigators and
students of Cornish spelling would do well to keep a sharp look-out for
traces of that variety of ‘I’ sounds which must at one time, from the
evidence of historical phonology, have shown itself in the Brythonic
languages. (Jenner, p. 63.)
The later Cornish pronunciation of ‘r,’ whereby it was weakened as in
English, has as yet no analogue in any Welsh dialect. The change in Cornish
has probably been due to English influence. (Jenner, p. 63.)
The Cornish pronunciation of the sound written as ‘s’ is a point of great
difficulty. Where ‘t’ in Cornish came to be written as ‘s,’ inasmuch as the
pronunciation ‘j’ appears to have arisen through contact with vowels, the
probability is that it first began where the ‘t,’ though written, was
pronounced ‘d,’ and was followed by an ‘i’ sound, so that di became ‘j’. It
is probable, however, that in other cases ‘ti’ became ‘ch’, then ‘j’ by vowel
influence. Cornish ‘s’ then ti as a final or before b, d, g. j, v, was
pronounced as z. The only Welsh modification of ‘s,’ on the other hand, is
that of South Wales dialects, where it tends when final or vowel flanked, as
well as before ‘g’ to become ‘sh‘; e.g., mish, month, mishol, monthly,
dishgwl, to look. The Gwentian dialect in the pronunciation of ‘ti’ has
produced a ‘ch’ sound as in scitshia = esgidiau, shoes. |
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13 (Jenner, p. 65.)
The aforementioned Gwentian development of ‘ti‘ to ‘ch’ (tsh) is paralleled by
the Cornish habit of pronouncing ‘t’ as ‘ch’ before e, i, and y. In the word
chy, Welsh ty, a house, and ti, pronounced in the 18th Century as ‘chee,’ we
have this pronunciation exemplified. Parallels to these developments in the
history of English and other pronunciations will readily suggest themselves. (Jenner, p. 65.)
In Cornish, ‘v’ was often either nearly or absolutely inaudible at the end of
certain words. There are abundant parallels to this tendency in the Welsh
dialects. It may be noted, however, that in the Dimetian dialect, the
tendency to omit final ‘f’ is less marked than the omission of ‘dd.’ In
Mediæval Welsh, ‘f’ derived from ‘b’ was probably purely labial, not
labio-dental, and consequently was more easily interchanged with ‘w.’ It is noticeable,
too, that it could then be ignored in the consonantal system of Welsh
‘cynghanedd,’ thus giving a further indication of the lightness of its labial
pronunciation. At a still earlier stage of the language, ‘f’ derived from
‘m,’ was a nasal ‘v,’ but though this sound has its equivalent in the Breton
hañv, klañv, etc., there are no known traces of it in Welsh dialects. (Jenner, pp. 65
and 66.) In Cornish, as in the Dimetian, and sporadically in other Welsh
dialects, ‘dd’ (written as ‘dh’ or ‘th’) seems to have vanished at the end of
a syllable or after ‘r.’ This is paralleled by the Dimetian ‘newi’ for
newydd, etc., or the Carnarvonshire, etc., ‘ffor,’ ‘cer,’ (go), for ffordd
and cerdd. Around Portmadoc and doubtless elsewhere, gardd is pronounced
‘gar.’ Students of Welsh dialects would do well to be on the look-out for
other instances. (Jenner, p. 66.)
In Cornish, as in Welsh, there were probably dialect variations in the
pronunciation of ‘gwl’ and ‘gwr.’ It is clear from the spelling of Cornish
that at any rate in some dialects, the ‘w’ was omitted. In the dialects of
Wales this tendency is generally seen on the Welsh border as in
Montgomeryshire and Breconshire, where Welsh has come into contact with
English; here gwraig, gwlad, etc, are regularly pronounced as ‘graig’ and
‘glad.’ There, again, both in Cornish and Welsh, English influence has
operated. |
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14 (Jenner, p. 70.)
In the account of what Mr. Jenner calls the ‘Fourth State’ of Cornish
mutation, which is also known as provection, namely, the change of the voiced
consonants B, G, D, into the corresponding voiceless sounds P, C, T, we have
a phenomenon which showed itself sporadically in Welsh, in such forms as Med.
Poet = boed, Pei = bei (now pe, if, and bai, were it), or the Welsh crand
from English grand; N. Wales croesaw for groesaw, etc. There is one dialect
of Welsh, namely, that of S. Merionethshire, especially round where a
tendency to the provection of ‘g’ is a marked feature, for example, the name
Gwilym in that dialect becomes regularly Cwilym. In some cases the change
probably began where the voiced came in contact with a voiceless consonant,
in others by false analogy, through an undue association of the idea of a
voiceless with that of a radical consonant. This point deserves further
investigation in Welsh dialects, as well as in the literary language. (Jenner, p. 71.)
Cornish differs from Welsh in the mutation of words like golow = W. goleu,
where Cornish in the soft mutation after ‘e,’ his, preserves in e wolow, his
light, the ‘w’ which at one time carne after the ‘g’ in golow. In their
treatment of ‘f’ as ‘w,’ Cornish and Breton have a rnarked affinity with the
dialects which tend to make this change, notably before l, as towli for
taflu. It would be well if the Welsh boundaries of this tendency could be
more accurately ascertained. (Jenner, p. 79.)
The form arledh (also written arludh) found in Cornish, is parallel to the
Gwentian which survives in the name Waunarlwydd. This form was probably at
one time used in other Welsh dialects. (Jenner. p. 80.)
The Cornish gwis, an old sow, though it is not apparently found at present in
any Welsh dialect, was used in Old Welsh, as in the Black Book of Carmarthen,
for a pig; it still survives in the place-name Gwystre, now called Goosetree,
near Llandrindod Wells. (Jenner, p. 80.)
The Cornish gourgath, tom-cat, is now only used in Wales in the S. Wales
dialects, and sometimes takes the form gwrcath or cwrcath: the corresponding
form for a dog in Old Welsh was probably Gwrgi, which survived longest as a
proper name. |
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15 (Jenner, p. 81.)
The Cornish
keliok, a cock, is paralleled by the Welsh dialect from ceiliog. PLURAL OF NOUNS.
(Jenner, p. 84.)
The -ow or -yow termination in Cornish became the most living plural ending
like -au and -iau in Welsh. It is interesting to observe the difference
between the Welsh and the Cornish development of this ending. The ending
itself was the stem-ending (with the o-grade) of the plural of nouns of the
u-declension in Old Celtic where the stem-ending and the plural ending took
the form -ou̯-es. The ending -ou̯ was originally pronounced -ow. This in Welsh passed
into -ou, and then by a change into the e-grade (unless the ‘e’ grade in
certain dialects was original) became -eu. In all the dialects of Wales,
except Anglesey, Carnarvonshire, N. and N.W. Merionethshire, parts of
Flintshire, and the Gwentian dialect, this -eu has become -e. In the latter
dialects the ‘e’ through a tendency to a broader pronunciation, became a.’ In
Mediæval Welsh, -eu was regularly written, but writers who used -a in their
spoken Welsh, gradually substituted au for eu, whence the prevalent use of
this ending at the present day. Cornish, on the other hand, as well as
Breton, preserved the -o grade of the ending, which was developed by Cornish
into ‘o,’ by Breton into ‘ou’ pronounced ‘oo.’ The use of the stem-endings as
plural endings, even in the case of nouns of a different declension from that
to which the stem-ending originally belonged, raises some very important
questions as to the condition of Brythonic when Welsh, Breton, and Cornish
were cut off from mutual intercourse. It is difficult to resist the
conclusion that the use of stem-endings to form plurals (for example, the use
of the stem-ending ion for adjectives) must have commenced before their
separation, and this would not have been possible if the stem-endings were
not already left bare, at least in certain forms. The whole question of the
spread of English in S.E. Britain is one which demands more thorough investigation
than it has yet had. (Jenner, p. 84.)
In Cornish, as in Welsh. the epenthetic vowel shows itself in singular forms
when it is absent from the plural. Cornish shows a predilection for ‘a’ as an
epenthetic |
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16 vowel, as in
levar = llyfr, whereas in Welsh this vowel (unless that of the previous
syllable be ‘a’) is scarcely ever found, except in such a form as the
Mid-Wales ofan = Gwentian and Dimetian ofon. Here in Welsh the ‘a’ is
possibly on the same footing as in the variants cawad and cawod. The use of
the epenthetic vowel in Welsh is a point which demands further investigation
from the point of view of its boundaries. (Jenner, p. 85.)
The form caradow = Welsh caradwy, where ow = wy, raises a point of some
interest which deserves investigation in the history of place-names. For
example, we know that the ancient Kanovium is now Conwy, while Mynwy is now
the Welsh name to which the river-name Monnow corresponds. The question
arises whether ‘wy’ may not in some cases have been made from ‘w’ derived
from ‘ow’ by attraction to the more familiar literary ending wy, or whether
‘wy’ may not be a transposition from ‘yw’ from original ‘ow.’ In the case of
the form nuy = nwy in the expression arnuydalho, we probably have a
substitution for nyw: cf. the converse transposition in the Breton piou =
pwy. (Jenner, p. 85.)
The Breton form gowek, a liar, illustrates the Breton preservation of ‘w’ in
the diphthongs in the body of a work. In modern Literary Welsh we have
llysieuyn for the mediæval Ilissewyn, a form which still survives in the
South In the ending corresponding to Welsh -og, Wales dialects. older -awg,
pr. - ācus, Cornish often has the vowel in the ‘e’ grade,
which is also written as ‘a,’ and in the last stages of Cornish pronounced as
a neutral vowel. In the form gowek, Cornish has preserved the radical
consonant, whereas Welsh has come to use the mutated form as the radical,
that is, using ‘euog’ (the corresponding form to gowek) instead of geuog. A
similar process has taken place too in olwyn for g(w)olwyn, derived from the
root volv— found in Latin volvo. In some of its plural and other forms,
Cornish illustrates another tendency found at times in Welsh dialects,
namely. the tendency to use the simple vowel ‘e’ instead of the diphthong
‘ei.’ This is regularly done in Welsh final syllables, e.g., gwele for
gwelei, he saw, but it also occurs in such forms as celiog = ceiliog, ceniog
= ceiniog. Similar Cornish forms are clevyon = W. cleifion; mebyon = W.
meibion; gwesyon = W. gweision. In |
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17 some Cornish words
whose plurals are given on p. 85, there are certain points of phonology
raised by forms such as Yethow, a Jew, W. luddew; Kîf, dear, pl. Kefyon, W.
cuff; gwîr, true, pl. gweryon; prev, a worm, pl. prevyon, W. pryf. In
Cornish, ‘e’ is frequently found in the verb-noun where Welsh has u.’ In
these cases it is not improbable that ‘u’ in Welsh stands for inasmuch as the
corresponding forms in Irish end in -em. Cornish probably has preserved the
same ending with a different vowel after dropping the final ‘m’ when it had
become ‘v.’ In Kif, pl. Kefyon, the ‘e’ of Kefyon probably stands for the
neutral vowel, so that we have a vowel change analogous to that found in the
S.W. dialects in bystach for bustach. In prev = W. pryf, there is a vowel
similar to that which probably appeared in some of the dialects of early
Mediæval Welsh, when it was written as ‘e’ (for ‘y’). It was probably this
pronunciation that led to the writing of ‘e’ as the equivalent of ‘y’ as we
find it in the Venedotian Code of the Welsh Laws. In some Welsh words ‘e’ has
become ‘y’ since the Middle Ages, e.g., Mod. brodyr for Med. broder, llythyr
for llyther. In the Dimetian dialect form tewil l = Lit. Welsh tywyll (cf.
Irish temel), we have a similar instance of the preservation of the older sound.
A similar change has taken place in tymp and tymhor, pr. tempus and tempor—,
but here the change is older than any written Welsh record. It may here be
noted that the variation in the use of ‘e’ and ‘a’ in final syllables in
Cornish probably reflects dialect differences similar to those which now
exist in Welsh in the use of ‘e’ or a’ in final syllables. (Jenner, p. 87.)
The Cornish forms tol, a hole, ascorn, a bone, by the side of the Welsh twll
and ascwrn and the Breton toull and askourn, illustrate a tendency found also
in the Cornish trom, heavy, W. trwm, Bret. troum, Irish tromm, for Cornish to
agree on this point with Irish rather than with Welsh and Breton. (Jenner, p. 88.)
There is an interesting point of similarity between Cornish and the Gwentian
dialect, together with those to which its influence has spread, in the
reduction of ‘ei’ to ‘i’ in such a form as gwrihon, sparks, by the side of
the Literary Welsh gwreichion, cf. pido = peidio, to cease. The Cornish |
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18 bannol, a broom,
given on this page, also gives a point of contact with the S.W. dialects
which have omitted the ‘dd’ in such a word as anal, breath, for anaddl,
instead of hardening it back, as the North Wales dialects have done, into
‘d.’ In Breton in similar cases, ‘dd’ usually becomes ‘z,’ and in this word
transposition of consonants has taken place, giving balazn for banazl. (Jenner, p. 89.)
In the plural of asen, a rib, Cornish has preserved the form asow = Med. W.
asau, which is no longer used in the Welsh dialects. Cornish, too, in the
plural of hanow, name, henwen, O.W. (h) enuein, has preserved an old form
which Welsh has entirely lost. The addition in all three Brythonic languages
of an ‘h,’ which still survives dialectally in Welsh is very remarkable.
Cornish has here preserved the older vowel of the singular as ‘a,’ whereas
Welsh has substituted for it the vowel of the plural. In Old Welsh, as we see
in the Martianus Capella glosses, the form anu = anw was in use. Cornish,
too, has preserved another old word in the normal plural of den, W. dyn,
namely, tîs = W. tud, people. THE ADJECTIVE. (Jenner, p. 91.)
The reference to colon, heart, pl. colonek, W. calon, may serve as a reminder
of the tendency in Cornish to assimilate ‘a’ to ‘a’ following ‘o.’ In Welsh
this tendency is found only in one or two words before wy for oi, as in
morthwyl for marthwyl, nodwydd for nadwydd (Bret. nadoz). Possibly a closer
investigation of the Welsh dialects might reveal further instances. THE NUMERALS.
(Jenner, p. 94.) One of the chief points of interest to Welshmen in the
Cornish system of numerals is the existence for 11, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19,
of forms analogous to the Welsh deuddeg and pymtheg, without the use of the
preposition ‘ar’ between the two parts of the number: the whole series, if we
had it complete in Welsh as in Cornish, would run, unneg, deuddeg, triddeg,
pedwarddeg, pymtheg, chweddeg, seithddeg, wyth(dd)eg nawneg. There are
probably no traces of this series now in any |
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19 of the Welsh
dialects. It is possible, however, that the Cornish forms beyond fifteen are
late, and that Welsh in its system of counting by fives, reflects an older
method. THE PRONOUNS. (Jenner, p. 98.)
The Cornish pronominal system, like the Breton, differs from the Welsh in
having none of the conjunctive personal pronouns, and with the doubtful
exception of the 3rd plural personal pronoun ‘an jy’ (? = hwynthwy), no
instance of the reduplicated emphatic personal pronoun. Irish forms some of
its emphatic personal pronouns by the addition of a suffix, but forms others
(as in the case of W. myfi, etc.) by reduplication (cf. also Latin sese).
Welsh shows a tendency to abandon the use of these forms. A careful
investigation of the Welsh dialects is needed in order to see how the use of
these forms is distributed in Wales. (Jenner, p.
100.) In the use of ‘s’ for the post-vocalic personal pronoun, 3rd singular
feminine, Cornish has preserved as a pronoun the ‘s’ of nis, os, pes, which
was at one time pronominal in Welsh, and used apparently for all persons and
genders. (Jenner, p.
101.) The equivalence of Cornish ‘e’ to Welsh ‘u’ shows itself also in such a
form as anodhe = Med. W. onaddu; Cornish had also forms like dhethe = W.*
iddu; ganse = W.* gantu. Cornish, too, preserved the form genough, the
equivalent of the Welsh Mediæval gennwch, to which the nearest equivalent now
in Welsh is the dialect gynoch, where the ‘o’ is, however, probably due to
analogy. The Cornish form dheugh = W. iwch, to you, preserves also the
original ‘d,’ which mutated into ‘dd’ and then vanished, of the Welsh prep.
‘i,’ to. (Jenner, p. 106)
In Cornish in the 16th Century and possibly later, the old form an, our, Med.
W. an, yn, Mod. W. ein, was in use. This was supplanted later by a new form
agan. Mr. Jenner appears to have here mistaken the ‘an’ in question for the
definite article, but the Welsh Mediæval form, as well as the syntax of the
Cornish phrase in question, makes it quite clear that the possessive pronoun
is meant. The form ‘an’ no |
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20 longer seems to survive
in any Welsh dialect; the form invariably used is yn, never ein. (Jenner, p.
108.) In the form etti = W. ati, Cornish has preserved a form which is also
found in the Dimetian dialect. In Cornish, however, the preposition in
question may be ‘et,’ whereas in Welsh it is ‘at,’ and ‘eti’ is parallel in
formation to deni = dani. The old preposition ‘et’ may perhaps be preserved
in the Welsh ‘eto.’ (Jenner, p. 109.) In the use of pleonastic
pronouns, notably of the third person, Cornish presents an interesting
analogy to Welsh. The use of such unnecessary pronouns is probably a relic of
an earlier, more complex and clumsier syntax, for it is clear that it is only
gradually that syntax has attained to the simple types of sentence
characteristic of advanced literary languages. The Welsh and Cornish use of
pleonastic pronouns are not identical, but they mustrate a common principle:
Cornish has such an instance as that given by Mr. Jenner. An Nêv a wrîg an
Tâs e, the Heaven which the Father made, where ‘e’ is equivalent to Welsh
‘ef,’ Nef being masculine in Cornish. We have a Welsh
instance of a pleonastic pronoun in— Māu on ddūn mawr o, he is a
big man, lit., he is a big man he. A similar syntactical development from the
more complex to the more simple mode of expression is well illustrated in
Welsh in the former fondness for expressing a simple statement by means of a
complex sentence beginning with some form of the verb wyf, I am, of which we
still have survivals in such words as mai and pe. (Jenner, p.
110.) Cornish further shows an interesting parallel to spoken Welsh in the
use of ‘ma’ and ‘na’ after demonstrative pronouns. This is especially seen in
a form like honna = W. hona ( = honyna), henna, = W. hyna = hynyna. THE VERB. (Jenner, p.
115.) In the use of the 3rd person singular of the verb, even after the 1st
and 2nd persons singular and plural, Cornish agrees with Breton and with a
practice found in Old, and occasionally in Mediæval, Welsh, even when the
pronoun |
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21 was not
emphatic. In the Welsh dialects of the present day, the 3rd person singular of
the verb is never used with the 1st or 2nd person singular or plural or 3rd
plural unless the preceding pronoun is emphatic. Cornish followed
a tendency very marked in spoken Welsh, namely, that of abandoning synthetic
for analytical forms. This is a general feature of colloquial speech and has
shown itself in the most diverse languages. Cornish, however, goes so far as
to use Menny, W. mynnu, as an auxiliary for will, and Godhvos, W. gwybod, as
an auxiliary for can (cf. French savoir). (Jenner, p. 118.)
The discussion of the Welsh and Cornish system of tenses, though important,
has no very direct bearing on the Welsh dialects, except in so far as the
Past Stem formed by adding -s to the root is in Cornish generally
non-thematic as in the Welsh dialects. There are no traces, however, in
Cornish, of an Aorist without ‘s,’ such as is found in many parts of S.
Wales, and of which there are said to be traces in one place (Nefyn,
Carnarvonshire) in N. Wales. This type of Aorist may have arisen from a stem
formerly adding a single ‘s’ instead of ‘ss.’ The single ‘s’ probably became
‘h’ and then vanished, as it did in the Subjunctive. In Cornish, as
in spoken Welsh, there is a strong tendency to use the Pluperfect or
Secondary Future Perfect form as a mere form of the Secondary Future or
Conditional. In some verbs, early Cornish had a form used as a future to
which the verb to be was affixed. There are several traces of such formations
in Welsh, as for example in gwnaethpwyd = gwnaeth and buwyd. (Jenner, p.
120.) A form of the verb-noun in ‘el’ (in addition to cael) survives in an
obsolescent Dimetian dialect form, gallel, to be able, for the more normal
gallu. Cornish
preserved a past participle in -es (Breton -et) which Welsh has lost as a
participle, and has only preserved in certain adjectives, of the types of
cauad, agored, etc. The Cornish
Present Passive (older Impersonal) ending -er, is the equivalent of the older
Welsh -awr, which is now found in none of the Welsh dialects. (Jenner, p.
123.) In the Present Indicative 2nd plural of the Cornish verb wyf, there is
a form ough, the analogue to which |
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22 existed in Med. Welsh
as ywch, and which is found in correct told Monmouthshire Welsh as w̄; whence has arisen a saying the present writer [sic; = ?a saying told
to the present writer] by Alderman Bowen, of Tredegar, Ma w̄ch Shir Fynwa cystal ag īch Shir
Forganwg. (Jenner, p.
124.) In the form maythov = may athov, given by Mr. Jenner, there is a
striking parallel to the Mediæval Mae ‘ddwyf, with which compare ‘Mae sydd,’
etc. (Jenner, p.
125.) In the 2nd person singular in -eth, Cornish has a form corresponding to
that in yd ( = ydd) of Old Welsh, which is now entirely obsolete in Welsh. (Jenner, p.
128.) In the form gwrav = W. gwnaf, Cornish corresponds with Breton and
Scottish Gaelic, while there is a parallel in the Old Welsh form gwreith, he
did, but there is no known analogue in any dialect of Modern Welsh. (Jenner, p.
129.) The Cornish verb gwrugaf, though given in the same paradigm, is
entirely separate from gwraf, and corresponds to the Mediæval Welsh gorugum,
gorugost, goruc, of which all traces have now disappeared in the Welsh
dialects. It may be here noted, too, that ‘ydd’ as a preverbal particle,
though preserved in Cornish in such a form as athov ( = ydd wyf), has been
entirely supplanted in Welsh by ‘yr.’ (Jenner, p.
142.) The Welsh colloquial form mynd finds its equivalent in Cornish in môs =
mons = mont. Dwyn appears in Cornish as dôn and rhoi as rŷ . (Jenner, p.
145.) In the Cornish dês, dues, dus, meaning come (Imperative), we probably
have the analogue to the use of dos in certain Welsh dialects not in the
Literary use of ‘go’ but of come.’ (Jenner, p.
150.) The form dohajedh is an interesting parallel in Cornish to the dwedydd
( = diwedd dydd) of S.E. Wales. In the form gorthewer, in the evening, Med. W
gwrthucher, we have an interesting survival of a form no longer found in any
of the Welsh dialects. (Jenner, p.
203.) In the Cornish name of the month of February, there is a curious
parallel with a dialect form found in Welsh as Chwefrol: the Cornish form is
Whervral. The name for Spring, Gwainten, also is an analogue of the Welsh
dialect form Gweiniwn. E. ANWYL. |
...
Sumbolau:
a A / æ Æ / e E / ɛ Ɛ / i I / o O / u U / w W / y Y /
MACRON: ā
Ā / ǣ Ǣ /
ē Ē / ɛ̄ Ɛ̄ / ī
Ī /
ō Ō /
ū Ū / w̄
W̄ / ȳ Ȳ /
BREF: ă
Ă / ĕ Ĕ / ĭ Ĭ / ŏ Ŏ / ŭ Ŭ / B5236:
B5237: 
BREF GWRTHDRO ISOD: i̯,
u̯
ˡ ɑ ɑˑ aˑ a: / æ æ: / e eˑe: / ɛ ɛ: / ɪ
iˑ i: / ɔ oˑ o: / ʊ uˑ u: / ə / ʌ /
ẅ Ẅ / ẃ Ẃ / ẁ Ẁ / ŵ Ŵ /
ŷ Ŷ / ỳ Ỳ / ý Ý / ɥ
ˡ ð ɬ ŋ ʃ ʧ θ ʒ ʤ / aɪ ɔɪ
əɪ uɪ ɪʊ aʊ ɛʊ əʊ / £
ә ʌ ẃ
ă ĕ ĭ ŏ ŭ ẅ ẃ ẁ
Ẁ ŵ ŷ ỳ Ỳ
wikipedia, scriptsource. org
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ǣ
---------------------------------------
Y TUDALEN HWN: www.kimkat.org/amryw/1_testunau/testunau-saesneg_222_brythoneg_edward-anwyl_1905_2055k.htm
---------------------------------------
Creuwyd: 10-09-2018
Ffynhonnell: ffotogopi yn ein meddiant
Adolygiad diweddaraf: 10-09-2018
Delweddau:
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Freefind: |
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98 
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