kimkat2645e A Welsh Grammar - Historical and Comparative. 1913. John Morris-Jones (1864-1929). Gwefan Cymru-Catalonia.

21-11-2025

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Gwefan Cymru-Catalonia El Web de Gal·les i Catalunya Gramadegau Cymraeg A Welsh Grammar – Historical and Comparative John Morris-Jones (1864-1929) 1913 RHAN 2 TUDALENNAU 1 – 49 Delweddau 1431-1479

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2644e Rhan 1: Tudalennau i-xxvii

2645e Rhan 2: Tudalennau 1-49 §1- §41

2646e Rhan 3: Tudalennau 50-99 §41- §75

2647e Rhan 4: Tudalennau 100-149 §75- §99

2648e Rhan 5: Tudalennau 150-199 §99- §120

2649e Rhan 6: Tudalennau 200-249 §120- §148

2650e Rhan 7: Tudalennau 250-299 §148- §165

2651e Rhan 8: Tudalennau 300-349 §165- §189

2652e Rhan 9: Tudalennau 350-399 §189- §209

2653e Rhan 10: Tudalennau 400-452 §209- §224

2654e Rhan 11: Tudalennau 453-477 (y mynegai)

Secció 1: Pàgines i-xxvii

Secció 2: Pàgines 1-49 §1- §41

Secció 3: Pàgines 50-99 §41- §75

Secció 4: Pàgines 100-149 §75- §99

Secció 5: Pàgines 150-199 §99- §120

Secció 6: Pàgines 200-249 §120- §148

Secció 7: Pàgines 250-299 §148- §165

Secció 8: Pàgines 300-349 §165- §189

Secció 9: Pàgines 350-399 §189- §209

Secció 10: Pàgines 400-452 §209- §224

Secció 11: Pàgines 453-477 (index)

Part 1: Pages i-xxvii

Part 2: Pages 1-49 §1- §41

Part 3: Pages 50-99 §41- §75

Part 4: Pages 100-149 §75- §99

Part 5: Pages 150-199 §99- §120

Part 6: Pages 200-249 §120- §148

Part 7: Pages 250-299 §148- §165

Part 8: Pages 300-349 §165- §189

Part 9: Pages 350-399 §189- §209

Part 10: Pages 400-452 §209- §224

Part 11: Pages 453-477 (index)

Gweler hefyd / Vegeu també / See also: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_Welsh_Grammar,_Historical_and_Comparative

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Introduction

Origin and general history

§ 1. i. The Welsh language is a member of the Keltic branch of the Aryan (also called the Indo-European or Indo-Germanic) family of languages.

The languages of this great family are classified as follows, names of branches and groups being printed in spaced type:

(1) Indian, comprising (a) Sanskrit; (b) Prākrit dialects, from which are descended numerous modern languages in India.

(2) Iranian: (a) Avestic (East Iranian, also called Zend or Old Bactrian); (b) Old Persian (West Iranian), later Pehlevi; (c) Modern Persian.

(3) Armenian.

(4) Greek, which comprises many dialects, the most important being (a) Ionic-Attic; (b) Doric; (c) Aeolic: Lesbian, Thessalian, Boeotian; (d) Arcadian and Cyprian; (e) Pamphylian.

(5) Albanian.

(6) Italic: (a) Latin, from which are derived the modern Romance languages; (b) Oscan, Umbrian.

(7) Keltic: (a) the Q division, consisting of dialects in Gaul and Spain, and the Goidelic group, comprising Irish, Scotch Gaelic and Manx; (b) the P division, consisting of Gaulish, and the British group, comprising Welsh, Cornish and Breton.

(8) Germanic: (a) Gothic; (b) the Norse group, including 1. Swedish, Gutnish, Danish; 2. Norwegian, Icelandic; (c) the West-Germanic group, including 1. Old English (or Anglo-Saxon), now English; Frisian; Old Saxon, now Low German; Dutch, Flemish; 2. Old High German, now German.

(9) Baltic-Slavonic: (a) the Baltic group: Old Prussian, Lithuanian, Lettish; (b) the Slavonic group: Old Bulgarian; Russian, Bulgarian, Illyrian; Czech, Sorabian, Polish, Polabian.

(10) Tocharish, recently discovered in East Turkestan.

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2

INTRODUCTION

§ 1

ii. All these languages are descended from a common ancestor called the Aryan parent language, Primitive Aryan, or briefly Aryan. Similarly, the languages of each branch may be referred to a common parent called Primitive Keltic, Primitive Italic, Primitive Germanic, etc., as the case may be. Some of the above branches are perhaps to be regarded rather as groups; Indian and Iranian are often classified together as the Indo-Iranian branch; and the common features of Keltic and Italic are such as to render it certain that the two branches were united and shared the same development for a period after their separation from the others; hence we may classify them together as Italo-Keltic; see § 86 ii (2), § 113 i (3), § 147 iv (2), § 203 vii (3).

iii. Our earliest knowledge of the various languages varies widely in point of date, and naturally those of which we possess the most ancient records on the whole bring us nearest the fountain head. But the Baltic group, of which our knowledge is only recent, are of a remarkably archaic character; Lithuanian, whose earliest text is dated 1547, and which has changed comparatively little since, preserves to this day some forms which are practically identical with those which we have to postulate for Primitive Aryan itself.

From the cradle of Aryan speech various tribes migrated at different periods in different directions, establishing themselves in distant lands, in which their speech prevailed, though the aborigines cannot have been exterminated, since the speakers of Aryan languages in historical times belong to many races, and it is still matter of dispute which of these has the best claim to be regarded as representing the original Aryans. The dispersion commenced not earlier than about 2000 b.c. according to Hirt, Die Indogermanen 22. The centre of dispersion is now generally believed to have been somewhere in Europe.

A parent language is not necessarily isolated; analogy rather suggests the contrary. As Latin, which is the parent of the Romance languages, is derived from Aryan and allied to the other Aryan languages, so Aryan itself must be derived from some remote ancestor, and it is improbable that it is the only descendant of it which survived. Sweet, by a comparison of the pronominal and verbal forms of Aryan and Ugrian, has made out a strong case for supposing that the two families are allied; see his History of Language pp. 112 ff. On the other side Moller, in his Semitisch und Indogermanisch i (1907), has compared the consonant sounds of Aryan in detail with those of Semitic, and in KZ. xlii 174 ff. the vowels; and claims to have proved their derivation from a common source. But none of these affinities can yet be regarded as established.

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§ 2

INTRODUCTION

3

§ 2. In the oldest forms of Goidelic found in the ogam inscriptions, Primitive Keltic q^u̯ from Aryan q^u̯ remains; but in the oldest British it had already become p, and it is p in Gaulish. Traces of a Keltic q^u̯ language in Gaul are seen in names like Sequani; and in some recently discovered inscriptions further evidence of the survival of such a language is believed to have been found. As the change of q^u̯ to p is the earliest soundchange known which is not common to the whole branch, it seems reasonable to classify the Keltic languages as above § 1 i (7).

The more usual classification adopted in recent years is that in which the Keltic languages are grouped into "insular" and "continental". But this is a negation of all classification; it is as if we were to group together English and Icelandic as insular Germanic! Thurneysen now calls it a "geographic" classification (Gr. 1), which is equivalent to saying that it is no classification at all. It arose out of the view put forward in Rhys's LWPh.² (1879) pp. 16 ff. that the language of the ogam inscriptions in Wales is an old form of Welsh. Thurneysen, KR. (1884) pp. 7 ff., adopts this view; dismisses Rhys's later view, CB. (1884) p. 215, that the ogams are Irish; and concludes that, as the ogams have q^u̯, the change q^u̯ > p in British is much later than the same change in Gaulish. Of course, if the ogams are Welsh, there was no difference in the 5th cent. between Welsh and Irish, and both differed from Gaulish, which alone had p. Hence the classification into insular and continental. But the assumption on which it is based is groundless; no one now holds that the ogams are Welsh.

If it is denied that a systematic classification of the groups is possible, it would be better to take them separately than to adopt a classification which implies a close relationship between Goidelic and British. But there seems no sufficient reason for separating British from Gaulish. It is now admitted that Brit. p from q^u̯ is ancient; and it is extremely improbable that this p developed independently of Gaulish p. Tacitus, Agricola xi, tells us that the speech of the Britons differed little from that of the Gauls. The Gaulish forms Πεννο-ουινδος, Vindomag(os), ambact(os), Voretovir(os) are identical with the British forms which we have to postulate as the originals of the Welsh penwyn 'white-headed', gwynfa 'paradise', amaeth 'serf', gwaredwr 'saviour'. It is for those who would separate British and Gaulish to prove that Tacitus was wrong.

For the continental q^u̯ dialect or group of dialects various names have been suggested, as Sequanian (Nicholson), Pictavian, Celtican (Rhys), Ligurian (Jullian). The language of the Coligny calendar contains both qu and p; but whether the latter is secondary, or borrowed from Gaulish, or represents Aryan p, cannot yet be decided, since independent evidence as to meaning is lacking. The presence of Ar. p, if proved, would constitute these dialects a class apart.

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4

INTRODUCTION

§ 3

§ 3. i. Welsh, Cornish and Breton are descended from British (properly Brittish), the language of the ancient Britons. The speakers called themselves Brittones, and their language *Brittonikā.

The Old English name was Brittisc or Bryttisc, as On Bryttisc sprecende Guthlac, Godw. 42, 17 (cf. Rhys, CF. 676), which in later spelling was Brittish, misspelt British^[1] under the influence of the Lat. Britannia. The name continued to be used for the derived languages: “The Gaulish speach is the very Brittish, the which was very generally used heere in all Brittayne before the coming in of the Saxons; and yet is retayned of the Walshmen, the Cornishmen, and the Brittons,” Spenser, State of Ireland (Lloyd’s Enc. Dic.). It was commonly used for Welsh as late as the 18th and beginning of the 19th cent.: “In these Schools…Men, Women and Children being ignorant of the English Tongue, are taught to read their native British language,” Welsh Piety 1754 p. 53, 1755 p. 47 etc. Cf. dedication of Grawn Awen (Caledfryn) 1826.

ii. The Welsh call themselves Cymry, from *kom-brogī ‘fellow countrymen’; but the use of this as a national name is subsequent to the separation of the Welsh from the Cornish and the Bretons. The old name, which survived in poetry, was Brython b.t. 13 from Brittones; the corresponding name of the language Brythoneg was superseded by Cymraeg, but some memory of it survived (D.D. gives Brythoneg, but with no quotation). The Bretons call their language Brezonek, and Cornish was called Brethonec; all these forms imply an original *Brĭttŏnĭkā. Sir John Rhys in his LWPh.² 16 adopted the names Brythons and Brythonic for the Brittones and their language, remarking, however, that he would “like to have called them Brittons and their language Brittonic”. I prefer to call the language by its traditional English name British, which in this connexion involves no ambiguity. The term Brythonic suggests a later period, and tends to disguise the fact that the language meant is the speech of the ancient Britons.

iii. The name Brittō, sg. of Brittones, probably owes its tt to its being a formation of the type of Gk. Νικοττώ etc., see § 93 iii (2), for an earlier Britann(os), pl. Britannī. Similarly we have a late Βριττία for Britannia. *Brittia survives in Bret. Breiz ‘Brittany’, and *Britanni̯ā, in Ml. W. Brydein used as a variant of the more usual Prydein as in b.b. 100, milvir Pridein l. 5, milguir Bridein l. 7. Britan- seems to be for Pritan- by British alternation p:b § 101 iii (2); cf. prit(an)nii Holder i 564, pritnnii do. ii 1046. Pritto also occurs as a personal name beside Britto, and Prittius beside Brittius (see Holder s. vv.). The view now generally held that the members of these pairs are unrelated rests on no other basis than the assumption that British p- could under no circumstances pass into b‑. The fact,

1.  It is of course still pronounced Brittish, rhyming with skittish, not with whitish.

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§ 3

INTRODUCTION

5

however, is that Pritan- and Britan- are synonymous. The P- goes back through Diodorus Siculus probably to Pytheas (4th cent. b. c.). Polybius (2nd cent. b. c.) seems to have used Βρετ(τ)ανικαὶ νῆσοι; but Strabo and Diodorus have Πρετ(τ)ανικαὶ νῆσοι and Πρετ(τ)ανοί; later Ptolemy and Marcian used Π‑. Stephanus of Byzantium (c. a. d. 500) wrote Βρετ(τ)ανίδες νῆσοι and Βρετ(τ)ανοί, remarking that Dionysius (Periegetes; Augustan age) wrote “one t…Βρετᾱνοί” [read Βρεταννοί], and that others used “p, Πρετανίδες νῆσοι, as Marcian and Ptolemy”; elsewhere Stephanus himself wrote Πρετανίκή and Πρετανοί Holder i 560. The ε in Πρετ- ≡ Brit. ĭ, see § 66 i. Pritan- is an n-stem representing original (*q^u̯r̥tₑn- or) *q^u̯ritₑn‑; for the nn see § 62 i (2).

The surviving forms show that the old P- forms had one t; thus W. Prydain ‘Britain’, Ml. W. Prydein, implies *Pritan(n)i̯a and Ir. Cruithnech ‘Pictish’ implies a Pictish *Pritenikos; hence the ‑ττ- in Πρεττανικαὶ is probably a misspelling of copyists, due to the Britt- forms which prevailed later. The forms with ‑on- had ‑tt‑; thus W. Brython < Brittones, Bret. Brezonek < *Brittonikā, and Ml. Ir. Bretain 'Britons' represents Brittones regularly. As the new form Brittones spread, Britannia became Brittannia which survives in Fr. Bretagne; later we find Brittania Βρεττανική etc. which were substituted for older forms in mss. There is no possible doubt that the oldest B- form is Britann‑: Catullus (died 54 b. c.), Propertius, Vergil, Horace, Ovid, all scan Brĭtann‑. The evidence of the dated coins and inscriptions in Holder is as follows (the numbers in brackets refer to Holder i): coins of Claudius a. d. 41, 46 have Britannis, Britanni., Britann. (564, 36, 37); inscriptions: a. d. 41 Britannia (589, 52); time of Claudius Britannia (590, 27); a. d. 43 Britannic(um) (598, 24); a. d. 49 Britan(nicis) (599, 34). In a. d. 49 or 50, at least a century after the first evidence of Britann‑, ‑tt- appears first in two inscriptions in the name of Claudius’s son Britannicus: Britta[nico] (602, 18), Brittanici (602, 22); in eight other cases it is Britannicus or Βρεταννικος (602). The early appearance of tt in this name may mean that Brittō was in use as an abbreviated personal name earlier than as meaning ‘Briton’. In the national name the single t continued in use: a. d. 54 Britan(nicum) (600, 22); a. d. 65 Britannico (599, 5); a. d. 80 Britannica (598, 37). In a. d. 85 Brittones first appears in the gen. pl. Brittonum side by side with Britannica (607, 41–2). In a. d. 90 first occurs Brittanniae (588, 7); in a. d. 98 and 103 Britannia again (590, 25; 588, 9); in a. d. 99 Brittonum (607, 43); in a. d. 105 Brittan[nia] (588, 10), in a. d. 110 Brittanniae (590, 5) and Britannica (598, 40). In the 2nd cent. Britann- and Brittann- are both common. Brittania first occurs on a coin in a. d. 185 (590, 50) and Brittanicae in a. d. 210 (599, 51).

The W. Pryden ‘Picts’ § 121 iii from *Pritenes, Prydyn b.t. 13 ‘Pictland’ from *Pritenī, and the Ir. Cruithen Cruithnech seem to have the F-grade ‑en- of the stem-ending, probably a Pictish form. The Picts were Britons, as shown by the fact that p < q^u̯ abounds in Pictish names. They kept in their own name the P- which also survives in

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6

INTRODUCTION

§§ 4, 5

W. Prydain 'Britain', and so came to be distinguished from the Southern Britons, who called themselves Brittones. Picti, which is not known to occur before a. d. 297, seems to be a Latin translation of *Pritenes explained as meaning 'figured' (: W. pryd 'form', Ir. cruth), just as W. Brithwyr 'Picts' is a translation of Picti. This explanation of *Pritenes is probably only a piece of popular etymology; but even if it had some old tradition behind it, the name is equally applicable to the other Britons, for they all painted or tattooed themselves, Caesar b.g. v 14, Herodian iii 14, 7. Indeed the objection to accepting it as the true explanation is that at the time when it was first applied it could not be distinctive.

The etymology of a proper name is always uncertain, except when, like Albion, it hardly admits of more than one meaning, and that meaning fits. Britain like Albion must have been a name given to the island by its Keltic invaders, and Albion suggests the feature most likely to impress them. There is an Italo-Keltic root of some such form as *q^u̯rēi- which means 'chalk' or 'white earth', giving Lat. crēta, and W. pridd 'loam', Irish crē; the attempt to derive the Welsh and Irish words from the Latin is a failure—the root must be Keltic as well as Italic; and it may have yielded the name Pritannia meaning 'the island of the white cliffs'.

§ 4. i. Gaulish and British are known to us through names on coins, and words and names quoted by Greek and Latin authors. No inscriptions occur in British, but British names are found in Latin inscriptions. A number of inscriptions in Gaulish have been preserved. Goidelic is known from the ogam inscriptions, of which the oldest date from the 5th century.

ii. The scanty materials which we possess for the study of Gaulish and British are sufficient to show that these languages preserved the Aryan case-endings, and were at least as highly inflected as, say, Latin. The great change which transformed British and converted it into Welsh and its sister dialects was the loss of the endings of stems and words, by which, for example, the four syllables of the British Maglo-cŭnos were reduced to the two of the Welsh Mael-gwn. By this reduction distinctions of case were lost, and stem-forming suffixes became a new class of inflexional endings; see § 113, § 119 i.

§ 5. The history of Welsh may be divided into periods as follows:

(1) Early Welsh, from the time when British had definitely become Welsh to the end of the 8th century. Of the forms of this

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§ 5

Introduction

7

period we have only echoes, such as the names found in Bede, § 113 i (4).

(2) Old Welsh (O. W.), from the beginning of the 9th to the end of the 11th century. The remains of this period are a number of glosses, and some fragments of prose and anonymous verse. But O. W. forms are preserved in later copies in the genealogies, the Book of Llandâf, the Laws, the Book of Aneirin, etc.

(3) Medieval Welsh (Ml. W.), from the beginning of the 12th to the end of the 14th century and somewhat later. The orthography varied much during this period, and was at first in an unsettled state. It will be convenient to refer to the language of the 12th and early 13th century as Early Ml. W., and to that of the 14th and early 15th as Late Ml. W.

(4) Modern Welsh (Mn. W.), from Dafydd ap Gwilym to the present day. Though D. ap Gwilym wrote before the end of the 14th century, he inaugurated a new period in the history of the language, and is in fact the first of the moderns. The bards of the 15th and 16th centuries wrote the bulk of their poetry in the cywydd metre popularized by Dafydd; and the forms used by him, with some alterations of spelling (ai, au for ei, eu § 79), were preserved unchanged, having been stereotyped by the cynghanedd. The language of this body of poetry may be called Early Mn. W.

At the introduction of printing, Wm. Salesbury attempted in his works, including the New Test. (1567), to form a new literary dialect, in which the orthography should indicate the etymology rather than the sound. His practice was to write Latin loanwords as if no change had taken place in them except the loss of the ending, thus eccles for eglwys 'church', descend for disgyn ‘to descend’; any native word with a superficial resemblance to a Latin synonym was similarly treated, thus i ‘his, her’ was written ei because the Latin is eius (perhaps eu ‘their’ suggested this). But Dr. Morgan in his Bible (1588) adopted the standard literary language as it continued to be written by the bards, though he retained some of Salesbury’s innovations (e.g. ei for i ‘his’). Some dialectal forms used by Morgan (e.g. gwele for gwelai ‘saw’ § 6 iii) were replaced by the literary forms in the revised Bible (1620), which became the standard of later writers. Thus

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8

INTRODUCTION

§ 6

Late Mn. W., which begins with the Bible, though influenced to some extent by Salesbury, is based upon Early Mn. W., and forms a continuation of it. In the 19th century several neologisms were introduced, chiefly under the influence of Pughe; the language of this period will be referred to, when necessary, as Recent Welsh.

§ 6. i. The spoken language has four main dialects, as follows:

(1) Venedotian, the dialect of Gwynedd or North West Wales. (Gwyn. dial.)

(2) Powysian, the dialect of Powys, or North East and Mid Wales. (Powys dial.)

(3) Demetian, the dialect of Dyfed or South West Wales.

(4) Gwentian, the dialect of Gwent and Morgannwg, or South East Wales.

N. W. is used as an abbreviation for 'North Wales' or 'North Walian', S. W. for 'South Wales' or 'South Walian'.

ii. The two N. W. dialects differ from the two S. W. chiefly in the choice of words to express some common ideas, the most noticeable difference being the use of o, fo in N. W., and e, fe in S. W., for the pronoun 'he' or 'him'.

iii. In the final unaccented syllable the diphthongs ai and au are mostly levelled with e in the dialects. In Powys and Dyfed, that is, in an unbroken belt from North East to South West, the three are sounded e; thus cader, pethe, bore for cadair 'chair', pethau 'things', bore 'morning'. In Gwynedd and Gwent they are sounded a, as cadar (Gwent cá|tar), petha, bora. When ai is significant (e.g. as denoting the plural) it is ai in Gwynedd, i in Gwent, sometimes i in Powys, as Gwynedd defaid 'sheep', llygaid (when not ll'gada) 'eyes'; Gwent defid, llý|cid; Powys defed, llygid; Dyfed defed, llyged.

Dialectal forms, chiefly Demetian and Powysian ‑e, begin to appear in the mss. of the 15th century; but the rhymes of the bards of the 15th and 16th centuries, with the exception of some poetasters, always imply the literary form, which is still used in the written language except in a few words. See § 31 ii.

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Phonology

Orthography and pronunciation

The Alphabet.

§ 7. i. Welsh, in all its periods, has been written in the Latin alphabet.

The ogam inscriptions are Irish. The letters of the ogam alphabet consist of scores and notches on the edge of the stone; one to five scores, cut at right angles to the edge on either side, or obliquely across it, form 15 consonants; one to five notches on the edge form 5 vowels.

The "alphabet of Nemnivus", contained in ox., dated 812, and reproduced by Ab Ithel in Dosp. Ed. 10, 11, is stated in the ms. to have been formed by Nemnivus "ex machinatione mentis suae" in answer to a Saxon's taunt that the Britons had no letters. Most of the signs are forms of Latin characters made to imitate runes; two (ᚾ n and ᚢ u) are runes, while others seem to be arbitrary inventions. There is no evidence of the use of this alphabet. The "winged alphabet" given by Ab Ithel ibid. 12 consists of two classifications of Scandinavian tree-runes, the top line representing the two schemes of classification. The reason given for supposing the scribe to be a Welshman is too ridiculous to need refutation.

Among the "traditions" invented by the Glamorgan bards in support of their claim to be the successors of the druids was the "wooden book"; though all the accounts of it are in Iolo Morgannwg's handwriting, contemporary evidence of its existence in the early 17th cent. is afforded by Rhys Cain's satirical englyn (Ab Iolo, Coel. y B. 50); but it cannot be traced further back. The 'bardic alphabet' called coelbren y beirdd was a conventional simplification of ordinary characters adapted for cutting on wood; its letters are derived from the handwriting of the period, as  b,  ∂,  (= e),  h,  n,  r, except where it was easier to adapt the Latin capitals, as  A,  G. With one or two exceptions, such as  Ỻ, the "derived characters" denoting consonant mutations, so far from proving the coelbren's antiquity, are its very latest development, Pughe acknowledging himself to be the author of five of them (l.g.c. 260 footnote). Iolo's memoranda (Coel. y B. 27) refer to an old form given by Gwilym Tew in his grammar; but this work is preserved in G.T.'s own hand in p 51, which does not mention the coelbren. The famous transcriber of mss. John Jones

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10

PHONOLOGY

§ 7

of Gelli Lyfdy compiled two collections of the alphabets known to him p 307, Ỻ 144, but neither contains anything like the coelbren. No ms. is written in it, for the simple reason that it was easier to write ordinary characters than the coelbren caricature of them. The writing in p 54 pp. 359 ff., stated in the r. to be in "'bardic' characters, which are widely different from Roman characters", bears no resemblance to the coelbren, and is no more "widely different from Roman characters" than the coelbren itself is; it is the hand of an illiterate person; the letters are written separately, but all are clumsy copies of the script characters of the period, mostly formed with awkward curves, the antithesis of the coelbren angles. There is a somewhat similar scribble written upside down on the bottom margin of b.ch. = p 29, p. 19.—The wooden book consisted of squared inscribed sticks in a frame; it was called peithynen from its resemblance to a weaver's reed, and not the reverse, as Iolo asserted, for peithyn(en) comes regularly from Lat. acc. pectin-em 'comb, weaver's reed'. The absurdity of the supposition that such a device ever served any serious purpose of literature is manifest when one considers what a cartload of wooden books would be required to carry the contents of a small manuscript volume.

ii. The earliest Welsh alphabet given as such is that found in the r.g. col. 1117: a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, v, x, y, w, ỻ. It contains q, which is not used in Welsh, and omits all the digraphs except ll; they could not be included in the traditional number, 24.

Sir J. Price's alphabet in y.l.h. (1546) is as follows: a, b, c, d, ď, e, ff, f, g, h, i, k, l, lh, m, n, o, p, r, rh, s, t, v = u, v, y, w.

W. Salesbury gives the following alphabet in his Playne and Familiar Introductiõ, 1567 (written in 1550): A, b, c, ch, d, dd, e, f, ff, g, h, i, k, l, ll, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, th, v, u, w, y. He distinguishes between u and v, using the latter for Eng. v, Welsh f.

G.R., (1567), who uses ḍ, ḷ, ụ for dd, ll, w, gives the following alphabet: a, b, c, ch, d, ḍ, e, f, g, i, h, l, ḷ, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, th, u, ụ, y, omitting ng and ph (both of which he uses, the latter to the exclusion of ff), to make the number 24.

S.V., (1568), gives the following alphabet of 24 letters: a, b, d, dd, e, f, ff, g, i, k, l, ll, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, v, w, y, ch, th, adding that h is the sign of a breathing, j 9/3.

J.D.R., (1592), used h to form all his digraphs, thus bh = f, dh = dd, gh = ng. His alphabet is as follows: a, b, bh, c, ch, d, dh, e, g, gh, ghh, h, i, lh, l, m, mh, n, nh, o, p, ph, rh, r, s, t, th, u, , y, ỿ. It contains a character for each simple sound in the language, including the two sounds of y; but it was too cumbrous to win general adoption.

The alphabet of the present day is first met with in D. (1621), with the single difference that D. has two forms of the letter y; thus, a, b, c, ch, d, dd, e, f, ff, g, ng, h, i, l, ll, m, n, o, p, ph, r, s, t, th, u, w, y/ỿ. It omits mh, nh, ngh, rh. The names now given to the letters are, in the above order, in Welsh spelling (all vowels not marked long to be

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§§ 8, 9

THE VOWELS

11

read short): ā, bī, ec, ech, dī, edd, ē, ef, eff, eg, eng, āets, ī, el, ell, em, en, ō, pī, yff or ffī, er, es, tī, eth, ū, wˉ, ȳ. The names ha, he, hi given to the letter h by some writers on Welsh grammar and orthography^[1] are figments. The name is āets, borrowed from Eng. or Fr. (Eng. aitch, Fr. ache, Span. atche):

H. arall it sy—Harri

Wyth yw 'r dyn a 'th eura di.—T.A., c. i 340.

'Thou hast another H.—Henry the Eighth is the man who will ennoble thee.' The first line is to be read Aets arall it sy Harri, as shown by the cynghanedd: t s r—t s r.

Lhuyd, (1707). used χ for ch, λ for ll, and ꝺ for dd. The last has survived in the form ẟ in ordinary handwriting, but manuscript ẟ is printed dd.

§ 8. The orthography of Mn. W. is almost purely phonetic: each letter of the alphabet has one standard sound, except y which has two. It will therefore be convenient to give the values of the letters in the modern alphabet, and then, rising the modern characters to represent the sounds of the language, to show in detail how each sound was written in earlier periods, noting any changes which have taken place in the sounds themselves.

The Vowels.

§ 9. The letters a, e, i, o, u, w, y represent vowel sounds. The following diagram shows the approximate relative positions of the vowels at the present day. ɥ and ỿ denote the two sounds of y. Vowels pronounced with rounded lips are enclosed in brackets. The more open the sound the less the rounding.

The vowel sounds i, e, a, o, w, except in certain diphthongal combinations, have probably undergone no material change from

1.  G.R., Rowland, Silvan Evans, Tegai. Rowland's haitch is a S.W. vulgarism.

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12

PHONOLOGY

§§ 10–14

the O. W. period to the present day; the sounds a, e, o, have always been represented by the characters a, e, o,^[1] and the sound i always by i, with some exceptions in Early Ml. W., § 16 ii (2).

§ 10. The sound of a is that of the English a in father. It occurs long as in tad 'father', medium as in tá|dol 'fatherly', and short as in mam 'mother'.

The sound does not occur short in English, the a of Eng. man being a more forward sound, which may be denoted by æ. This sound æ is heard in Welsh in a narrow strip stretching from the English border to Harlech, and in Glamorganshire.

§ 11. The sound of e, when long or medium, is the middle e, as in the Eng. men, let; thus gwên 'smile', gwé|nu 'to smile'; when short it is generally more open, tending towards the Eng. e in there; thus gwenn 'white'. For its sound in diphthongs, see §§ 29, 79.

§ 12. The sound of i is the close i of the French fini, si, or the North Eng. i in king, machine. The Southern Eng. i is more open. It occurs long as in gwîn 'wine', medium as in gwí|noedd 'wines', short as in prin 'scarcely'.

§ 13. The sound of o, when long or medium, is the middle o, midway between the close o in Eng. note and the open o in not; thus tôn 'tune', tó|nau 'tunes'; when short it is more open, tending towards the o of not, as tonn 'wave', tŏˊnnau 'waves'.

§ 14. i. The sound of w is that of the French ou in sou, or the North Eng. oo in food, book. The Southern Eng. sound is more open. It occurs long as in gŵr 'man', medium as in gẃ|rol 'manly', short as in trwm 'heavy'.

ii. (1) The sound w was written u in O.W., and thus could not be distinguished (except by the context) from the sound u, § 15 i, which was also written u (though sometimes i, 15 ii).

(2) In Early Ml. W., the sound w, both vocalic and consonantal was written u (or v) and w, and as the former also represents the sound u, and both represent the sound f, the spelling is often ambiguous. In Late Ml. W. the uncertainty is partly removed by the restriction of w and the use of ỽ (a peculiar shape

1.  Here and in the following sections up to § 26, a letter printed in heavy type represents the written letter; a letter printed in italics represents the sound.

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§ 15

THE VOWELS

13

of v) to represent the w sounds. The characters w and ỽ represent both w and w̯ almost indifferently. Theoretically perhaps w stood for w̯, and the r.b. scribe wishing to distinguish between gw̯ŷr 'men' and gŵɥr 'knows' writes them gwyr, gỽyr respectively, r.g. 1118; there seems to be a slight predominance of the w̯ value for w, but no systematic distinction is made between the sounds, whole pages frequently occurring, e.g., in w.m., where ỽ is used exclusively for both.

☞ In this work Late Ml. W. ỽ is transcribed w, as nothing is gained by reproducing a distinction which would often be misleading if taken to have a phonetic significance.

(3) In Mn. W. the sound is represented by w.

G.R. uses ụ; and J.D.R. a peculiar character based on ɓ, a late script form of ỽ; § 7 ii.

§ 15. i. (1) In Late Mn. W. the sound of u, long, medium, and short, is the same as the clear sound of y, § 16 i; thus the words hûn 'sleep' and hŷn 'older' have now absolutely the same sound. But in O. and Ml. W. u had the sound of the French u, that is, an i pronounced with rounded lips. In accented syllables it retained this sound down to the end of the 16th cent., as is shown by the fact that J.D.R. (pp. 33, 34) describes both u and ɥ, and distinguishes between them with a phonetic truth which could only be derived from actual acquaintance with both as living sounds.

(2) In the final unaccented syllable the original u sound became ɥ as early as the 14th cent.; see ZfCP. iv 118. Hence we find u and y confused from the 14th century on. Kymry 'the Welsh, Wales' often appeared as Cymru; see y Cymru 'the Welsh', G.R. p. [v] ; M.Ỻ. (3 Ader.—Title). Later, the misspelling Cymru came to be used for 'Wales', the true form Cymry being retained as the pl. of Cymro. In the 3rd pl. of prepositions, arnunt 'on them', etc., in dywedud 'to say', anoddun 'deep', credadun 'believer', arofun 'intend', munud 'minute', y is in Late Mn. W. wrongly written for u; for testun 'text', ysgrythur 'scripture', see § 82 iii (3). The converse error was frequent in the 16th cent., Dr. M. writing fellu, i fynu, gorthrymmudd, etc.

The view that the distinction survived in monosyllables down to a late date is corroborated by the fact that out of about 140 monos. in use containing either u or ɥ only one, crud 'cradle' (crut Ỻ.A. 72, r.p. 1418), is now commonly misspelt; and even this misspelling is due to Pughe's bringing the word under the same head as cryd

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14

PHONOLOGY

§ 16

'quaking, fever' obviously on a false etymological theory. D.D. and Richards have crud 'cradle', cryd 'fever'.

ii. The O. and Ml. W. sound above described was written u. It was therefore not distinguished in writing in the O. and Early Ml. period from the sound w which was also written u. We may call O. W. u the front u, or ü, when it corresponds to Mn. W. u, and the back u when it represents Mn. W. w. It is certain that the two sounds were as distinct then as they were later, for in O.W. we find the ü sound written i, as in scipaur juv. 'barn', Mn. W. ysgubor. Still earlier evidence of ü is furnished by Bede's spelling Dinoot of a name which was later Dunawd.

§ 16. i. y has two sounds, the clear and the obscure.

The clear sound of y is a peculiar i-sound very difficult to acquire. It is a dull i produced further back than ordinary i. The sound is very similar to French u in its effect upon the ear, and has the same absolute pitch; but it is produced quite differently. The French u is an i pronounced with rounded lips, but the Welsh ɥ is an i pronounced further back, but with open lips; see the diagram, § 9. Ml. W. had both sounds, written u and y respectively; but gradually the rounded sound, which was written u, was replaced by the unrounded sound, though still continuing to be written u, the result being that Welsh has now the unrounded sound only, written u and y.

The sound ɥ is long as in dŷn 'man' or short as in brɥn 'hill'. It cannot be medium except when written as u, as in úno 'to unite', and in the word gɥda for gɥd a, § 82 ii (2).

In S. W. dialects both u and ɥ are sounded as i or nearly so.

The obscure sound of y is the sound of the Eng. o in ivory. It is medium or short in the penult, or short in an unaccented syllable. It is long in the penult before a vowel or h as cý-oedd, cý-hoedd, and in the name of the letter y.

☞ In this grammar the character y is used as in ordinary written Welsh to represent both the clear and the obscure sound; but when it is required to distinguish between them, the character ɥ is used to denote the clear, and ỿ to denote the obscure sound.—Note that y is the clear ɥ in the diphthong w͡y, and when circumflexed, ŷ.

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§ 16

THE VOWELS

15

A special character for the sound ỿ was used by some 16th century scribes, and is regularly employed by J.D.R. and Dr. Davies in their grammars. A distinctive character is also needed for the clear sound; and ɥ is convenient because it suggests u which has now the same sound.

Note. The idea that y has borrowed its clear sound from u, which, as we have seen, is the exact reverse of the truth, has led some writers to call ỿ the primary, and ɥ the secondary sound of y. The former is of course secondary, being the obscured form of ɥ and other sounds.

¶ On the use of the two sounds of y see § 82.

ii. (1) In O. W. the sounds of y are denoted by i, and are therefore not distinguished in writing from the sound i. That ɥ and i were then distinct requires no further proof than that they are different in origin, and if the difference had been lost it could not have been recovered.

(2) In Early Ml. W. mss., as in the b.b., y and i are used indifferently to express the i sound and the sounds of y. In b.ch. (= a.l. ms. a.) y is used in some parts almost to the exclusion of i, as brenyn, tyr for brenin 'king', tir 'land'; yx p. 9 for ix 'nine' (printed nau in a.l. i 18!) shows that the scribe treated y and i as identical. In some early mss. the sounds of y were represented by e; see the passage in ancient orthography in a.l. ii 36–8, where ỿ lle, ỿ dɥn appear as elle, eden 'the place', 'the man'.

(3) In Late Ml. mss., as in Mn. W., the sounds ɥ, ỿ are written y, and are not confused with i which is written i (except that y also represents i̯, § 25 iii).

In a few monosyllables of frequent occurrence, ɥ by constant repetition advanced to the easier front position of i towards the end of the Ml. period. These are y 'to', y 'his' or 'her', ny, nyt 'not'. The latter often appears as ni, nit in w.m., see 46, 48, showing the thinning of the vowel to be so early. That the sound was once ɥ is shown by the fact that ny̆d, written nɥdd (dd ≡ double d, not ẟ) by J.D.R. in 1592, may still be heard in Anglesey.

☞ In this grammar the Ml. W. y 'to' and y 'his' or 'her' are dotted thus, ẏ, to distinguish them from the article y ≡ ỿ. As the ẏ was probably sounded i some time before it came to be so written, it may be read i. [There can be no confusion with ẏ ≡ i̯, which never stands by itself, § 25 iii.]

iii. Though not indicated in writing, the difference between ɥ and

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16

PHONOLOGY

§ 16

ỿ goes back to the O. W. period. That O. W. i represented not only the clear ɥ but also the obscure ỿ is shown by such forms as cimadas (= cỿfaddas) m.c. Here cyf- comes from *kom‑; the ỿ results from the indistinct pronunciation of o, § 65 iv (2), and was never sounded ɥ; hence the written i must have meant ỿ. See also § 40 iii (2). In Ml. mss. generally, as in Mn. W., no distinction is made between ɥ and ỿ. But in some parts of b.ch., e stands for ỿ, and y for ɥ regularly; thus Ylety yu ety muyhaf ene tref akemeruedaf ac y kyd ac ef erey auenno or teylu, a.l. i 12 ≡ ɥ letɥ ɥw ỿ tɥ mwɥhaf ỿnỿ dref a chỿmherfeẟaf, ag ɥ gɥd ag ef ỿ r͑ei a vỿnno o'r teilu, 'His lodging is the largest and most central house in the town, and with him such as he may please of the household.' The scribe's observance of the rule is remarkable; and though there are many slips due to mechanical copying, his spelling in some cases helps to decide the sound in obsolete forms.

iv. (i) In Early Ml. W. ɥ and ỿ were probably nearer e than at present. If we assume the line a—ɥ more inclined towards the line a—i in the diagram p. 11 above, it will be seen at a glance not only why both were written e at that time, but why the b.ch. scribe uses y to represent both i and ɥ, and e to represent both e and ỿ.

(2) The sounds ɥ and ỿ in these forward positions were less stable, being not merely felt to be near enough to e to be represented by e in writing, but also liable to be confused with e in speech. Some examples of this confusion survived, and are met with in the later language: (α) Interchange of ỿ and e: Mỿrddin, Merddin D.G. 471; tỿmestl, temestl G. 153; ỿstɥn f. 24, estɥn; cỿbỿddiaeth, a chebỿẟẏaeth Ỻ.a. 144; ẏ bellỿnnic Ỻ.a. 126, 146, pellennig; ketỿmdeith, cỿdỿmaith; ỿnnill, ennill; cỿnfigen, cenfigen; Tâl-ỿ-boli̯on m.a. i 315a, explained as tâl ebolẏon w.m. 45; Pen-e´-goes for *Pen-ỿ´-goes, see § 46 ii (3).—(β) Interchange of ɥ and e: velle Ỻ.a. 148 for fellɥ; Late Mn. W. wele 'behold' for (a) welɥ 'dost thou see?' § 173 iii (3); Mercher for Merchɥr b.a. 17, b.b. 48, see § 69 v; hwdɥ c.m. 31, hwde r.m. 173; mɥwn, mewn; Llɥɥn, Lleɥn. Dial. edrech for edrych, ‑ech for ‑ɥch 2nd sg. pres. subj. § 176 iv.—(γ) In Ml. W. ɥ hun 'himself, herself' is written e hun, the e modification being preferred owing to the difficulty of sounding unrounded ɥ and rounded ü in consecutive syllables, cf. § 77 viii. Dissimilation also occurs in e Iwerẟon w.m. 59 for ɥ Iwerẟon. Similarly te|ɥrn for *tɥ|ɥrn § 103 ii (1); diell for di-hyll § 146 ii (2).

In Breton *y has generally become e; thus nevez = W. newydd; pemp = W. pɥmp; kevrann = W. kyvran; ened = W. ỿnɥd.

(3) ỿ before a nasal tended to be lowered towards a, and is sometimes written a in the b.ch., as cantaf a.l. i 84 for cỿntaf; kannal, do. 154 for kỿnnal; kafreiht do. 130 for kỿṽreith. Hence ỿ and a interchange before a nasal: Yngharad, Angharad; ymherawdr, amherawdr; ỿmddifad, amddifad; canhorthwy, cỿnhorthwy; mỿnach, manach, etc.

Unaccented a is sometimes weakened to ỿ in the dialects, but

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§ 16

THE VOWELS

17

examples are rare in lit. W.: rhỿglỿddu ‘to merit’, for rhaglỿddu, see r͑aclỿẟei w.m. 428.

(4) In Mn. W. since ỿ has become quite neutral, it is apt in some cases to be coloured by neighbouring sounds: after w̯ or followed by w in the ultima, it becomes w, § 66 ii. When immediately followed by another vowel it is assimilated to it, § 82 ii (3).

v. (1) In Ml. W. an inorganic y is written between two consonants at the end of a word in the following groups: 1. cons. + r, l or n; 2. rm, rf, lm, lf; 3. ẟf; 4. rarely rch, lch; thus pobyl for pobl ‘people’, vy manryf w.m. 59 for fy marf ‘my beard’. In O. W. it appears as i, as in reatir juv., Mn. W. rhaeadr ‘cataract’, but is of rare occurrence, being usually omitted as in Mn. W., thus cruitr, discl juv. datl, scribl ox. It occurs medially as i in centhiliat juv. ‘singer’ for centhliat, as o in cenitolaidou ox., Mn. W. cenedlaethau ‘generations’. In Early Ml. W. it appears as i, y, and e, as perygil b.b. 31 ‘danger’, cathil do. 16 ‘song’, autyl do. 15 ‘ode’, coloven a.l. i 10 ‘column’. It occurs sometimes in initial groups: o gynaud b.b. 84 ‘of flesh’; keleuuet a.l. i 40 ≡ clỿwed ‘to hear’.

(2) The sound intended to be represented was the glide between the consonants, which was becoming perceptible as a dull sound resembling ỿ. It was naturally written i in O. W., e in b.ch., these being the signs for ỿ, see iii above. It was not written where no audible glide developed, as in nt, rth, rẟ, and was rare where the glide was voiceless, as before ch. It did not form a full syllable in Ml. W., at least in the standard pronunciation, for (α) it is occasionally written in groups where it is generally omitted, and which seem never to have been syllabic, as in meirych w.m. 41 ≡ meirch r.m. 28 ‘horses’; (β) it is sometimes found medially where it could not be syllabic, as in kenedyloeẟ Ỻ.a. 11 ≡ kenedloeẟ Ỻ.a. 169 ‘nations’, dadeleu a.l. i 20 ≡ dadleu ‘lawsuit’; (γ) it does not affect the accentuation ; thus in

có|lofyn gweẟ ḗ|ofyn y gwe|ẟī́|eu,—r.p. 1239

‘Upholder in fearless manner of prayers’, the e of ḗofyn is accented to correspond to the i of gweẟī́eu; (δ) it does not count as a syllable in Ml. verse; the above is a line of nine syllables; in the following cywydd couplet the cynghanedd requires chalych to be read as an absolute monosyllable, as it is pronounced at the present day:

Pwy a allei, pei pennsaer,

peintẏaw a chalych pwynt vy chwaer?—I.G., r.p. 1408.

‘Who could, though he were a master, paint with chalk my sister’s mien?’

☞ In the quotations in the present work this non-syllabic y is represented thus, ɏ.

(3) In Mn. lit. W. the epenthetic ɏ is simply dropped; thus pobl, ffenestr, ofn. The non-syllabic pronunciation continued to be the only one admissible in cynghanedd, and so remained the standard literary form; and the mute y came to be dropped in writing to prevent ambiguity. [In one form of cynghanedd, however, exemplified by—

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18

PHONOLOGY

§ 17

Da osódiad hyd i sawdl.—D.N., g. 158,

‑l answers a syllable ‑iad in the cynghanedd, though it does not count as a syllable in the metre, an inconsistency which shows that such a word as this, treated as a monosyllable in verse generally, sounded like a disyllabic when it ended a sentence.]

In the spoken language, when the word was disyllabic the final liquid was lost, thus perig, ffenest for perigl ‘danger’, ffenestr ‘window’, or metathesized as in ewyrth for ewythr ‘uncle’. In monosyllables the glide was assimilated to the vowel of the syllable or the second element of its diphthong and became syllabic; thus pobol, cefen, llwɥbɥr, sowdwl, bara’ for pobl ‘people’, cefn ‘back’, llwybr ‘path’, sawdl ‘heel’, barf ‘beard’. Some examples of this assimilation already appear in Late Ml. W., as budur Ỻ.a. 18 ‘dirty’, kwbwl c.m. 87 ‘all’, vy maraf r.m. 42 ‘my beard’.—The colloquial syllabic pronunciation is the one generally implied in recent verse in the free metres; thus Anne Griffiths’s Llwybr cwbl groes i natur, though so printed in all hymn-books, is intended to be sung Llẃybyr | cẃbwl | gróes i | nátur. But in N. W. dialects the parasitic vowel did not arise in groups containing f; thus in the greater part of N. W. ofn, ‘fear’, cefn ‘back’, llyfr ‘book’, barf ‘beard’ are purely monosyllabic to this day. Forms like march, calch are everywhere monosyllabic.

¶ For prosthetic ỿ- see § 21 iii, § 23 ii, § 26 vi (4).

The Consonants.

§ 17. The values of the letters representing consonants in the Mn. alphabet are as follows:

i. Voiceless explosives (tenues): p ≡ English p; t, normally more dental than Eng. t, but varying to Eng. t; c ≡ Eng. k, having two sounds, front c (k̑) before i, e, like k in Eng. king, back c (q) before a, o, w, u ỿ, like c in Eng. coal.

ii. Voiced explosives (mediae): b ≡ Eng. b; d corresponding to W. t as above; g front and back (g̑, ɡ], like Eng. give, go.

iii. Voiceless spirants: ff or ph ≡ Eng. f, labiodental; th ≡ Eng. th in thick (which may be denoted by þ); ch ≡ Scotch ch in loch, German ch in nach (χ), but not German ch in ich (χ̑). Even after e and i, as in llēch ‘slate’, gwīch ‘squeak’, the ch is the back sound χ.

i + back χ is an awkward combination, and becomes difficult in the short time available when the i is the second element of a diphthong; hence baich, braich are generally pronounced băɥχ, brăɥχ (with the short a of the original diphthong). This pronunciation is condemned by D., p. 10; but the spelling ay is common earlier, e.g. J.D.R. 271. But beichiau, breichiau are so sounded, with back χ (not χ̑).

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§ 17

THE CONSONANTS

19

iv. Voiced spirants: f ≡ Eng. v, labiodental; dd ≡ Eng. th in this (ẟ). O.W. had also the guttural voiced spirant, which may be represented by ᵹ, corresponding to ch; see § 19 i.

v. Voiceless nasals: mh; nh; ngh. The nasals can only be made voiceless by a strong emission of breath, which causes a distinct aspirate to be heard as a glide after the consonant. Thus nh is somewhat similar to Eng. nh in inhale.

vi. Voiced nasals: m; n; ng. The last has two positions corresponding to those of g, namely front ŋ̑, back ŋ.

vii. Voiceless liquids: ll; rh. The former is a voiceless l pronounced on one side. It is produced by placing the tongue in the l position, raising it so as to close the passage on one side, and blowing between it and the teeth on the other. The common imitation thl conveys the effect of the “hiss” (voiceless spirant) in the th, and gives the side effect in the l. But ll is of course a simple sound, which may be described shortly as a “unilateral hiss”. The sound of rh is the Welsh trilled r made voiceless by a strong emission of breath, causing an audible aspirate glide after it. Briefly, it is r and h sounded together.

viii. Voiced liquids : l; r. The latter is trilled like the strong Scotch r, or the Italian r. The trilled r is a difficult sound to acquire; young children usually substitute l for it. A few never acquire it, but substitute for it a guttural r (≡ ᵹ). This is almost the only defect of speech to be found among speakers of Welsh; it is called tafod tew ‘thick tongue’.

ix. Sibilant: s. Welsh has no z; such a pronunciation as zêl ‘zeal’ is pure affectation; unsophisticated persons say sêl, selog. Before i̯ as in eisi̯au, s now tends to become Eng. sh, and in some S.W. dialects after i. But many old speakers cannot pronounce shibboleth at all. Standard Welsh s is the ss in hiss.

x. Aspirate: h. The aspirate is distinctly sounded, and is never misused except in Gwent and Glamorgan. It is really the voiceless form of the vowel which follows it, or the glide between a voiceless nasal or liquid and a vowel.

xi. Semi-vowels: i; w. As these letters also represent vowel sounds, they will be marked i̯, w̯ in this work where it is necessary to point out that they are consonantal. i̯ is the sound of the Eng. y in yard; w̯ is the Eng. w in will.

20

PHONOLOGY

§ 18

¶ Welsh w̯ is the same sound as that which is written u̯ in the hypothetic forms of Ar., Kelt., Brit., etc. Thus Mn. W. w̯ir ‘indeed’ is identical with the first syll. of Kelt. *u̯īr-os ‘true’ < Ar. *u̯ēr-os.

§ 18. i. The characters p, t, c had the values in O.W. of modern p, t, c. They also represented the mutated sounds b, d, g, see § 103 iii; as in scipaur juv. ≡ scubawr, Mn. W. ysgubor ‘barn’, creaticaul ox. ≡ creadigawl, Mn. W. creadigol ‘created’. When they have this value they are sometimes doubled; thus in m.c. we find catteiraul, Mn. W. cadeiriol ‘cathedral’ adj., carrecc, Mn. W. carreg ‘stone’, hepp, Ml. W. heb ‘says’. Possibly this is due to the influence of Irish spelling. [In Old Ir. original *nt > *d-d written t and sometimes tt.]

ii. In Ml. W. p, t, c no longer represent b, d, g medially, but finally after a vowel they continued to do so even down to the Mn. period. The facts are briefly as follows: In the b.b., late 12th cent., the final labial is written p, but often b (mab 27, 28, 29); the dental is always d, because t is used for the soft spirant ẟ; the guttural is always c. In the 14th cent. the labial very generally appears as b, though often as p; the dental is always t, the guttural always c. In the 15th cent. (e.g. Ỻ 28) we have b, d, c. In the 1620 Bible b, d, g, but c in many forms, unic, lluddedic, etc. The final c is still written in ac and nac, which should be ag, nag, § 222 i (1), ii (3). On the sound of the consonant in these cases see § 111 v (4).

Finally after a consonant p, t, c have always represented the voiceless sounds.

iii. In Ml. W. and Early Mn. W., initial c is generally written k. The chief exceptions are the combinations cl, cr. Medially we find c, k, cc, ck. Finally after a consonant, though we generally have c, we also find k (or even ck); as grafangk, oerdrangk r.p. 1321, diag̃k etc. do. 1314, digelk do. 1364, Iork r.b.b. 397, carbunck, Ỻ.a. 170. In these words the sound was, and is, voiceless. Note that after a vowel, where the sound is now g, it is never written k in Ml. W. Thus k, which represents the tenuis only, is clearly distinguished from c, which also finally represents the media.

Note. In O. W. and the earliest Ml. W., as in l.l. (about 1150), c alone is used; k appears in b.b. and was general in Ml. and Early

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§ 19

THE CONSONANTS

21

Mn. W. G.R. discarded k on the principle of “one sound one letter”, p. 20. But the decisive factor in its banishment from the Welsh alphabet was its replacement by c in Salesbury’s N.T., published the same year (1567). This being one of the many innovations “quarrelled withall” in his orthography, Salesbury, in the Prayer Book of 1586 gave his reason for the substitution: “C for K, because the printers haue not so many as the Welsh requireth,” Llyfryddiaeth 34. It is curious to note that a letter which was thus superseded because of its greater prevalence in Welsh than in English was classed 160 years later among “intruders and strangers to the Welsh language”, Gormesiaid a dieithriaid i’r Iaith Gymraeg, S.R. (1728) p. 1.

§ 19. i. The characters b, d, g, in O.W. represented initially the modern sounds b, d, g; but medially and finally they stood for the mutated sounds f, ẟ, ᵹ, as in gilbin juv., Mn. W. gylfin ‘beak’, guirdglas m.c. ≡ gw̯ỿrẟᵹlas, Mn. W. gwyrddlas ‘greenish blue’. Medially and finally f was also represented by m, though in this case the spirant was doubtless nasalized then, as it is still normally in Breton; thus nimer ox. ≡ niṽer, Mn. W. nifer ‘number’, heitham ox., Mn. W. eithaf ‘extreme’.

ii. (1) In Ml. W., b represented the sound b, but no longer the sound f.

(2) The sound f was written in Early Ml. W. u or v, w and f; thus in b.b., niuer 7 ≡ nifer; vaur 21 ≡ fawr ‘great’; sew 45 ≡ sef ‘that is’; dihafal 20 ≡ dihafal ‘unequalled’. We also find ff, as affv 21 ≡ a fu ‘who has been’, bariffvin 53 ≡ barfwyn ‘white-bearded,’ tiff 50 ≡ tyf ‘grows’.

As u and v also represented the vowel ü, and as u, v, and w represented w as well, the orthography of this period is most confusing.

(3) In Late Ml. W. the sound f was written medially u or v and fu; finally it was represented by f regularly (the few exceptions which occur, e.g. in w.m., being due to mechanical copying). Thus, Ỻ.a., vy 2 ≡ fy ‘my’; llauur 3 ≡ llafur ‘labour’; kyfuoethawc 55, Mn. W. cyfoethog ‘rich’; gyntaf 3 ‘first’, dywedaf 3 ‘I say’, ef 3 ‘he’, etc.  u and v continued to be used medially for f during the Early Mn. period; but G.R. has f everywhere, and was followed by Dr. M. in the 1588 Bible, which fixed the Late Mn. orthography.

As u and v also represented the vowel ü, the word fu may be found written vv, vu, uv, uu. But there is much less confusion than in the

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22

PHONOLOGY

§ 19

earlier period, for (1) w is distinguished from ü; (2) finally u and f are distinguished; thus nev means neu ‘or’, not nef ‘heaven’.

The distinction between the characters u and v is a modern one; double v (i.e. w) is still called “double u” in English.

☞ In the quotations in this grammar the letter u or v (for it was one letter with two forms) is transcribed u when it stands for the vowel, and v when it represents the consonant f, irrespective of the form in the MS., which depended chiefly on the scribe’s fancy at the moment.

(4) The sound which is now the labiodental f (≡ Eng. v) was in O. W. and probably also in Ml. W. a bilabial ƀ, like the South German w. It was the soft mutation of b or m, and resulted from these bilabial sounds being pronounced loosely so that the breath was allowed to escape, instead of being stopped, at the lips. It was sometimes confused with w̯, § 26 v; and was so soft that it might, like w̯, be passed over in cynghanedd, e.g. pwynt vy chwaer p. 17 above; see Tr. Cym. 1908–9, p. 34.

iii. (i) The letter d in Ml. W. stands for both d and dd (ẟ).

(2) In some Early Ml. mss., of which the most important is the b.b., the sound ẟ when it is an initial mutation is generally represented by d, but medially and finally is represented rather illogically by t; thus b.b., dy divet 19 ≡ dy ẟiweẟ ‘thy end’; imtuin 32 ≡ ymẟwyn ‘to behave’; guirt 33 ≡ gw̯yrẟ ‘green’; betev 63 ≡ beẟeu ‘graves’. Medially, however, we also have d, as adaw 41 ≡ Aẟaf ‘Adam’; and occasionally, by a slip, finally, as oed 1 ≡ oeẟ ‘was’ (conversely, by a rare slip, final t ≡ d, as imbit 70 ≡ ym myd ‘in the world’). In b.ch. usage is still looser.

(3) In the Late Ml. period the sound ẟ is represented by d, rarely by dd, see Ỻ.a. p. xxii. Initially and medially d and ẟ cannot be distinguished at this period, but finally they can, since final d is written t, § 18 ii, so that final d must mean the sound ẟ. But it often happens that ‑d for ‑d and ‑t for ‑ẟ are copied from an earlier ms.

While w. is distinctly Late Ml. W. in the representation of w, i, y, it has ‑d for ‑d and medial and final t for ẟ; also occasionally dd, as ar dderchet 120a ≡ arẟercheẟ.

(4) dd came generally into use in the 15th cent. In the 16th Sir J. Price, 1546, used d̛; G.R., 1567, used ḍ; Salesbury, 1567,

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§ 20

THE CONSONANTS

23

used dd and d̛; Dr. M. in the Bible, 1588, used dd, which in spite of J.D.R.’s dh, 1592, has prevailed.

☞ In this grammar Ml. W. d when it stands for dd (ẟ) is transcribed ẟ.

iv. (1) In Ml. W. the letter g stands initially and medially for the sound g. The voiced spirant ᵹ had then disappeared.

(2) But g is also used as well as ng for the sound ng (ŋ) (as in Eng. song). When final, g must mean the nasal, for the explosive is written c, § 18 ii; thus llog b.b. 90, w.m. 180, r.m. 87 must be read llong ‘ship’.

☞ In this work Ml. g when it represents the nasal ng (ŋ) is transcribed g̃.

(3) Medially ng sometimes stands for n|g (pronounced ŋg like the ng in the Eng. finger); thus Bangor, pronounced Baŋgor. The simple sound represents original ŋg as in angel (≡ aŋŋel § 54 i (2)) < Lat. angelus (≡ aŋgelus); the composite sound occurs where the nasal and explosive came together later, and the g is the soft mutation of c, as in Ban-gor, radical cor; un-glust ‘one-eared’, clust ‘ear’. In O. W. the composite sound appears as nc, as uncenetticion m.c. ≡ un-genedigion, gloss on ‘solicanae’. Cf. Bede’s Bancor, doubtless the Early W. spelling.

§ 20. i. (i) The sound ff is represented in O.W. by f, as finn, fionou m.c. = ffɥnn ‘sticks’, ffionou ‘roses’; sometimes medially by ph as in ciphillion m.c. ‘sprouts’, grephiou m.c. ‘pencils’, Griphiud a.c. 814, § 36 ii, and p or pp as Gripiud b.s.ch. 1, Grippi(ud) gen. xxx.

(2) In Ml. W. the sound ff is represented initially by f, both when it is radical and when it is a mutation of p, though in the latter case ph is perhaps more usual; rarely we have ff; thus ban foher b.b. 5 ‘when they are put to flight’, fort do. 33 ≡ fforẟ ‘way’, ny forthint do. 34 ‘they did not cherish’, ny phercheiste do. 21 ‘thou hast not respected’; A fa le e maynt a.l. i 160, ms. a., a phy … ms. d., ‘and where they are’; heb ẟant yn ẏ fenn w.m. 453 … yn ẏ phenn r.m. 101 ‘without a tooth in her head’; ffoes b.b. 44 ‘fled’. Medially and finally it is generally ff, as diffuis b.b. 35 ≡ diffwys ‘steep’, proffuid do. 85 ‘prophet’, grofft r.m. 52 ‘croft’, anffurvaw do. 29 ‘to disfigure’, gorffen do. 5 ‘to finish’, sarff do. 186 ‘serpent’, hoff w.m. 72 ‘desirable’. It also appears as ph, as corph b.b. 20 ‘body’, (g)orphen do. 76 ‘end’; and often as f, as deu gorf r.m. 5 ‘two bodies’, anfurɏf do.

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PHONOLOGY

§ 21

29 (≡ anffurf) ‘disfigurement’, yn braf w.m. 53 (≡ yn braff) ‘strong’, groft do. 73 ‘croft’.

(3) In Mn. W. ff and ph are used, the latter generally as a mutation of p only; but G.R. and J.D.R. use ph exclusively.

Many modern writers use ph in all positions where they perceive that it is derived from p, as in corph < Lat. corpus, writing ff where it does not appear to them to be so derived, as in cyff ‘stem, trunk’, ffon ‘stick’. It is mostly a distinction without a difference: cyff comes from Lat. cippus, and ffon is from Pr. Kelt. *spond‑, § 96 iv (1). The attempted differentiation is a useless one; and as the etymology of too many words is still uncertain, it cannot be carried out. It is better, therefore, to write ff always where the sound is immutable, and ph only as a conscious mutation of initial p; thus corff, cyff, ffon; chwe phunt, chwephunt ‘£6’, gwragedd a phlant ‘women and children’, blith draphlith ‘higgledy-piggledy’.

ii. (1) The sound th (þ) is represented in O. W. by th, as brith juv. ‘variegated’; by d, as papedpinnac m.c. ≡ pa beth bynnag ‘whatsoever’; by t after r, as gurt ox. ≡ gwrth, Mn. W. wrth ‘against’; and by þ, as papeþ juv. ≡ pa beth ‘what’.

(2) In Ml. W. the sound is generally written th, though in some early mss., as b.ch., sometimes t (after r) as kemyrt a.l. i 4 ≡ kỿmɥrth ‘took’. In Mn. W. it is always written th.

Such a form as perffeidẏaw Ỻ.a. 19 is no exception to the rule. The th had been voiced to dd, and the word was perffeiddi̯aw. It is so written in Early Mn. W., and the Late Mn. W. perffeithio is a re-formation. See § 108 iv (2).

iii. (1) The sound ch (χ) is written ch in O. W., as bichan ox. ≡ bỿchan ‘little’. Once we have gch, in iurgchell m.c. ‘fawn’, Mn. W. i̯ỿrchell.

(2) The sound is written ch consistently in Ml. and Mn. W., and there seem to be no variations to note.

§ 21. i. The sounds mh, nh, and ngh were written mp, nt, and nc in O. W.; and mp, nt and nc, ngk, or gk in Ml. W. These combinations continued to be written throughout the Ml. period, though the modern signs appear as early as w.m. or earlier; see § 107.

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§ 22

THE CONSONANTS

25

In Early Ml. W. we also find m for mh, n for nh, and g for ngh; see § 24 i.

ii. The letters m, n, ng have always represented the sounds m, n, ŋ; but m also represented ṽ in O. W., § 19 i; ng may represent ŋg in Ml. and Mn. W.; and ŋ was also written g in Ml. W.; § 19 iv.

iii. Initial n has sometimes a prosthetic ỿ‑; as yrwng e yniver ef ac yniver y llys … yr yniveroeẟ w.m. 40 ‘between his host and the host of the court … the hosts’. It is also written a as anadreẟ c.m. 21 ‘snakes’, anniver w.m. 65.

§ 22. i. In O. W. the sound ll was written l initially, and ll medially and finally; as leill ox. ‘others’, lenn m.c. ‘cloak’ guollung juv. ≡ gw̯ollwng ‘release’. In dluithruim juv., if rightly analysed into llwyth ‘weight’ and rhwyf ‘oar’, we have dl- for þl‑, the usual imitation of the ll sound, § 17 vii, proving the sound to be as old as the 9th cent., though then usually written l- initially. The imitation thl is common in the earliest Norman records, but has not been used by Welsh writers.

ii. In Ml. W. the ll sound is represented by ll; in some mss., e.g. the r.b., it is ligatured thus ỻ, enabling it to be distinguished from double l as in callon r.m. 106 ‘heart’, Iollo r.p. 1369, 1407, kollyn r.b. 1073 ‘pivot’, which we now write calon, Iolo, colyn, § 54 ii. The ligatured capital Ỻ has been used from the Ml. period to the present day in lettering done by hand.

iii. In Mn. W. ll is used.

Several attempts have been made from time to time to find substitutes: G.R. used ḷ, Sir J. Price and J.D.R. used lh; Ed. Lhuyd used lh and λ; but ll has held the field.

iv. The sound rh was written r in O. and Ml. W. The scribes use r for rh even when the h has a different origin, and sometimes even when it belongs to another word, as in y gwanwyn araf r.b.b. 194 for y gwanwyn a’r haf ‘the spring and summer’.

☞ Ml. W. r for rh is transcribed r͑ in our quotations.

v. In the late 15th and early 16th cent. the sound rh was represented by rr and R; it was not until the middle of the 16th cent. that the present digraph rh, which seems to us so obvious and natural a representation of the sound, came into general use.

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PHONOLOGY

§ 23

vi. The sounds l and r have always been represented by the letters l and r.

§ 23. i. The sound s has always been written s. In O. W. it is sometimes doubled as in drissi juv. ≡ drỿssi ‘thorns’, iss m.c., Ml. W. ys ‘is’. In Ml. W. it is usually doubled medially between vowels, as in Iessu b.b. 25, 50, Ỻ.a. 1, 19, etc., Saesson b.b. 48, messur b.b. 3 ‘measure’, etc., but sometimes written single as in Saeson b.b. 60. Initial ss also occurs, as ssillit b.b. 99 ≡ syllyẟ, Mn. W. sylli ‘thou gazest’. z for s is rare: tryzor Ỻ.a. 17 ‘treasure’.

ii. Initial s followed by a consonant has developed a prosthetic ỿ- (written y, e, i, etc. § 16), as in ỿsgol ‘school’.

It is not derived from the late Lat. prosthetic i- as in iscola, since Corn., Bret., Ir. scol do not show it, and it appears in native words in W., as ystrad. It arose in W. for the same reason as in late Lat., a syllabic pronunciation of s- after a consonant. The earliest recorded examples are Istrat, Estrat, beside Strat in l.l. see its index s.v. Istrat. In the spoken language it is not heard except in words in which it is accented, as ỿ́sgol, ỿ́strad, ỿ́sbrɥd, etc., and sometimes in derivatives of these, as ỿsgóli̯on; but sgúbor, stródur, sgrífen, strɥ̄́d. In O. W. it is not written: scipaur juv., strotur m.c., scribenn m.c. In Early Ml. W. we have gwastavel a.l. i 4 ≡ gwas-stavell for the later gwas ystavell w.m. 183, r.m. 85. In the oldest verse it does not count as a syllable:

Stavell Gynẟylan ys tywyll heno (10 syll.) r.p. 1045.

‘The hall of Cynddylan is dark to-night.’ In later verse it usually counts after a consonant and not after a vowel:

Mi Iscolan yscolheic (≡ Mi ’Scolan ỿscolhe|ïc, 7 syll.) b.b. 81.

‘I am Yscolan the clerk.’ But in b.b. 91 we seem to have scolheic after wyd, see § 41 iii (2).

Mae sgrifen uwchben y bedd.—L.G.C. 20.

‘There is a legend above the tomb.’

Damasg a roed am i sgrîn.—T.A., a 31101/115.

‘Damask was spread over his coffin.’

Ac ysgrîn i geisio gras.—D.G. 60.

‘And a coffin to seek grace.’

The ỿ- was general in late Ml. mss., but it is possible that when unaccented the actual spoken sound consisted of a gradual beginning of the s, which like a vowel preserved the r of the article, etc. G.R., 1567, says that yr is used before st, sc, sp, as yr stalwyn, though some

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§§24, 25

THE CONSONANTS

27

write yr ystalwyn, p. 68. He himself also writes ag scrifennu, p. 69, etc. In the 1620 Bible we find sceler, sclyfaeth, scrifennedic, but yscubor, yspeilio, yscrifen, each word generally written in the same way whether it follows a vowel or a consonant. The r of the article is retained before forms without ỿ‑, as yr scrifenyddion Barn. v 14, Matt. vii 29. The ỿ- is introduced more freely in the 1690 edition; but its insertion everywhere is late, and of course artificial, since it never became general in natural speech.

§ 24. i. The letter h has always been employed to denote the aspirate; but it was not used to represent the aspirate glide after r͑ until the modern period, § 22 iv; and in some Early Ml. mss. mh, nh and ngh were written m, n and g, as emen (≡ymhen) a.l. i 84, eurenynes (≡ y vrenhines) do. 4; vy g̃erenhyt w. 3a (≡ vy ngherennhyẟ); yg̃ g̃adellig̃ do. 9a (≡ yng Nghadelling).

ii. In O. and Ml. W. h seems also to have been used to denote a voiced breathing ; see § 112.

§ 25. i. Consonantal i̯ is represented in O. W. by i, as iar juv. ≡ i̯âr ‘hen’, hestoriou ox., pl. of hestawr, cloriou ox., Mn. W. clori̯au ‘boards’, mellhionou m.c., Mn. W. meilli̯on ‘clover’. Before ‑oü it is also found as u (once iu), as enmeituou ox., Mn. W. amneidiau ‘beckonings’, damcirchinnuou juv. ‘circuits’; dificiuou juv. ‘defects’; here it was probably rounded into ü in anticipation of the final ü; cf. § 76 iii (3). Where it is the soft mutation of front g̑ it appears as g in O. W., as in Urbgen in Nennius ≡ Urfi̯en, Mn. W. Uri̯en; Morgen gen. xxv ≡ Mori̯en. Here the i̯ was doubtless heard with more friction of the breath being the spirant ᵹ̑ corresponding to front g̑; see § 110 ii.

ii. In Early Ml. W. i̯ is represented by i, except in mss. where y is used for i, § 16 ii (2); thus tirion b.b. 26, pl. of tir ‘land’, dinion do. 45 (≡ dỿni̯on) ‘men’.

iii. In late Ml. W. it is represented initially by i, rarely by y; as Iessu, b.b. 25, 50, Ỻ.a. 1, 19, etc., Ieuan Ỻ.a. 78, iarll, iarlles w.m. 136 ‘earl, countess’, iawn r.m. 16 ‘right’, ẏawnhaf do. 24 ‘most proper’, Yessu, Yiessu, Ỻ.a. 100. Medially it is written y, as dynnẏon w.m. 32 ‘men’, bedyẟẏaw do. 32 ‘to baptize’, meẟylẏaw do. 34 ‘to think’, etc., etc., rarely as i, as ymbilio r.m. 3 ‘he may entreat.’

☞ When y represents i̯ it will be dotted as above in the quotations in this book.

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28

PHONOLOGY

§ 26

iv. In Mn. W. i̯ is written i; but often j in the 18th cent., see e.g. Llyfryddiaeth 1713, 4; 1748, 4, 8; 1749, 2.

v. Voiceless i̯ occurs where the word or syllable preceding i̯ causes aspiration, and is written hi (also hy in Ml. W.), as ẏ hiarllaeth R.M. 178 ‘her earldom’, kennhẏadu Ỻ.A. 79 ‘to consent’.

If pronounced tensely hi̯ becomes the palatal spirant χ̑ as in the German ich, but this does not occur in Welsh: hi̯ remains a voiceless semi-vowel. Cf. § 17 iii.

§ 26. i. Consonantal w̯ is written gu in O. W. as in petguar ox. ≡ pedw̯ar ‘four’. See § 112 ii (1).

ii. In Early Ml. W. w̯ is represented by u, v, and w; in Late Ml. W. by w and ỽ. Its representation is the same as that of the vowel w; see § 14 ii (2). In Mn. W. it is written w.

The letter w sometimes appears in the form uu, as in keleuuet a.l. i 40 (≡ cɏlỿwed) ‘to hear’.

iii. Initial w̯- had become gw̯- in the Early Welsh period; see § 112 ii (1); but it is w̯- under the soft mutation, thus gw̯allt ‘hair,’ dỿ wallt ‘thy hair’.

Initial gw̯ may come before l, r or n, as in gw̯lad ‘country’, gw̯raig ‘wife’, gw̯nâf ‘I do’, each one syllable. The initial combinations are practically gl, gr or gn pronounced with rounded lips, the rounding taking place simultaneously with the formation of the g, so that the off-glide of the g is heard as w̯. When the g is mutated away the initial is l, r or n with w̯ as an on-glide; thus dỿ w̯lad ‘thy country’ sounds like dỿw̯ lā́d, except that the syllabic division is dỿ | w̯lā́d.

iv. In Ml. and Early Mn. W. final w after a consonant was consonantal; see § 42. Now the w is made syllabic.

The exceptions to the rule were forms in which ‑w represents earlier ‑w͡y, as hwnnw; Mn. W. acw, Early Ml. W. raccw, Ml. W. racko; assw, gwrw, banw § 78 i (2). It may have been made consonantal in the last three by analogy, coming after s, r, single n.

v. Medial w̯ is liable to interchange with f; thus cawod, cafod ‘shower’; cyfoeth, cywaeth § 34 iv; diawl ‘devil’ for *diafl. The old verbal noun from lliw ‘colour’ is llifo ‘to dye’, a newer formation is lliwio ‘to colour’. The reason for the interchange is that f was once a bilabial, ƀ, § 19 ii (4), and so, very similar to w̯, being in effect w̯ with friction of the breath at the lips instead of at the back.

vi. (1) Voiceless w̯, by being pronounced tensely, has become

§ 26

THE CONSONANTS

29

a rounded ch, written chw. It is the result of pronouncing voiceless w̯ with the mouth-passage narrowed at the back so as to produce audible friction, which is heard as ch (χ) accompanying the w̯. In S.W. dialects the loose voiceless w̯ (written wh or hw) prevails initially. In O.W., in juv. and m.c., chw̯i ‘you’ appears as hui; later this word was everywhere chw̯i, the ch being still heard even in S.W. (though now unrounded in this word, thus chi). Initial chw prevails in Ml. W. and later, as chuerv b.b. 83, 84 ≡ chw̯erw̯ ‘bitter’, chuec do. 84 ‘sweet’, chuant do. 34 ‘lust’; chwythu w.m. 47 ‘to blow’, chwaer do. 41 ‘sister’, chwedɏl do. 42, r.m. 29 ‘tale’, chwythat Ỻ.A. 9 ‘breath’, chwant do. 11 ‘lust’, and so generally in Mn. W.; but wh frequently occurs in Ml. mss. and sometimes in Early Mn. poets, as whechet Ỻ.A. 147 ‘sixth’, whennychu do. 149 ‘to desire’, whaer r.m. 28, whedl g. 147.

(2) Initial rounded ch is heard with w̯ as an off-glide, as in chw̯aer; final rounded ch has w̯ as an on-glide, as in iwch ‘to you’, ewch ‘go ye’. In the latter case the sound is ch in all the dialects, not h.

(3) Initial chw sometimes interchanges with gw̯; as Gware dy chware r.m. 154 ‘play thy game’, chwith, gwith do. 301 ‘sinister’; this is due to the variability of original initial s‑, § 101 ii (1); *su̯- > chw̯‑; *u̯- > gw‑. ŋghw̯ for chw̯ is due to a preceding n (nhw̯ > ŋhw̯), as chw̯aneg, anghw̯aneg ‘more’; yn chwaethach r.m. 7 yg̃hwaethach do. 85, 108 ‘rather’.

(4) Initial chw̯ has often a prosthetic ỿ‑, as ỿchwaneg ‘more’, ychwanegu w.m. 44 ‘to add’.

(5) Final rounded ‑ch, of whatever origin, becomes unrounded if the syllable is unaccented; thus welewch w.m. 50 ‘ye saw’ is welech. But ‑ɥw̯ch gave ‑wch, as in cerwch ‘ye love’ for *cerɥw̯ch, see § 173 viii; so peswch for *pesɥwch: pas, § 201 iii (2). The form ydych is due to the analogy of ydym; so Late Mn. W. gennych after the 1st pl. for Ml. and Early Mn. gennwch.

Note.

Transcription.—By means of the devices mentioned in the above sections (the use of ẟ, g̃, r͑, etc.) the forms of Late Ml. W. can generally be transcribed so as to indicate the approximate sound while preserving the exact spelling of the ms. But, as we have seen, the orthography of O. and Early Ml. W. is so irregular that no such plan is possible. Accordingly, for these periods, the form in the ms. is given, followed, where necessary, by a transcription introduced by the sign ≡, giving the probable sound in modern characters.

The works of Early Mn. poets are often found in late mss. and

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30

PHONOLOGY

§ 27

printed books containing not only dialectal forms inconsistent with the forms implied by the rhymes of the bards, but also late inventions, such as ei, eich, etc. In these cases the spelling has been standardized in the quotations in this work. The spelling of the ms. is here of no importance, as the cynghanedd, rhyme or metre is in every case relied on as showing the exact form used by the author.

All quotations are given with modern punctuation, including the insertion of the apostrophe, and the use of capital letters.

Sounds in Combination.

Syllabic Division.

§ 27. i. In Welsh a single consonant between two vowels belongs normally to the second syllable; thus ca|nu ‘to sing’, gw̯e|le|dig ‘visible’; when there are two or more consonants the first belongs to the first syllable, as can|tor ‘singer’, can|i̯ad ‘song’, tan|w̯ɥdd ‘fire-wood’, can|tref ‘hundred (district)’. A double consonant belongs to both; thus in can|nu ‘to whiten’, the first syllable ends after the stoppage of the mouth-passage for the formation of the n, and the second begins before the opening of the passage which completes the formation of the consonant. Thus a double consonant implies not two independent consonants, but a consonant in which the closing of the passage takes place in one syllable and the opening in the next, and both count. This is seen most clearly in a word like drỿcin ‘storm’, where the c closes as a velar q and opens as a palatal k̑ (drỿ́q|k̑in), and yet is not two complete consonants. The consonants p, t, c, m, s, ng, ll, are double after accented vowels, though written single; thus ateb, canasant ≡ at|teb, ca|nas|sant. See § 54.

ii. A consonant which is etymologically double is simplified after an unaccented syllable; as cy|né|fin r.m. 183 ‘familiar’ (cyn-nef-in < *kon-dom-īno‑: Lat. domus); whe|ný|chu r.b.b. 89 (from chwant) ‘to desire’; ym|gy|núll|aw, do. 49 (from cynnull) ‘to gather together’. But this phonetic rule is not regularly observed in writing, except in the final unaccented syllable, cắlonn ‘heart’ (pl. calónnau), Cálann (from vulg. Lat. Kaland‑) etc., being generally written calon, Calan, etc.

iii. In modern writing the division of syllables where required, as at the end of a line, is made to follow the etymology rather than the

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§§ 28, 29

SYLLABIC DIVISION

31

sound; thus it is usual to divide can-u ‘to sing’ so, can being the stem and u the ending, instead of ca-nu, which is the true syllabic division. In the case of more than one written consonant the division is usually made to follow the sound; thus, can-nu ‘to whiten’, plen-tyn ‘a child’, the etymological division being cann-u, plent-yn. Ml. scribes divided a word anywhere, even in the middle of a digraph.

In this grammar syllabic division is indicated when required by | as above; and the hyphen is used to mark off the formative elements of words, which do not necessarily form separate syllables.

Diphthongs.

§ 28. A diphthong consists of the combination in the same syllable of a sonantal with a consonantal vowel. When the sonantal element comes first the combination is a falling diphthong. When the consonantal element comes first it is a rising diphthong. “Diphthong” without modification will be understood to mean falling diphthong.

Falling Diphthongs.

§ 29. i. In O. W. falling diphthongs had for their second element either i, front u, or back u. The O. W. diphthongs with their Ml. and Mn. developments are as follows:

	O. W.	Ml. W.	Mn. W.
i	ai	aɥ, ae	(aɥ), ae
	oi	oɥ, oe	(oɥ), oe
	ui	wɥ	w͡y
	ei	ei	ei, ai
Front ü	ou (au)	eu	eu, au
Back u
	au	aw	aw
	eu	ew	ew
	iu	iw	iw
	iu	ɥw, ỿw	ɥw, ỿw
	ou	ỿw, ew	ỿw, ew

ii. (1) As i in O. W. represented both i and ɥ the exact value of the second element in O. W. ai, oi, ui cannot be fixed; but it was probably receding in the direction of ɥ. In w͡y it has remained ɥ. The former diphthongs are generally written ae and oe; but the spellings ay, oy are commonly met with in Early Ml. W., and sometimes in mss. of the Mn. period; as guayt ‘blood’, coyt ‘timber’, mays ‘field’ l.l. 120; croyn ‘skin’ a.l. i. 24, mays do. 144; Yspayn ‘Spain’, teyrnassoyẟ ‘kingdoms’ p 9 r. In r.m. 118

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PHONOLOGY

§§ 30, 31

we have haearn, in 119 hayarn ‘iron’. Though now always written ae, oe, the sound in N. W. is still distinctly aɥ, oɥ; thus maes, coed are read mā́ɥs, cṓɥd. In Mid and S. Wales the sound approaches the spelling ae, oe. In parts of S. W. the diphthongs are simplified into ā, ō in the dialects: mā́s, cṓd. In Pembrokeshire oe becomes w̄́-ë and even w̯ḗ.

(2) Ml. W. ae and oe are derived not only from O. W. ai and oi, but also from O. W. disyllabic a|e and o|e; thus saeth < sa|eth < Lat. sagitta; maes < ma|es (rhyming with gormes, b.t. 25) < *maᵹes; troed pl. traed (rhyming with vrithret / bryssẏet r.p. 1042) from *troget‑, *traget‑, § 65 ii (1). They may also represent a contraction of a|ɥ, o|ɥ as in dā́ed § 212 iv, trṓent, § 185 i (1).

iii. Ml. W. ei had an open and a close e according to position; these developed into Mn. W. ai and ei; see § 79 i. The present sound of the form ei is əi̯, where ə is an obscure vowel which is hardly, if at all, distinct from ỿ.

iv. O. W. ou (≡ oü) occurs once as au, in anutonau juv. ‘perjuria’, which in ox. is anutonou. The o was unrounded in Ml. W., becoming an indistinct vowel, open and close, written e; the two forms became Mn. W. au and eu; see § 79 ii.

v. O. W. au and eu (back u) have remained the same phonetically, the back u being written w in the later language. O. W. iu represented three distinct diphthongs according as i represented i or either sound of y. The diphthongs ɥw and ỿw are even now of course both represented by a single group yw in ordinary writing. The rules for distinguishing between them are those that apply to ɥ and ỿ generally; § 82 ii (4).

vi. O. W. ou (back u) represents the diphthong ỿw, written yw and also ow at a later period, § 33 iii (2). Thus diguolouichetic ox.; Ml. W. llỿwỿchedic r.m. 84 ‘shining’, llỿwɥch r.p. 1153, which appear beside llewɥch r.p. 1154, Mn. W. llewɥch corr. into llewɥrch ‘light’; § 76 vi, viii.

§ 30. The diphthongs ae or aɥ and oe or oɥ followed by w̯ form the falling triphthongs aew, oew or aɥw, oɥw, in gw̯aɥw ‘spear’, gloɥw ‘bright’, hoɥw ‘sprightly’, croɥw ‘clear’, which remain strictly monosyllabic in the cynghanedd of the Early Mn. bards. In late pronunciation the w is made syllabic, except when a syllable is added, as in the pl. gloɥw̯on which is still disyllabic. In dāɥwch, contracted from dā ɥw̯ch, the āɥw has now been simplified into ā́w; see § 212 iv.

§ 31. i. Unaccented ae in the final syllable was often reduced to e in the Ml. period, especially in verbal forms and proper names; as in adwen for adwaen ‘I know’, chware for chwarae ‘to play’, Ithel for Ithael, O. W. Iudhail (≡ i̯üẟ-hail).

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§ 32

FALLING DIPHTHONGS

33

Pan aeth pawb allan ẏ chware r.m. 116 ‘When everybody went out to play’; see also r.m. 15, 38, 84, 87, 153, etc.

Lloches adar i chwarae,

Llwyn mwyn, llyna’r llun y mae.—D.G. 37.

‘A retreat for birds to play, a pleasant grove, that is the manner [of place] it is.’ See also D.G. 40, 58, 465 (misprinted ‑au in 169).

Nid gŵr heb newid gware:

Nid llong heb fyned o’i lle.—G.Gl. c. i 197.

‘He is not a man, who does not change his pastime; it is not a ship, that does not move from its place.”

For examples of adwen, see § 191 ii (2).

ii. (1) The simplification of final unaccented ai and au to e are dialectal and late. Such forms as llefen for llefain, gwele for gwelai are avoided by the Early Mn. bards in their rhymes, but they begin to appear in mss. in the late 15th cent., and were common in the 16th and 17th cent. But the literary forms never fell out of use, and ultimately supplanted the dialectal forms in the written language, though some of the latter have crept in, as cyfer for cyfair, Ml. W. kyveir § 215 iii (9), ystyried for ystyriaid § 203 iii (2).

(2) The levelling in the dialects of the sounds mentioned gave rise to uncertainty as to the correct forms of some words. The word bore ‘morning’ began to be wrongly written boreu or borau in the 15th cent.^[1]; see g. 190. The forms camrau, godreu, tylau are later blunders for the literary forms camre ‘journey’, godre ‘bottom edge’, pl. godreon, r.m. 147, and tyle ‘hill; couch’. The new ychain for ychen ‘oxen’ § 121 iii is due to the idea that ‑en is dialectal. In Gwynedd ỿchain is heard, but is a dialectal perversion like merchaid for merched.

Tesog fore gwna’r lle ’n llon,

Ac annerch y tai gwynion.—D.G. 524.

‘On a warm morning make the place merry, and greet the white houses.’ See bore b.b. 31, 55, 82, 92, 108, w.m. 56, 73, etc.

Ni adewais lednaia le

Ynghymry ar fy nghamre.—I.G. 201.

‘I left no noble place in Wales on my journey.’ See kamre, r.p. 1269.

Lluwch ar fre a godre gallt,

A brig yn dwyn barúg-wallt.—D.G. 508.

‘Snowdrift on hill and foot of slope, and branch bearing hair of hoar-frost.’ See also r.p. 1036.

A phan edrychwyt y dyle r.m. 146 ‘And when the couch was examined.’

§ 32. The diphthong ai is wrongly written ae by most recent writers (under the influence of Pughe) in the words afi̯aith

1.  There is one example in c.m. 5, which stands quite alone in the r.b., and so is prob. a scribal error.

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PHONOLOGY

§ 33

‘delight’, araith ‘speech’, cyffaith ‘confection’, disglair ‘bright’, goddaith ‘conflagration’, gweniaith (or gweiniaith) ‘flattery’, rhyddiaith ‘prose’, talaith ‘crown; realm’. See § 202 iv (1). The word diffaith, Ml. W. diffeith, ‘waste, wild, evil’ (from Lat. defect-us) is generally written so in the good periods (e.g. diffeith b.b. 106, r.m. 183); but some early examples occur of a new formation from ffaeth ‘cultivated’ (from Lat. factus), r.p. 1047, l. 2.

Yn y nef mae ’n un afiaith

Yn sôn archangylion saith.—Gr.H. g. 101.

‘In heaven in pure rapture there speak archangels seven.’ See D.G. 358, where afiaith is printed afiaeth in spite of its rhyming with gobaith. See also g. 122.

Ef a gâr awdl ac araith,

Ef a ŵyr synnwyr y saith.—H.D. p 99/469.

‘He loves song and speech, he knows the meaning of the seven [sciences].’ See g. 118; areith b.b. 9, 15.

Disgleir ẟiweir Veir vorwyn.—Ca., r.p. 1247.

‘Bright chaste virgin Mary.’

Coed osglog, caeau disglair,

Wyth ryw ɥ̄́d, a thri o wair.—D.G. 524.

‘Branching trees, bright fields, eight kinds of corn and three of hay.’ See D.G. 54, 120, 209, 404. See b.cw. 8, early editions of Bible, etc.

Fal goddaith yn ymdaith nos.—D.G. 13.

‘Like a bonfire on a night’s march.’ See goẟeith r.p. 1042, b.b. 73.

Gwenwyn ydiw eu gweiniaith,

Gwynt i gyd gennyt eu gwaith.—I.F. m 148/721.

‘Their flattery is poison, to thee their work is all wind.’

Twysog yw, enwog i waith,

Teilwng i wisgo talaith.—E.U.

‘He is a prince whose work is famous, worthy to wear a crown.’

Troes dilyw tros y dalaith,

Torri ar rif tyrau’r iaith.—Gu.O. a 14967/62.

‘A deluge has overflowed the realm, thinning the number of the nation’s towers.’ See g. 80, 87, 199, 218, 257.

Tro ’n d’ôl at yr hen dalaith;

Digon yw digon o daith.—E.P. Ỻ 124/283 r.

‘Turn back to the old country; enough is enough of travel.’

§ 33. Late Contractions. i. (1) We have seen that a-e and o-e were contracted early into ae and oe; § 29 ii (2). This contraction also took place later, as in Cymrā́eg ‘Welsh’, Groeg

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§ 33

FALLING DIPHTHONGS

35

‘Greek’, and in verbal forms such as aed ‘let him go’, rhoed ‘let him give’, rhoes ‘he gave’; see § 185.

In r.p. 1189 Gro-ec is a disyllable rhyming with chwec, ostec, Cym|ra|ec, tec; in the r.g. 1119 it is stated to be a monosyllable; D.G. uses it as a monosyllable, 53, as well as rhoes 6 ‘gave’, troes 68 ‘turned’, gwnaed 149 ‘let her do’, doed 145, 228 ‘let him come’, ffoes 191 ‘fled’, but ffó|es 61. He uses Cym|rá|eg as a trisyllable rhyming with teg, 2, 179; so G.Gr., d.g. 243. This form persisted in the 15th cent.; as

Cymro da i Gym|rā́|eg,

Cymered air Cymru deg.—G.Gl., m 146/281.

‘A Welshman of good Welsh, let him take the praise of fair Wales.’

In the 15th cent., however, we meet with the contracted form; see T.A. g. 251. Later, this was usual:

Da i̯ Gym|rā́eg, di-gymar ṓedd,

Di-dláwd ym mhob dadl ỿ́doedd.—W.Ỻ. 120 (m.S.B.).

‘Good [in] his Welsh, incomparable was he, resourceful in all debate.’

(2) The contraction of the accented penult with the ultima results in an accented ultima § 41 iii. But in newly-formed compounds, contracted forms such as maes, troed are treated like other monosyllables, and the accent falls on the penult; thus glỿ́n-faes D.G. 135 ‘vale’, méin-droed do. 262 ‘slender foot’, déu-droed ‘two feet’.

ii. The r.g., 1119, states that ey is always a disyllable. This is not necessarily the case in the penult, for in such forms as keɥrɥẟ, § 122 ii (3), pl. of kaer ‘fort’, treɥthɥch r.p. 1153 from traethaf ‘I treat’, etc., it is an old affection of ae. In other cases, however, the diphthong is late, and the disyllabic form is used in poetry down to the 16th cent. Thus:

Lloer yvi a dawn llawer dŷn,

Lleuad rhïanedd Llë|ɥn.—G.Gl., m 148/191.

‘She is the moon and the grace of many women, the moon of the ladies of Lleyn.’ See also I.G. 388, 405.

Salbri ieuanc sêl brë|ɥr

Sydd i gael swyddau a gw̯ŷr.—Gu.O. a 14967/94.

‘Young Salesbury of the stamp of a chieftain [is he] who is to have offices and men.’

Nid âi na chawr na dyn chw̯ɥrn,

Heb haint Dmv, a’n pen të|ɥrn.—T.A. c. ii 81.

‘Neither a giant nor a violent man, without the scourge of God, could take our liege lord.’ See g. 176, f. 14, 33. See hë|ɥrn / të|ɥrn / kedɥrn r.p. 1226.

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The contracted form sometimes occurs; as

Penfar heɥrn pan fo’r hirnos.—D.G. 267.

‘A head-dress of iron spikes when the night is long.’—To the holly.

The name Lleyn is now pronounced Llɥ̄́n, and regarded as an exception to the rule that Welsh is written phonetically. Llŷn, as the name should be spelt, is a contraction of Llyyn, which also occurs, r.b.b. 307, 342; and has been written in the contracted form from the 16th cent. The contraction is as old as the 14th, for we find llyyn in r.p. 1360, where the metre proves the sound to be llɥ̄́n.

O Lŷn i Dywyn, yn dau,

O Dywyn i dir Deau.—W.Ỻ., g. 297.

‘From Llŷn to Towyn, we two, from Towyn to the kind of the south.’

iii. (1) The Mn. W. diphthongs oi, ou and ow are always late contractions; as in rhoi for rho|ï from rhoddi ‘to give’; ymarhóus c.c. 330 for ymarho|us ‘dilatory’; rhowch for rho|wch ‘give ye’; rhoist for rho|eist ‘thou gavest’; rhôi for rho|ei ‘he gave’.

These contractions occur in common words in the 14th cent.; see roi r.p. 1206, 1210, rhoi D.G. 206, 521, 524, rhois do. 206, rhoist do. 2, r.p. 1211; rout (printed roit) D.G. 206, rôi, rown do. 243. But uncontracted forms occur even later; tró|ais D.G. 307, tró|ï I.G., cyffró|ï L.G.C., d. 16.

(2) The diphthong ow is pronounced with the o unrounded, thus əw, where the ə is closer than the first element in the Eng. ow, and is scarcely distinguishable from the obscure ỿ; in fact the ỿw in cỿwydd and the ow in rhowch are identical. Hence in the 15th, 16th and 17th cent. the old diphthong ỿw was often written ow; as in cowydd or kowydd for cỿwɥdd, see Mostyn r. pp. 2, 3, etc., 26, 27, etc. etc.

iv. A late contraction may take the form of one of the old diphthongs, or even of a simple vowel; as gla|nháu for gla|nhá|u ‘to clean’; plau r.p. 1222 for plá|eu ‘plagues’; di|léu for di|lé|u ‘to delete’; aw̯n for á|wn ‘we go’; gla|nhā́d for gla|nhá|ad ‘cleansing’; (g)wnai w.m. 54, 250 for gwna|ei ‘did’, cf. b.b. 64; cỿ|tûn for cỿ|tú|un ‘united’; bûm for bú|um ‘I have been’; gwy|bū́m for gwy|bú|um ‘I knew’; cau for cáe|u ‘to shut’. These forms occur uncontracted in Ml. W.: gunaun b.b. 81 (≡ gw̯na|wn rhyming with wn) ‘I would do’; yn gyttuun r.b.b. 238; cayu Ỻ.A. 167 (≡ cáy|u), kaeu w.m. 24 (≡ káe|u). Uncontracted forms are met with as late as the 16th cent.

Dy garu a wybū́|um;

Darllain dy bylgain y bûm.—H.S. 5.

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37

‘I have known [what it is] to love thee; I have been reading thy vigil.’ See D.G. 38.

v. A late contraction usually takes place when a word ending in a vowel is followed by i ‘his’ or ‘her’, Ml. y, and often when it is followed by the preposition i ‘to’, Ml. y. Ac, ag lose their final consonant and form a diphthong with the former, as a’i̯ Ml. W. ae, ay ‘and his, with his’, but not with the latter: ac i ‘and to’.

Ancr wyf fi’n cyweirio i̯ fedd.—7 syll. § 44 vi.

Da i̯ Gymraeg, di-gymar oedd.—7 syll., i above.

Nos da i̯ walch onest y Waun.—7 syll. g. 177.

‘Good night to the honest fellow of Chirk.’

Rising Diphthongs.

§ 34. i. The rising diphthongs in the Mn. language are as follows:—

i̯a as in cani̯ad, i̯âr;	w̯a as in anw̯ar;
i̯e as in i̯echɥd;	w̯e as in adw̯en;
i̯o as in rhodi̯o, i̯ôr;	w̯i as in cedw̯ir;
i̯w as in i̯wrch, rhodi̯wn;	w̯o as in gwatw̯or;
i̯ỿ as in i̯ỿrchell;	w̯u as in galw̯ut;
	w̯ɥ as in edw̯ɥn;
	w̯ỿ as in penw̯ỿnni.

In Ml. W. i̯ is generally written y, § 17. The combinations i̯i, i̯ɥ, i̯u, w̯w do not occur in Mn. W. They occur in verbal forms in Ml. W. but are generally simplified; see § 36 i, ii.

ii. When i̯ or w̯ comes before a falling diphthong the combination becomes a mixed triphthong; as i̯ai in i̯aith ‘language’; i̯au in teithi̯au ‘journeys’; w̯aw in gw̯awd ‘song, mockery’; iw͡y in meddyli̯w͡yd ‘it was thought’, neithi̯w͡yr, D.G. 424 (now generally neithi̯wr § 78 i (2)) ‘last night’. We have a tetraphthong in the old pronunciation of gw̯aɥw (or gw̯aew) § 30.

iii. When an unaccented i comes before any other vowel the two are frequently contracted into a rising diphthong; thus di|ó|ddef ‘to suffer’ becomes a disyllable di̯ó|ddef D.G. 137. Some early examples occur, as er|i̯ṓed ‘ever’ for *er | i | ṓed ‘since his time’. di̯ṓer ‘by heaven’ § 224 iv (2) is a monosyllable, as the metre shows in r.p. 1206, D.G. 46, 51. di̯awl ‘devil’ must have been contracted into a monosyllable in O. W.

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when the accent fell regularly on the ultima; otherwise it would have become *dī́|awl.

iv. The rising diphthongs w̯a and w̯o are frequently interchanged; as gw̯atw̯ar w.m. 185, gw̯atw̯or D.G. 136 ‘to mock’; marw̯ar Ỻ.A. 39, marw̯or ‘embers’ (cf. maroryn § 36 iii); caw̯ad, caw̯od ‘shower’; pedw̯ar, pedw̯or ‘four’.

Pedw̯or trysor tir Iesu.—H.R., c 7/114.

‘The four treasures of the land of Jesus.’

The change takes place both ways; w̯a becomes w̯o in caw̯ad r.m. 180, r.p. 1223, D.G. 57 (rhyming with brad) and caw̯odydd or cafodydd D.G. 305 (penult rhyming with bod); w̯o becomes w̯a in cỿnaw̯an c.m. 21 for cỿnaw̯on pl. of ceneu § 125 iii; dyw̯ad for dyw̯od from dyfod § 193 ix (3).

v. (1) The rising diphthongs w̯ɥ and w̯ỿ are of course not distinguished in ordinary writing, both being represented by wy; see § 82 ii (5). Note then that wy represents three distinct diphthongs, the falling w͡y as in mŵyn ‘gentle’, sw͡yno ‘to charm’; the rising w̯ɥ, short in gw̯ɥnn ‘white’, long in gw̯ŷr ‘men’; the rising w̯ỿ as in tỿw̯ỿnnu ‘to shine’. See § 38.

(2) In ordinary writing the falling iw̯ and the rising i̯w are also not distinguished. See § 37.

§35. i. Many stems end in i̯, which appears before all inflexional endings beginning with a vowel (with the exceptions mentioned in § 36), but is dropped when the stem has no ending; thus mỿfỿri̯af ‘I meditate’, mỿfỿri̯ant ‘they meditate’, mỿfỿri̯o ‘to meditate’, mỿfỿri̯ol ‘meditating’, but mỿfɥr ‘meditation’.

In words borrowed from Lat. the i̯ can be traced to its source in short ĭ; thus mỿfɥr < memoria; sɥnn, sỿni̯af < sentio; ỿstɥr, ỿstỿri̯af < historia. In native words it represents original i̯, as in dŷn ‘man’ pl. dỿni̯on from Kelt. *doni̯os: Ir. duine § 100 iv; cf. also § 201 iii (6). In a few new formations the i̯ is ignored as in di-ỿstỿru ‘to ignore’, dỿnol ‘human’ a new formation which has replaced Ml. W. dỿnẏawl Ỻ.A. 12, 24, 38, etc.

ii. (1) In Mn. lit. W. i̯ generally appears after syllables having ei, as in ysbeili̯af ‘I rob’ (ysbail ‘spoil’ < Lat. spolium); teithi̯af ‘I journey’ (taith ‘journey’), geiri̯au ‘words’ (gair ‘word’), neithi̯w(y)r ‘last night’, Ml. W. neithwyr § 98 i (3). In these cases the i̯ is omitted in S. W. dialects and most Ml. mss., as

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39

keinhauc b.b. 54 ≡ keinhawc b.t. 28; but the oldest Ml. prose mss. (the early mss. of the laws) and Mn. lit. W. follow the practice of the N. W. dialects and insert the i̯, as keynẏauc a.l. i 24 ms. a., cf. 22 mss. b., d., Mn. W. ceini̯og ‘penny’.

(2) There are, however, several exceptions to this rule besides those mentioned or implied in § 36. The i̯ is omitted before the substantival terminations ‑en, ‑es, ‑edd; as deilen (M.Ỻ. i 155 has the unusual deili̯en) ‘leaf’, bugeiles ‘shepherdess’, cyfeilles (printed cyfeillies in d.g. 75) ‘amie’, meithedd ‘lengthiness’; before endings of comparison, as meithed, meithach, meithaf (maith ‘long’), meined, meinach, meinaf (main ‘slender’), except rheit-i̯ed, ‑i̯ach, ‑i̯af § 149 i, stems in ‑eidd- as manweiẟẏach Ỻ.A. 8 ‘finer’, pereiddi̯af ‘sweetest’, and some stems in ‑eith- as perffeithi̯af ‘most perfect’; before the pl. endings ‑edd, ‑oedd, as ieithoedd ‘languages’; in a few isolated words as teilo ‘to manure’ (but teẏlẏaw in b.ch. 102), adeilad ‘building’ (but adeilẏat in r.p. 1220), cymdeithas ‘society’, eiddo ‘property’.

(3) Medial ei before a consonant originally simple must be due to affection by i̯ after the consonant; and the i̯ in ysbeili̯af etc. is the affecting i̯ preserved. ‑eith- generally represents *‑ekt- a verbal noun and adj. formation, as in perffeith ‘perfect’, and the i̯ in perffeithi̯o is probably analogical, § 201 iii (6). From these the i̯ has tended to spread. But there is necessarily no original reason for it when ei comes from ‑ek- or ‑eg‑; hence the exceptions meithach, cymdeithas, teilo (tail < *tegl- § 104 ii (1)), etc.

iii. i̯ is also added to many stems having i or u; as cil ‘back’, pl. cili̯au cili̯af ‘I retreat’; tir ‘land’, old poetic pl. tiri̯on b.b. 26, r.p. 1144, tiri̯o ‘to land’, tiri̯og ‘landed’ (but pl. tiredd, tiroedd); grudd ‘cheek’, pl. gruddi̯au; llun ‘form’, pl. lluni̯au, lluni̯o ‘to form’, lluni̯aidd ‘shapely’; ystudẏaw, llavurẏaw Ỻ.A. 11 ‘to study’, ‘to labour’. In some of these cases also the i̯ is lost in S. W. dialects.

iv. Many stems end in w̯ which forms rising diphthongs with the vowels of all endings, except with w § 36 i; thus galw̯ ‘to call’, galw̯af ‘I call’, gelw̯aist ‘thou calledst’, gelw̯ynt ‘they called’, etc.

§ 36. i. w̯ drops before w, and i̯ drops before i. The semivowel is sometimes written (as w or y) in Ml. W., but is often

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omitted. Thus while b.m. 51 has mi a gadwwn, mi ae kadwwn, the older w.m. 71 has in the same passage mi a gadwn, mi ay cadwn. Similarly we have vedyẟẏit in Ỻ.A. 48 but bedyẟir earlier, p. 42.

The syllable closed by the w̯ or i̯ remains closed after its loss; thus cad|w̯wn, be|dydd|i̯ir became căd|wn, be|dy̆dd|ir (not cá|dwn, be|dý|ddir). By re-formation the w̯ is sometimes restored in the spoken lang. in forms like ber|w̯wch ‘boil ye’ impve., on account of the strength of the analogy of ber|w̯i, ber|w̯af, ber|w̯oẟ, etc. But the lit. and ordinary form is bĕr|wch, and the absence of w̯w in the traditional pronunciation accounts for the well-known W. pronunciation of E. wood as ’ood, etc.

ii. i̯ drops before ɥ and u in monosyllables and final syllables; as ɥrch a.l. i 20, Ỻ.A. 67 for *i̯ɥrch pl. of i̯wrch ‘roebuck’; udd ‘lord’ < O. W. I̯ud- (‘*warrior’); peidɥnt r.m. 90 (from peidẏaw ‘to cease’, cf. peidẏw͡ys r.m. 98); Mareduẟ r.p. 1194 for *Maredi̯uẟ, O. W. Morgetiud gen. xiii (≡ Morᵹeti̯üẟ), Gruffudd < O. W. Griphiud (≡ Griffi̯üẟ). It is often found written in Ml. W., as ystyrẏych r.p. 1153 ‘thou mayst consider’, hilẏynt Ỻ.A. 11 ‘they would breed’, llafvurẏus do. 28 ‘laborious’, meẟylẏut w.m. 103 ‘thou wouldst think’; but the spelling is perhaps theoretical; see below.

Initial i̯u in polysyllables has given i, as in Iddew ‘Jew’ for *i̯uẟew; Ithel < *i̯uẟ-hael, O. W. Iudhail.

See Iẟew p 14/1 r. (13th cent.); itewon (t ≡ ẟ) b.b. 102; so in Ỻ.A. see its index, and in r.b., see r.b.b. index. Salesbury wrote Iuddew, which he inferred from the derivation. The Bible (1588 and 1620) has Iddew; but late editors have adopted Salesbury’s unphonetic spelling. D. includes i̯u among rising diphthongs; but his only example is the artificial Iuddew.

It is seen that i̯u became u in the syllables which were accented in O. W., and i in syllables unaccented at that period, § 40. The simplification must therefore have taken place before the shifting of the accent; and Ml. W. forms with ẏu (≡ i̯u) are analogical formations, and perhaps artificial.

iii. w̯ sometimes drops before o; as in the prefixes go‑, gor- for gw̯o‑, gw̯or‑; thus Ml. and Mn. W. goleuni ‘light’, O. W. guolleuni juv. But analogy has tended to restore it; thus while we find athraon m.a. i 256, ii 319 for athrawon Ỻ.A. 112, r.m. 19, r.p. 1234 ‘teachers’, canaon b.a. 38, m.a. i 261, 315 for kanawon r.b.b. 147 ‘whelps’, lleot h.m. ii 234, 235 for llewot Ỻ.A. 10

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‘lions’, maroryn Ỻ.A. 25 for marworyn D.G. 363 ‘ember’, it generally remained in these words. Late examples of its loss: Ml. W. etwo (varying with etwa by § 34 iv) gives etto r.p. 1357, Mn. W. eto (≡ etto) ‘again’. So penwag became *penwog whence pennog ‘herring’, the pl. retaining the w̯: penw̯aig L.G.C. 158, Ml. W. penw̯eic a.l. i 66.

*gwolchi ‘to wash’ gave golchi, whence gylch ‘washes’; but in Ml. W. the latter was gwylch, as y dwfvyr a wylch pob peth Ỻ.A. 18 ‘water washes everything.’

Môr a wylch mwyn amgylch Môn.—Ca., r.p. 1244.

‘The sea washes the sweet coast of Môn.’

iv. i̯ drops before w̯ owing to the extreme difficulty of pronouncing the combination, but it remains before vocalic w; thus gweithi̯wr ‘worker’, gweithi̯w͡yd ‘was worked’, but gweithw̯ɥr ‘workers’ (not *gweithi̯w̯ɥr).—Of course vocalic i remains in all cases: ysbī́-wr ‘spy’, pl. ysbī́-w̯ɥr.

v. i̯ drops after w̯ following a consonant, or following a diphthong; thus ceidw̯ad for *ceidw̯i̯ad ‘keeper, saviour’, geirw̯on for *geirw̯i̯on, pl. of garw̯ ‘rough’, hoyw̯on for *hoyw̯i̯on, pl. of hoyw̯ ‘sprightly’. But when w̯ follows a simple vowel the i̯ remains, as in glew̯i̯on, pl. of glew ‘bold’, glaw̯i̯o ‘to rain’.

It is kept in gw̯i̯alen when contracted (as in D.G. 60) for gw̯i|á|len, § 75 vi (2).

vi. i̯ drops after u, as in duon for *dui̯on, pl. of du ‘black’, goreuon for *goreui̯on pl. of goreu ‘best’.

vii. i̯ drops after r or l following a consonant, as meidrol for meidri̯ol ‘finite’ (veidrẏawl r.p. 1233, veidrawl do. 1234), budron for *budri̯on, pl. of budr ‘dirty’, crwydrad for crwydri̯ad ‘wanderer’, meistraid for meistri̯aid ‘masters’, teimlo for *teimli̯o ‘to feel’, treiglo for treigli̯o ‘to roll’.

This rule is not always observed. In some late Bibles crwydrad has been altered into crwydriad. We also find meistriaid in Mn. W.; dinistri̯o always retains i̯, and mentri̯o occurs for mentro.

Ambiguous Groups.

§ 37. i. As above noted iw in ordinary writing represents both the rising diphthong i̯w and the falling diphthong iw̯.

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ii. iw in the ultima followed by a consonant is i̯w, as i̯wrch ‘stag’, rhodi̯wch ‘walk ye’, cofi̯wn ‘we remember’, wỿrddi̯wn ‘a myriad’. The only exceptions are the Mn. forms iw̯ch for Ml. ɥw̯ch ‘to you’, and niw̯l for Ml. nɥwl § 77 v, § 90.

The Demetian disyllabic ni|wl (D.D. s.v., D.G. 150 nī́-wl / nā́-wyr) is < *niw̯wl < *niw̯ɏl < nɥwl with irregular epenthetic vowel § 16 v (3) (ỿ > w after w̯ § 66 ii (2)). Nifwl existed beside *niw̯wl. But the standard form appears to be a monosyllable (D.G. 70 níw̯l / nṓs); and all the derivatives are from niw̯l‑, as niwliog or niwlog ‘misty’, niwlen ‘a veil of mist’.

Initial i̯ŵ became *ü̯ŵ and then üw̯ in uwd ‘porridge’ < Ml. W. iwt (≡ i̯ŵd) r.b. 1061, Bret. iot; but i̯wrch remained because it is easier so than if another consonant were added to the group at the end of the syllable.

iii. In all other cases iw is iw̯; thus (1) finally, as in i’w̯, Ml. yw̯ ‘to his’, rhiw̯ ‘hill’, briw̯ ‘wound’, edliw̯ ‘to reproach’, heddiw̯ ‘to-day’.

There is no exception to the rule in lit. W. In the Powys dialect heddiw is sounded heddi̯w, and in Gwynedd heiddi̯w; but the Demetian heddi’ implies heddiw̯. The bards always rhymed it as heddiw̯, till it came to be written heddyw in the 15th cent. (one example in r.p. 1286), an artificial restoration, see § 77 v.

Nid oes fyd na rhyd na rhiw̯

Na lle rhydd na llawr heddiw̯.—D.G. (to the snow), 408.

‘There is no world or ford or hill or any free place or ground to-day.’ See also D.G. 16, 26, 82, 86, 126, 153, 194, etc.

Ni fu hawdd nofio heddiw̯

I un a ffrwd yn i ffriw̯.—T.A., f. 22.

‘It has not been easy to swim to-day for one with the stream in his face.’

(2) In the penult or ante-penult, as diw̯edd ‘end’, ni|w̯eidio ‘to harm’, ciw̯dod ‘race, people’. Exceptions are the borrowed words si̯wrnai ‘journey’, si̯ŵr ‘sure’, and di̯wrnod ‘day’ when contracted, as in Gr.O. 88, for di|ẃrnod for Ml. W. diw̯ỿrnawd, w. 1a (generally in Ml. W. diw̯arnawt, a S. W. form).

iv. iw is disyllabic when it is formed by adding a syllable beginning with w to a syllable ending in i; thus gweddi ‘prayer’, gweddī́-wn ‘let us pray’, gweddī́-wr ‘suppliant’. In such words the i is generally written in Mn. W. with a diaeresis—gweddïwr.

(delwedd 1473) (tudalen 43) 

§ 38

AMBIGUOUS GROUPS

43

v. The combination iwy has four sounds: (1) the mixed triphthong i̯w͡y, as in neithi̯w͡yr, § 34 ii. It occurs in verbal forms when the terminations ‑w͡yf, ‑w͡yd, ‑w͡ys are added to stems in i̯, § 35; as rhodi̯w͡yf ‘I may walk’, tybi̯w͡yd ‘it was thought’.

(2) ī́w͡y disyllabic. It occurs when the above endings are added to stems in vocalic i, as gweddī́w͡yf (3 syll., see example in § 201 ii (2)); and in compounds of di- with stems having w͡y, as in di-w͡yr ‘not bent’ (gŵyr ‘bent’).

(3) iw̯ɥ or (4) iw̯ỿ according to position, as in lliw̯ɥdd g. 164 ‘painter’, pl. lliw̯ỿddi̯on; diw̯ɥd ‘diligent’ spv. diw̯ỿtaf. These sounds may occur either when iw̯ is followed by ɥ or ỿ or when i is followed by w̯ɥ or w̯ỿ in word-formation.

§ 38. i. The distinction between the falling diphthong w͡y and the rising diphthong w̯ɥ, both written wy, is an important one. The difference between them is seen most clearly in monosyllables such as gŵɥr ‘he knows’, gw̯ɥ̂r ‘men’. In other positions they are liable to be confused in the dialects, and in a few cases we find confusion even in lit. W.

In ordinary written W. the falling diphthong when long is denoted by ŵy (only used initially and after g, ch), but when short or unaccented there is no method in ordinary use by which it can be distinguished; in that case it is printed w͡y, where necessary, in this book. The rising diphthong is indicated by marking the w̯ a consonant.

ii. In monosyllables wy represents the falling diphthong except when preceded by g or ch; thus dŵɥn ‘to bring’, brŵɥn ‘rushes’, cŵɥn ‘complaint’, clŵɥd ‘hurdle’, llw͡ybr ‘path’, hŵɥnt ‘they, them’, cw͡ymp ‘fall’. Words beginning with g or ch have usually the rising diphthong, as gw̯ɥn ‘white’, gw̯ɥrdd ‘green’, gw̯ŷdd ‘trees’, chw̯ɥrn ‘roaring’, chw̯ŷth ‘blows’; the exceptions are Gŵɥ ‘the Wye’, gŵɥdd ‘goose’, gŵɥdd ‘presence’, gŵɥl ‘vigil, holiday’, gŵɥl ‘modest’, gŵɥll ‘goblin’, gŵɥr ‘knows’, ''gŵɥr ‘a bend’, gw͡ystl ‘pledge’, gŵɥth ‘anger’, chŵɥdd ‘swelling’.

Note the following words which conform to the rule, though spelt like some of the above-mentioned exceptions: gw̯ŷdd ‘trees’, gw̯ŷl ‘sees’ § 173 iv (1), gw̯ɥll ‘darkness’.

iii. When a word has the falling diphthong ŵɥ in its simple form, the diphthong remains so in all derivatives; thus mŵɥn

(delwedd 1474) (tudalen 44)

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PHONOLOGY

§ 38

‘gentle’, mw͡ynach ‘gentler’, mw͡ynhau ‘to enjoy’; cŵɥn ‘complaint’, pl. cw͡yni̯on, v.n. cw͡yno ‘to complain’. Similarly the rising diphthong remains rising, the ɥ becoming ỿ according to rule, § 82 ii (5); thus gw̯ɥn ‘white’, gw̯ỿnnach ‘whiter’, gw̯ỿnnu ‘to whiten’.

In N. W. dialects w͡y has come to be sounded w̯ɥ in the penult after c, g or ch, as cw̯ɥno for cw͡yno ‘to complain’; gw̯ɥddau for gw͡yddau ‘geese’; chw̯ɥddo for chw͡yddo ‘to swell’. But original w̯ɥ, which in the penult is properly w̯ỿ, has become w in all dialects, as chwthu for chw̯ythu ‘to blow’, chwrnu for chw̯ỿrnu ‘to roar’, gwnnu for gwỿnnu ‘to whiten’; see § 66 ii.

iv. When a word in its radical form begins with wy the diphthong is the falling one; thus ŵɥ ‘egg’, ŵɥth ‘eight’, w͡ythnos ‘week’, w͡ybr ‘sky’, w͡ylo ‘to weep’, ŵɥl ‘weeps’, w͡yneb ‘face’.

w͡ybr, w͡ylo and w͡yneb are frequently mispronounced; and in N. W. dialects the w of w͡yneb having been made consonantal a g has been prefixed to it giving gw̯ɥneb. This vulgarism hardly occurs before the 19th cent.

Rhaid im ddŵɥn pridd ar f’w͡yneb^[1]

Rhag bod i’m adnabod neb.—D.G. 307.

‘I must bear earth upon my face, so that no one shall know me.’ See wrth f’w͡yneb D.G. 23, yn f’w͡yneb do. 442.

Amlwg fydd trŵɥn a’r w͡yneb;^[1]

Afraid i ni nodi neb.—E.P. 212.

‘Plain is the nose on a face; we need mention no one.’

A’r anadl oll a’r w͡yneb^[2]

Fal aroglau si̯opau Si̯êb.—D.G., 330.

‘And all the breath and face like the perfume of the shops of Cheapside.’ See also g. 49.

Os w͡yneb^[2] i̯arll sy ’n y bedd,

I̯arll a aned erllynedd.—D.N., c. i 161.

‘If an earl’s face is in the grave, an earl was born last year.’

So always in the Bible; see fy w͡yneb^[3] Gen. xliii 3, Ex. xxxiii 20, Lev. xvii 10, etc.; eu hw͡ynebau,^[3] Gen. xlii 6, etc. An early indication of the mispronunciation is found in y wynebeu, b.cw. (1703), p. 7, which should be yr w͡ynebeu, but has not yet become y gw̯ynebeu.

v. Final wy is always the falling diphthong; as pwɥ ‘who?’ Conw͡y, Myfanw͡y, arlw͡y ‘a spread’, dirw͡y ‘fine’, llỿw͡y ‘beautiful’,

1.  Pronounce the wyn of wyneb so that it rhymes with the wyn of ddŵɥn, trŵɥn as the cynghanedd lusg demands.
2.  Not a’r gwyneb, os gwyneb, the g being ruled out by the cynghanedd.
3.  Not fy ngwyneb, eu gwynebau.

AMBIGUOUS GROUPS

(delwedd 1475) (tudalen 45)

§ 38

AMBIGUOUS GROUPS

45

Taw͡y; also medial wy followed by a vowel, as mw͡yar ‘blackberries’, gw͡yar ‘gore’.

Tlawd a ŵyr talu dirw͡y:

Ni thelir math Lowri mŵy.—T.A., a 14879/20.

‘The poor are accustomed to pay forfeit; they will never more forfeit such a one as Lowri.’

But in the Ml. 2nd sg. pres. ind. of verbs with w̯ stems, as in gelw̯ɥ ‘thou callest’, kedw̯ɥ ‘thou keepest’ § 173 iii (1), Mn. W. gelw̯i, cedw̯i, the diphthong is of course the rising one.

vi. When a word has wy in the last syllable and a in the penult, the wy is the falling diphthong; thus arw͡ydd ‘sign’, arglw͡ydd ‘lord’, annw͡yd ‘cold’, addw͡yn D.G. 355 ‘gentle’, cannw͡yll ‘candle’, gwanw͡yn ‘spring’, cadw͡yn ‘chain’, annw͡yl ‘dear’; aw͡yr ‘air’, aw͡ydd ‘desire’, see x below. Except in compounds, such as tanw̯ɥdd ‘firewood’, etc.; see § 83 iii.

Rhaid i’r gwan ddal y gannw͡yll

I’r dewr i wneuthur i dŵɥll.—E.P. 235.

‘The weak must hold the candle for the bold to do his deceit.’

Oer gennych eira gwanw͡yn:

Oerach yw ’myd er ỿch mŵɥn.—T.A., c. i 342.

‘Cold you deem the snow of spring: colder is my plight because of you.’ See D.G. 321, 408, 525.

Aur a gâd yn ddwɥ gadw͡yn,

A’i roddi’n faich i’r ddyn fŵɥn.—D.G. 64.

‘Gold was brought in two chains, and laid as a burden on the gentle maiden.’ See also g. 250.

Dyfynnodd i’w dai f’ annw͡yl—

Da o le mae ’n dala i ŵɥl.—H.D., p 99/430

‘He has summoned to His mansions my dear one—it is a good place where he is keeping his holiday.’ See § 54 i (3).

vii. wy is the falling diphthong when it is derived from Kelt. ei corresponding to Irish īa or ē, as pŵɥll ‘thought’, Ir. cīall, gŵɥdd ‘goose’, Ir. gēd, gw͡ystl ‘pledge’, Ir. gīall, etc.; or when it is derived from Latin ē, ig or ī, as in rhŵɥd ‘net’ from rēte, cŵɥr ‘wax’ from cēra, eglw͡ys ‘church’ from ecclēsia, egw͡yddor ‘alphabet’ from ābēcēdārium, gwenw͡yn ‘poison’ from venēnum, dŵɥs ‘intense’ from dēnsus, sŵɥn ‘charm’ from signum; sỿ́nnw͡yr ‘sense’ from sentīre. Rule vi may be verified in many words

(delwedd 1476) (tudalen 46)

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PHONOLOGY

§ 38

by applying the test of derivation; e. g. cannw͡yll from candēla, cadw͡yn from catēna,^[1] parádw͡ys from paradīsus.

Geiriau da a gwŷr i’w dŵɥn

A ddinistr y ddau wenw͡yn.—D.I.D., f. 11.

‘Good words and men to bring them will destroy the two poisons.’

Y doeth ni ddywaid a ŵɥr;

Nid o sôn’ y daw synnw͡yr.—G.I.H., g. 144.

‘The wise does not say what he knows; it is not from talk that sense comes.’ See also g. 111, 175, 234, 296.

viii. wy is the falling diphthong in the substantival terminations ‑rw͡ydd ‘‑ness’, ‑w͡ys ‘‑ians’, and in the verbal terminations ‑w͡yf, ‑w͡ys, ‑w͡yd, but is the rising one in ‑w̯ɥr pl. of ‑wr ‘‑er’.

The ending ‑w͡ys ‘‑ians’ added to names of places is probably derived from the Latin ‑ēnses.

Hyd Iork y bu hydref dŵɥs,

A’r gwanwɥn ar y Gwennw͡ys.—L.G.C. 421.

‘As far as York it has been a very autumn, while it was spring to the men of Gwent.’

ix. The following words may be mentioned as those most commonly mispronounced: wy is the falling diphthong in cerw͡yn ‘vat’, disgw͡yl ‘look, expect’, Gw͡ynedd ‘Venedotia’, Gw͡yndɥd, id., morw͡yn ‘maiden’, terw͡yn ‘fervent’; it is the rising diphthong in oherw̯ɥdd ‘because of’, cychw̯ɥn ‘rise, start’, erchw̯ɥn ‘protector, [bed]-side’, dedw̯ɥdd ‘happy’. See terw͡yn / gŵyn / brŵyn r.p. 1206; cerw͡yn / coll-lw͡yn D.G. 347.

Y ferch addfw͡yn o W͡ynedd,

Sy ymysg osai a medd.—D.G. 314.

‘The gentle maid of Gwynedd, who lives in the midst of wine and mead.’ See also L.G.C. 219.

Mi a euraf bob morw͡yn

O eiriau maiol er i mŵɥn.—D.G. 281.

‘I will gild every maiden with words of praise for her sake.’ See also D.G. 126, 236, 297, 298, 356, and g. 119, 229, 243.

Ar i farch yr âi f’ erchw̯ɥn

Yn y llu ddoe’n llew o ddŷn.—T.A. g. 234.

1.  Pughe, deriving cadwyn from cadw̯, made it cadw̯yn, and asserted that it was masculine. He then inferred a fem. cadw̯en, which (as cadwyn is fem.) was unfortunately adopted by many 19th cent. writers. But no one has had the courage to write cadwenni for the pl. cadwyni. There is an old word cadw̯en or cadw̯ent which means ‘a battle’, from cad.

(delwedd 1477) (tudalen 47)

§ 39

AMBIGUOUS GROUPS

47

‘On his steed went my protector in the host yesterday, a man like a lion.’ See also L.G.C. 143, D.G. 510.

The word kyfrw̯ɥs ‘shrewd’ (rhyming with henwerɥs and ynɥs in b.t. 78, and with prisc ≡ prys and chuis ≡ chw̯ŷs in b.b. 57) is now sounded kyfrw͡ys on account of the difficulty of the consonantal group frw̯. The word celw̯ɥdd has undoubtedly the rising diphthong; see kelw̯ɥẟ / kynnɥẟ r.p. 1223, cf. 1251, and D.G. 338; probably gŵɥdd / gelwydd, D.G. 256, is a misreading, but this form occurs in the 16th cent., see f. 36.

x. w͡y after a vowel has generally been changed to w̯ɥ, except in verbal terminations. Thus aw͡yr / hŵɥr / llŵɥr r.p. 1029, and generally so rhymed, see D.G. 395, 416, is now pronounced aw̯ɥr, and the rhyme with ɥr occurs already in the 13th cent.: aw̯ɥr / sɥr b.t. 23, G.Y.C. r.p. 1418. Similarly aw͡yẟ / rŵɥẟ / arw͡yẟ r.p. 1180 is later a-w̯ɥdd. Pow͡ys L.G.C. 381 is pronounced Pow̯ɥs § 192 ii (2); tyw͡yll as in tywill / canvill b.b. 30, tyw͡yll / gannw͡yll / pw͡yll r.p. 1045, tyw͡yll / amw͡yll D.G. 267, tŵɥll / tyw͡yll do. 117, 283 is now tỿw̯ɥll, and already in D.G. rhymes with hyll 71, 285, 421, and with cyll 173, 185; ew͡yn r.p. 1036, later ew̯ɥn ‘foam’. On the other hand glanhā́-w͡yd ‘was cleansed’ and all similar inflected forms are still so pronounced.

Lat. ăvĭdus would have given *ew̯ydd in Welsh; aw̯ɥdd cannot be derived from it, see § 76 iii, iv.

Accentuation.

§ 39. i. In a polysyllabic word, one syllable is always pronounced with more emphasis than the others; this is called the syllable bearing the principal accent, or, simply, the accented syllable. In Welsh the accent is a stress accent.

A syllable may be emphasized either by raising the tone of voice or by a more forcible utterance. The two things may go together; but speakers of various languages unconsciously adopt one or the other as their principle of accentuation. The first produces musical or pitch accent, the second produces expiratory or stress accent. In Pr. Aryan the accent before the dispersion is believed to have been predominantly pitch, though vowel gradation, § 63, points to the working of a strong stress accent. In Keltic, as in Italic and Germanic, the accent became predominantly stress, and has remained so, though its position has varied greatly.

☞ The syllable bearing the principal accent is denoted by an acute accent ´ placed above its vowel.

ii. The remaining syllables of the word are also pronounced with varying emphasis, but this may generally be disregarded, and they may all be considered as unaccented syllables. In

(delwedd 1478) (tudalen 48)

48

PHONOLOGY

§ 40

some cases, however, one of them may attain a decided prominence in comparison with the others; such a syllable may be said to bear a secondary accent.

☞ The vowel of the syllable bearing the secondary accent is denoted where necessary by the grave accent `.

iii. Most monosyllables are stressed, but many frequently-recurring monosyllables bear no stress, but are pronounced in conjunction with another word. These are proclitics, which precede the accented word, and enclitics, which follow it.

The Welsh proclitics are the article y, yr, the prefixed pronouns fy, dy, etc., which are always unstressed. Usually also the relatives a, yẟ, yr, y, the negative, interrogative and affirmative particles, most conjunctions as the a in bara a chaws ‘bread and cheese’, and often prepositions as the rhag in rhag ofn ‘for fear’.

The Welsh enclitics are the auxiliary pronouns i, di, etc. They are often written in mss. where they do not count in the metre, as in Arduireaue tri b.b. 36 (Arẟwyrëaf-i drf) for Arddwyreaf dri (5 syll.) ‘I will exalt Three’. These may however be accented for emphasis.

§ 40. i. In Mn. W. all polysyllables, with a few exceptions named in § 41, are accented on the penult; as cá|naf ‘I sing., cán|i̯ad ‘a song’, can|i̯á|dau ‘songs’.

ii. The position of the accent was certainly the same in the Late Ml. period. This is proved by the fact that in the 14th cent. the cynghanedd was fully developed in its modern form in which the penultimate accent plays an important part, ZfCP. iv 123 ff.

iii. (1) But certain vowel values point to a period when the accent fell generally on the ultima. The evidence seems to show that this was the case in O. W., and that the transition took place in the Early Ml. W. period.

(2) The clear sound ɥ occurs in the ultima only; the obscure sound ỿ, which must have been the sound when unaccented, occurs in all other syllables. Hence the ultima must at one time have borne the accent. In monosyllables which have always been unaccented such as the article yr, y, the sound is ỿ; but in those which have always been accented, such as dyẟ ‘day’, it is ɥ. There has been no shifting of the accent in ỿ dɥ̄́ẟ ‘the day’, which therefore preserves the accentuation that resulted in the vowel sequence ỿ…ɥ. Hence a word like mỿ́nɥẟ, which contains this sequence, must once have been accented *mỿnɥ̄́ẟ.

(delwedd 1479) (tudalen 49)

§ 41

ACCENTUATION

49

Similarly Brit. ŭ remains (written w) in the ultima; but appears as ỿ in other syllables, § 66 i;—ȩi remained and became ai in the ult., but became ẹi giving ei (≡ əi) in the penult, § 79;—Brit. ā is aw in the ult., o in the penult, § 71 i;—uw in the ult. is u in the penult, § 77 x; from i̯ü we find ü in the ult. and monosyllables, the easier i in the penult, § 36 ii.

(3) In one or two words the vowel of the old penult has dropped since the separation of W. and Bret.; thus W. crȳ́ẟ ‘shoemaker’ < *cerȳ́ẟ < Brit. *kar(p)íi̯ō: Bret. kere, § 86 i (5);—W. ysbryd < *spryd < *spyrýd < Lat. spiritus: Bret. spered.

On the other hand in some words an intrusive vowel developed before the accented syllable; Ml. W. dyly ‘deserves, owes’ comes through *dylý < *dlyᵹ, § 199 ii (2); the ỿ spread from this to other forms of the verb.—Ml. W. taraw ‘to strike’, tereu ‘strikes’ < *taráw, *tereu < *traw, *treu. The vowel did not spread from these to trawaf; the late Mn. tarawaf is an artificial lit. form, § 202 i (3).

(4) The accent in ýsgol, ýstrad, etc., now falls on a syllable that at one time had no existence. It is obvious that the shifting took place after the introduction of the prosthetic vowel. There is no evidence of that vowel in O. W. In the earliest Ml. W. we find Istrat and Strat, § 23 ii. The latter may be an archaic spelling, but it seems to show that the accent was on the a. We may therefore infer that the transition took place in the Early Ml. period. In some words the prosthetic vowel was never firmly established; and the accent remains in its original position in these, § 41 i.

iv. In Brit. the accent was apparently free as in Pr. Ar. As unaccented ā was shortened, it is seen that in *brā́teres (> broder) the accent was on the ante-penult; as ā which remained accented gives aw, the accent to give o must have shifted to the er in O. W., according to the general rule at that period. By the second shifting it went back to its original position, the new penult. Two shiftings must be assumed to explain such a form as ýsbryd, which involves a shifting from *(y)sprýd, which in turn implies a shifting from spírit-us.—It will be seen in the following pages that British cannot have shared the fixed initial accentuation of Goidelic.

§ 41. In some words in Mn. W. the accent falls on the ultima. These are

i. A few disyllables in which the first syllable is (1) ỿs- or (2) ỿm‑; as (1) ysgrī́n ‘shrine, coffin’, § 23 ii, ystrŷd ‘street’, ysgrḗch ‘screech’, ystṓr ‘store’; (2) ymwḗl ‘do thou visit’, ymā́d ‘do thou leave’. But most words with these initial syllables are accented regularly, as ýsgol ‘school’, ýsbryd ‘spirit’, ýsgwyd ‘to shake’, ýmdaith ‘journey’, ýmgudd D.G. 374 ‘hides’. In some cases we have both accentuations, see ýmwel below;

RHAN NESAF: 2646e

Mae rhan o’r trawsysgriad wedi ei cymeryd oddiar ar duladen Wikisource “A Welsh Grammar, Historical and Comparative”

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xxxxx

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 / 
MACRON + ACEN DDYRCHAFEDIG: Ā̀ ā̀ , Ḗ ḗ, Ī́ ī́ , Ṓ ṓ , Ū́ ū́, (w), Ȳ́ ȳ́
MACRON + ACEN DDISGYNEDIG: Ǟ ǟ , Ḕ ḕ, Ī̀ ī̀, Ṑ ṑ, Ū̀ ū̀, (w), Ȳ̀ ȳ̀
MACRON ISOD: A̱ a̱ , E̱ e̱ , I̱ i̱ , O̱ o̱, U̱ u̱, (w), Y̱ y̱
BREF: ă Ă / ĕ Ĕ / ĭ Ĭ / ŏ Ŏ / ŭ Ŭ / B5236:  B5237: 
BREF GWRTHDRO ISOD: i̯, u̯
CROMFACHAU: ⟨ ⟩ deiamwnt
A’I PHEN I LAWR: ∀, ә, ɐ (u+0250) https: //text-symbols.com/upside-down/
…..
…..
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
…..
…..
Hwngarwmlawt: A̋ a̋
gyn aith δ δ
…..
…..
ә ʌ ẃ ă ĕ ĭ ŏ ŭ ẅ ẃ ẁ ŵ ŷ ỳ

Ә Ʌ Ẃ Ă Ĕ Ĭ Ŏ Ŭ Ẅ Ẃ Ẁ Ẁ Ŵ Ŷ Ỳ Ỳ
…..
….

Hwngarwmlawt: A̋ a̋
gyn aith δ δ
…..
…..
ʌ ag acen ddyrchafedig / ʌ with acute accent: ʌ́

Ə́ ə́	Shwa ag acen ddyrchafedig Xwa amb accent agut Schwa with acute
Ə́Ә ə́ә	DejaVu Serif

…..
wikipedia, 
scriptsource.[]org
https://[ ]en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ǣ
…..
Y TUDALEN HWN /THIS PAGE / AQUESTA PÀGINA:
http:// []www. []kimkat.org/amryw/1_gramadeg_2_1913_jmj_welsh_grammar_02_1-49_2645e,htm

Adolygiadau diweddaraf: Dÿdd Mawrth 2005-11-20; Dÿdd Mercher 2007-04-11

Sumbolau arbennig: ŷ ŵ

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