'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.
