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—
