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.
