- Och imi! pe marw chwemwy,
- O bydd i math mewn bedd mwy.—D. N., f.n. 90, c.c. 267.
‘Woe is me! though six times more died, [I doubt] if her like will ever more be in a grave.’
In bore for more we may have dissim., as in mr- > br‑.
iii. In O. W. softened consonants were represented by the corresponding radicals; see § 18 i, § 19 i. It would be wrong to conclude from this that the softening had not then taken place, for its occurrence initially is due in almost every case to a vocalic ending which was then already lost. The difference between the radical m in un march and the soft f in un fam cannot be accounted for if assumed to have taken place since the O. W. period when ‘one’ was un; it must be referred to the Brit. m. *oinos, f. *oinā. The O. W. spelling was doubtless a survival from the time when the mutated consonant could still be regarded as a debased pronunciation of the radical. On the Ml. final tenues see § 111 v.
§ 104. i. The mutable consonants, p, t, k, b, d, g, m normally underwent the soft mutation between a vowel and a sonant; thus pr > br in W. Ebrill < Lat. Aprīlis; W. go-bryn-af ‘I merit’ < Brit. *u̯o-prinami, √qu̯rei̯ā- § 201 i (4);—pl > bl in W. pobl < Lat. pop’lus;—tn > dn in W. edn ‘bird’ < *pet-no- § 86 i;—tu̯ > dw in W. pedwar < Brit. *petu̯ares § 63 vii (4);—kr > gr in W. gogr, gwagr ‘sieve’ < *u̯o‑kr‑, √qerēi̯‑: Lat. crībrum;—br > fr in W. dwfr ‘water’ § 90;—bn > fn in W. dwfn ‘deep’ ib.; W. cefn ‘back’ < *kebn‑: Gaul. Cebenna ‘les Cévennes’ (*qeb- allied to *qamb/p- § 106 ii (1));—dm > ẟf, see iv (2).
ii. (1) g before l, r, n gave ᵹ̑, which became i̯ forming a diphthong with the preceding vowel. The Mn. developments are as follows: ag > ae; eg > ei or ai; ig > i; og > oe; ug > w͡y; āg > eu or au; īg > i. Thus W. aer ‘battle’, Ir. ār ‘slaughter’ < *agr‑: Gk. ἄγρᾱ;—W. draen ‘thorn’ < *dragn- < *dhrₑghn‑: Gk. τρέχνος;—W. tail ‘manure’ < *tegl- § 35 ii (3), √(s)theɡ- ‘cover’ § 92 i, cf. gwrtaith ‘manure’ < *u̯er-tekt‑;—W. oen ‘lamb’, Ir. ūan < *ognos § 65 ii (2); W. oer ‘cold’, Ir. ūar < *ogr‑: Gaul. (Seq.) Ogron… name of a month;—W. annwyl § 102 iv (1);—
