Page:Morris-Jones Welsh Grammar 0170.png

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
170
PHONOLOGY
§ 106
Gwledd echdoe a doe’n i dy,
Gwledd cann hannedd cyn hynny.—G.Gl. m 146/278.

‘A feast yesterday and the day before in his house, the feast of a hundred dwellings before that.’

Llyfr Ofydd a fydd i ferch,
Ag yn hwn ugain hannerch.—B.Br., Ỻ.H. ii 99.

‘The maid shall have a book of Ovid, and in it a hundred greetings.’

Final ‑ŋc was often mutated in Ml. W. where the tenuis was generally retained, and survives in Mn. W.; e.g. ceing w.m. 108, Mn. W. cainc ‘branch’. ŋc is often written ngc (cf. § 18 iii), but nc is adequate and unambiguous, as nk in Eng. bank.

(3) Medial nt, etc. remain when originally followed by h as in cyntedd ‘porch’ for *cynt-heẟ < *kintu-sed- § 63 ii; cyntaf ‘first’ < *cynt-haf < *kint-isamos; and in newer formations, as plentyn ‘child’ from plant, llanciau ‘lads’, sg. llanc. Some vocables, with mutation in Ml. W., are re-formed without mutation in Mn. W., as amranneu w.m. 41, amrantau Job xvi 16; seinnẏeu § 128 ii, Mn. W. seintiau ‘saints’; gwynnoeẟ Ỻ.A. 5, gwyntoedd Matt. vii 25; heinẏeu Ỻ.A. 123, heintiau Luc xxi 11; ceig̃heu, ceingeu Ỻ.A. 144, ceingciau Can. vii 8.

(4) The nasal mutation of the tenues does not date from the Brit. period, for the nasal endings of *nouan ‘nine’, *dekan ‘ten’, etc., while they mutated initial mediae, did not mutate initial p, t, k; thus naw cant ‘900’, deg pwys ‘10 lbs.’ The mutation of the tenues was caused by nasals which survived the loss of the Brit. endings; it takes place after the prefixes an‑, cyn‑, and in other cases where mp, nt, ŋk occurred medially.

There is no trace in O. W. of an wnmutated media; we find e.g. am- for Mn. W. am- < *m̥bi‑, scribenn m.c. < Lat. scrībend‑, crunn- m.c. ‘round’ (: Ir. cruind), etc., but no mb, nd. But the tenues are found unmutated, as in tantou, Mn. W. tannau, sometimes mutated as in bronannou m.c., pl. of breuant ‘windpipe’. In pimphet ox. ‘fifth’, hanther ox. ‘half’ is perhaps reflected the transition stage in which, as the p and t were disappearing, the h was becoming more noticeable; see § 107 v (1). In any case it is safe to conclude that this mutation came about in the O. W. period.

In Ml. W. the tenuis is mutated, as in breenhin b.b. 75, § 103 ii (1), ag̃heu, ag̃hen b.b. 23, emen etc. § 24 i. Though