- Na wrthod, ferch, dy berchi;
- Na phraw ymadaw â mi.—D.G. 108; see 238, 240.
‘Refuse not, lady, to be honoured; do not try to leave me.’
It was lost after iw̯ in Rhiwabon ‘Ruabon’ for r͑iw vabon r.b. 1066, and after w in tw ‘growth’, dŵr ‘water’, reappearing in tỿfu ‘to grow’, dỿfroedd ‘waters’, in which w is mutated to ỿ. It disappeared regularly after u, as in plu ‘feathers’ sg. pluen < Lat. plūma;—cu ‘dear’, O.W. cum (m ≡ ṽ), Corn. cuf, Bret. kuñ, kuñv, Ir. cōim < *koi‑m‑, √k̑ei-: Skr. s̑éva‑ḥ ‘dear’ < *k̑ei-u̯‑os, Lat. cīvis;—du ‘black’, Corn. duv, Ir. dub < *dhubh‑, √dheubh‑: Gk. τυφλός;—so in derivatives cu-dab, cu-ed, du-ach, etc.
f being originally bilabial, § 19 ii (4), when it followed w̯, w or u (≡ ü), it was in effect little more than the narrowing of the lip-rounding at the end of the syllable, and so came to be disregarded. For a similar reason, when f followed m, it was also lost or assimilated, as in mámaeth for *mám-faeth ‘foster-mother’; im ’y hun for im fy hun ‘for myself’.
- Ni byddai bwn, heb ddau bâr,
- Im ’y hunan o’m heiniar.—I.D. tr. 138; cf. E.P. 277.
‘Without two pairs [of oxen] there would not be [even] a burden for myself of my crop.’ It remained in cam-fa ‘stile’ (Gwyn. dial. camẟa, Dyfed canfa by dissim.).
(2) Initial f often disappears in fy ‘my’, especially in poetry, the following nasal mutation showing that ’ỿ means ‘my’ not ‘the’; as yg̃korn (≡ ’y nghorn) ym neẟeir b.t. 35 ‘my horn in my hand’; ’Y mam r.m. 194, l. 5 ‘my mother’ (‘the mother’ is y fam); so ’Y myd wen § 136 iii, ’y mun D.G. 17 ‘my girl’, ’y nghefn, ’y mraint, do. 274, etc.—It is lost in vab ‘son’ in patronymics, as Hywel ab Einion; in ychydig for fychydig, rad. bychydig.
- Déuaf—myfi yw d’ ë́os—
- Dïau, ’ỿ nŷn, o daw nos.—D.G. 114.
‘I will come—[for] I am thy nightingale—assuredly, my lady, if night comes.’
(3) Medial f drops after an explosive, when followed by a rounded vowel or a liquid, as in testun ‘text’ for *testfun < Lat. testimōnium. Hence in compounds, where it is the initial of the second element, it is often lost, as in Bod-órgan for *Bod Forgan (‘Morgan’s dwelling’), Bod-ẃrog for *Bod Fwrog, etc.; Bendigéidran § 45 i (2) for Bendigéid-Vran (Bendigeitvran, first written without the v in r.m. 26, and v inserted above the line). Between a consonant and liquid it dropped early in some cases as in yr llynedd, Gwenlliant § 111 i (1) and Hydref do. vii (1). Rarely before an explosive, as in agwyẟawr for *afgwyẟawr § 74 i (1).
(4) Final fn in unaccented syllables is generally reduced to n, especially after rounded vowels, as in eon for eofn ‘fearless’ § 156 in 2
