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§ 111
LATER CONSONANT CHANGES
181

‘up’ the final ‑ẟ was lost early, though it is sometimes found written in Ml. W., as kyvodi ẏ vynyẟ Ỻ.A. 111, and survives to this day in parts of Dyfed. With its , i fyny lost all trace of its original signification, as seen in the unconscious repetition in ẏ vyny ẏ vynyẟ Oliver r.p. 1280 ‘up to Mount Olivet’. The final ‑ẟ of eisteẟ also disappeared very early; it is eiste in the b.b. and b.ch. So in w.m., e.g. 4 times in col. 449, in each case changed to eisteẟ in r.m. 293–4. The ‑ẟ is deduced from eisteẟaf, etc., and its re-insertion finally is artificial; it is not sounded in eiste in the spoken language. Final ‑ẟ also disappeared in hwnnw etc. § 78 i (1).

v. (1) The final ‑r of the article yr was lost before a consonant after the O. W. period; see § 114 iii. So ‑r after a consonant in brawd § 113 i (1).

(2) Final ‑nn was sometimes lost in unaccented syllables; as cyfa ‘whole’, Ml. W. kyfa r.p. 1285 for cyfan(n), cf. kyfannu w.m. 129; yma ‘here’ for yman(n) § 220 ii (11); (e)felly ‘so’ < *hefel hynu ‘like this’, cf. fell hýnn § 215 iv (2); Ml. W. ky- for kynn ‘as’ before the eqtv. § 147 iv (4); ‑fa for ‑fann § 143 iii (16). The tendency was arrested, and ‑nn generally remains; it had not gone far in kynn before it was checked, and ‑n(n) was restored. The loss also occurs in Corn. and Bret., so that it must be referred to an early peculiarity in the pronunciation of ‑nn.

Provection.

§ 111. i. (1) When n or r came before a liquid after the loss of an intervening vowel, the liquid became voiceless; thus nl > nll; rl > rll; nr > nrh; rr > rrh. Examples: gwinllan ‘vineyard’ < *gwin-lann < *vīno-landā; hirllaes ‘long trailing’ for *hir-laes; penrhyn ‘promontory’ for *penn-ryn; an-rheg § 156 ii (1); Henllan, Henllys, etc. Also in combinations in which no vowel had intervened, as gôr-!lanw̯ ‘high tide’, an-llygredig ‘incorruptible’. So initially: yn llawn for yn lawn ‘full’; yn rhad, mor llawn, mor rhad (yn and mor generally cause lenition of adjectives) ; so pur llawn ‘very full’; hēn llew Job iv 11 (1620), hēn llys p 121/35 r.

This change had taken place before the loss of and as described in § 110, and did not take place later. So where or originally stood between the sounds it did not occur. Thus we have Cýn-las < *Cyn-ᵹlas < Cuno-glasos; tôr-Ian ‘brink’ < *torr-ᵹlann ‘broken bank’; Hâr-lech < Harẟ-lech w.m. 38; cór-lan ‘fold’ < *corẟ-lann. Thus yn Iân, mor Iân from glân ‘clean, fair’; and while we have y llăn ‘the hamlet’ from *yr lann from llann ‘enclosure’, we have y Iăn ‘the bank’ from *yr ᵹlann from glann ‘bank’, both nouns being fem. But f appears in some cases to have dropped out early enough to allow of the change; as in y llynedd more fully yr llynedd for *yr flyneẟ; Gwenllïan < *gwenn-flïant.

(2) l was palatalized and became ll in two positions: (α) after Brit.