in all cases; its vowel then became indistinct, and was ultimately lost, with the final consonant, except when the latter was a sonant. Brit. final ‑l is unknown, and ‑m had become ‑n; the only final sonants therefore were ‑r and ‑n. When the syllable ended in one of these it seems to have become *‑r̥ or *‑n̥, which became non-syllabic. Final ‑r remained, as in W. chwaer < Brit. *su̯esīr < *su̯esōr, § 75 vii (2); W. ymherawdr < Lat. imperātor; but in common words it disappeared after a consonant in W., as in brawd ‘brother’ for *brawdr (= Bret. breur) < Brit. *brāter. Final ‑n nasalized a following initial media § 106 ii (2), and was lost before other initial consonants. In the comparative it attached itself to the following o, as in glanach no ‘cleaner than’ for *glanachn o § 147 iv (3). It survived after a vowel in namen § 78 ii (1), cymerwn § 180 iii (1).
A sonant coining before the final vowel also remained, as in ffenestr < Lat. fenestra, perigl < Lat. perīc’lum; later this was liable to drop where the new ultima was unaccented § 16 v (3), and probably the vacillation between liquid and zero accounts for the development of excrescent liquids in some words: tymestl < Lat. tempestas, achreawdɏr § 104 iii (2).
(2) The vocalic ending of the first element of a compound, § 155 ii (1), became an obscure vowel, and disappeared; thus Brit. Maglo-cunos > W. Maelgwn; Brit. *Katu-mannos > W. Cadfan; Brit. Mori-dǖnon > W. Myrddin; Lat. bene-dictio > W. bendith. Similarly the vowel before the suffixes ‑tāt‑, ‑tūt‑, ‑tero‑, etc., as ciwdod < Lat. acc. cīvitātem, gwendid ‘weakness’ < Brit. acc. *u̯anno-tǖtan; and the ‑i- in the spv. suffix *‑isamos, as tecaf ‘fairest’ for *teghaf < *tek-isamos. In many words of four or more syllables the vowel of the second syllable was elided, as Ml. W. agwyẟawr < Lat. ābēcēdārium, meitin < mātūtīnum, Saesneg < *Saxonikā, etc. Stems in ‑ā- had ‑o- in composition; thus Kelt. *teutā ‘people’ was Teuto- in compounds; and ā̆ in the second syllable generally remains in nouns, as in Caradog < Brit. Caratā́cos, ffnrfafen < Lat. firmāmentum. But in many formations ‑a- in the ante-penult was lost, as in Ml. W. karhont < *karasonti § 183 ii (1), and the suff. ‑gar < *‑ākaros § 153 (8).
