iv. In Mn. W. i̯ is written i; but often j in the 18th cent., see e.g. Llyfryddiaeth 1713, 4; 1748, 4, 8; 1749, 2.
v. Voiceless i̯ occurs where the word or syllable preceding i̯ causes aspiration, and is written hi (also hy in Ml. W.), as ẏ hiarllaeth R.M. 178 ‘her earldom’, kennhẏadu Ỻ.A. 79 ‘to consent’.
If pronounced tensely hi̯ becomes the palatal spirant χ̑ as in the German ich, but this does not occur in Welsh: hi̯ remains a voiceless semi-vowel. Cf. § 17 iii.
§ 26. i. Consonantal w̯ is written gu in O. W. as in petguar ox. ≡ pedw̯ar ‘four’. See § 112 ii (1).
ii. In Early Ml. W. w̯ is represented by u, v, and w; in Late Ml. W. by w and ỽ. Its representation is the same as that of the vowel w; see § 14 ii (2). In Mn. W. it is written w.
The letter w sometimes appears in the form uu, as in keleuuet a.l. i 40 (≡ cɏlỿwed) ‘to hear’.
iii. Initial w̯- had become gw̯- in the Early Welsh period; see § 112 ii (1); but it is w̯- under the soft mutation, thus gw̯allt ‘hair,’ dỿ wallt ‘thy hair’.
Initial gw̯ may come before l, r or n, as in gw̯lad ‘country’, gw̯raig ‘wife’, gw̯nâf ‘I do’, each one syllable. The initial combinations are practically gl, gr or gn pronounced with rounded lips, the rounding taking place simultaneously with the formation of the g, so that the off-glide of the g is heard as w̯. When the g is mutated away the initial is l, r or n with w̯ as an on-glide; thus dỿ w̯lad ‘thy country’ sounds like dỿw̯ lā́d, except that the syllabic division is dỿ | w̯lā́d.
iv. In Ml. and Early Mn. W. final w after a consonant was consonantal; see § 42. Now the w is made syllabic.
The exceptions to the rule were forms in which ‑w represents earlier ‑w͡y, as hwnnw; Mn. W. acw, Early Ml. W. raccw, Ml. W. racko; assw, gwrw, banw § 78 i (2). It may have been made consonantal in the last three by analogy, coming after s, r, single n.
v. Medial w̯ is liable to interchange with f; thus cawod, cafod ‘shower’; cyfoeth, cywaeth § 34 iv; diawl ‘devil’ for *diafl. The old verbal noun from lliw ‘colour’ is llifo ‘to dye’, a newer formation is lliwio ‘to colour’. The reason for the interchange is that f was once a bilabial, ƀ, § 19 ii (4), and so, very similar to w̯, being in effect w̯ with friction of the breath at the lips instead of at the back.
vi. (1) Voiceless w̯, by being pronounced tensely, has become
