a rounded ch, written chw. It is the result of pronouncing voiceless w̯ with the mouth-passage narrowed at the back so as to produce audible friction, which is heard as ch (χ) accompanying the w̯. In S.W. dialects the loose voiceless w̯ (written wh or hw) prevails initially. In O.W., in juv. and m.c., chw̯i ‘you’ appears as hui; later this word was everywhere chw̯i, the ch being still heard even in S.W. (though now unrounded in this word, thus chi). Initial chw prevails in Ml. W. and later, as chuerv b.b. 83, 84 ≡ chw̯erw̯ ‘bitter’, chuec do. 84 ‘sweet’, chuant do. 34 ‘lust’; chwythu w.m. 47 ‘to blow’, chwaer do. 41 ‘sister’, chwedɏl do. 42, r.m. 29 ‘tale’, chwythat Ỻ.A. 9 ‘breath’, chwant do. 11 ‘lust’, and so generally in Mn. W.; but wh frequently occurs in Ml. mss. and sometimes in Early Mn. poets, as whechet Ỻ.A. 147 ‘sixth’, whennychu do. 149 ‘to desire’, whaer r.m. 28, whedl g. 147.
(2) Initial rounded ch is heard with w̯ as an off-glide, as in chw̯aer; final rounded ch has w̯ as an on-glide, as in iwch ‘to you’, ewch ‘go ye’. In the latter case the sound is ch in all the dialects, not h.
(3) Initial chw sometimes interchanges with gw̯; as Gware dy chware r.m. 154 ‘play thy game’, chwith, gwith do. 301 ‘sinister’; this is due to the variability of original initial s‑, § 101 ii (1); *su̯- > chw̯‑; *u̯- > gw‑. ŋghw̯ for chw̯ is due to a preceding n (nhw̯ > ŋhw̯), as chw̯aneg, anghw̯aneg ‘more’; yn chwaethach r.m. 7 yg̃hwaethach do. 85, 108 ‘rather’.
(4) Initial chw̯ has often a prosthetic ỿ‑, as ỿchwaneg ‘more’, ychwanegu w.m. 44 ‘to add’.
(5) Final rounded ‑ch, of whatever origin, becomes unrounded if the syllable is unaccented; thus welewch w.m. 50 ‘ye saw’ is welech. But ‑ɥw̯ch gave ‑wch, as in cerwch ‘ye love’ for *cerɥw̯ch, see § 173 viii; so peswch for *pesɥwch: pas, § 201 iii (2). The form ydych is due to the analogy of ydym; so Late Mn. W. gennych after the 1st pl. for Ml. and Early Mn. gennwch.
Note.
Transcription.—By means of the devices mentioned in the above sections (the use of ẟ, g̃, r͑, etc.) the forms of Late Ml. W. can generally be transcribed so as to indicate the approximate sound while preserving the exact spelling of the ms. But, as we have seen, the orthography of O. and Early Ml. W. is so irregular that no such plan is possible. Accordingly, for these periods, the form in the ms. is given, followed, where necessary, by a transcription introduced by the sign ≡, giving the probable sound in modern characters.
The works of Early Mn. poets are often found in late mss. and
