ii. iw in the ultima followed by a consonant is i̯w, as i̯wrch ‘stag’, rhodi̯wch ‘walk ye’, cofi̯wn ‘we remember’, wỿrddi̯wn ‘a myriad’. The only exceptions are the Mn. forms iw̯ch for Ml. ɥw̯ch ‘to you’, and niw̯l for Ml. nɥwl § 77 v, § 90.
The Demetian disyllabic ni|wl (D.D. s.v., D.G. 150 nī́-wl / nā́-wyr) is < *niw̯wl < *niw̯ɏl < nɥwl with irregular epenthetic vowel § 16 v (3) (ỿ > w after w̯ § 66 ii (2)). Nifwl existed beside *niw̯wl. But the standard form appears to be a monosyllable (D.G. 70 níw̯l / nṓs); and all the derivatives are from niw̯l‑, as niwliog or niwlog ‘misty’, niwlen ‘a veil of mist’.
Initial i̯ŵ became *ü̯ŵ and then üw̯ in uwd ‘porridge’ < Ml. W. iwt (≡ i̯ŵd) r.b. 1061, Bret. iot; but i̯wrch remained because it is easier so than if another consonant were added to the group at the end of the syllable.
iii. In all other cases iw is iw̯; thus (1) finally, as in i’w̯, Ml. yw̯ ‘to his’, rhiw̯ ‘hill’, briw̯ ‘wound’, edliw̯ ‘to reproach’, heddiw̯ ‘to-day’.
There is no exception to the rule in lit. W. In the Powys dialect heddiw is sounded heddi̯w, and in Gwynedd heiddi̯w; but the Demetian heddi’ implies heddiw̯. The bards always rhymed it as heddiw̯, till it came to be written heddyw in the 15th cent. (one example in r.p. 1286), an artificial restoration, see § 77 v.
- Nid oes fyd na rhyd na rhiw̯
- Na lle rhydd na llawr heddiw̯.—D.G. (to the snow), 408.
‘There is no world or ford or hill or any free place or ground to-day.’ See also D.G. 16, 26, 82, 86, 126, 153, 194, etc.
- Ni fu hawdd nofio heddiw̯
- I un a ffrwd yn i ffriw̯.—T.A., f. 22.
‘It has not been easy to swim to-day for one with the stream in his face.’
(2) In the penult or ante-penult, as diw̯edd ‘end’, ni|w̯eidio ‘to harm’, ciw̯dod ‘race, people’. Exceptions are the borrowed words si̯wrnai ‘journey’, si̯ŵr ‘sure’, and di̯wrnod ‘day’ when contracted, as in Gr.O. 88, for di|ẃrnod for Ml. W. diw̯ỿrnawd, w. 1a (generally in Ml. W. diw̯arnawt, a S. W. form).
iv. iw is disyllabic when it is formed by adding a syllable beginning with w to a syllable ending in i; thus gweddi ‘prayer’, gweddī́-wn ‘let us pray’, gweddī́-wr ‘suppliant’. In such words the i is generally written in Mn. W. with a diaeresis—gweddïwr.
