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188
PHONOLOGY
§ 113

ment of Lat. nd as nt, cf. Corn. cantuil, Bret. cantol.—(b) For original s, as in anheẟeu w.m. 81, cyfanheddu do. 73, Anheẟu mewn crwyn hyẟod Ỻ., from ann(h)eẟ < *n̥do-sed- § 63 ii; glanháu, parháu etc. § 201 iii (4); probably ‑he- in iscolheic b.b. 91, pl. yscolheigon r.b.b. 235, Mn. W. sg. ysgolháig is the suffix ‑ha- < *sag- see ib. ‑s- between sonants disappeared, e.g. amynedd § 95 ii (3); but kenhadeu § 48 i may contain a reflection of it: kennad ‘message, messenger’ < *k̑ens-n‑ətā, √k̑ens- ‘speak with authority, etc.’ see Walde² 151: Lat. censeo, W. dangos § 156 ii (1).—The h which provects mediae always comes from s; in no case is provection caused by an “accentual h”, or h developed from a soft breathing.

ii. (1) The semivowels , , ü̯ seem to have been pronounced in Early Ml. W. with friction of the breath, which is often represented by h before i or u, especially in the b.ch. Thus yhu (yw) a.l. i 6; Mahurth (Mawrth) 64; entehu (ynteu) 130; nehuat (neuaẟ) 78; arnehy (arnei) 100. More rarely it occurs between two u’s (uu = w), or two i’s, as in arnauhu (arnaw) 132; doissihion (doythi̯on) 124. With such a breathing would be equivalent to back , and at an earlier period it was represented by g, which survives in enguy a.l. i 100 for enw̯i ‘to name’ (which never had the media g, as the is from m); this also may stand between two u’s in this ms., as dim or auguenel (a w̯nel) dyn medu b.ch. 120 ‘anything that a drunken man does’; auguenelhont (a w̯nelhont) do. 118. In O. W. is written gu as in petguar ox. for pedwar ‘4’. The sound of , then, was virtually ; this after h < s became χ, written chw- § 26 vi, § 94 iv. Initially on the analogy of g: it became g in the position of a radical consonant, remaining as a soft mutation; later gw̯‑: w̯‑. This had taken place before the separation of Bret. and Corn.

(2) The breathing before a vowel might also take the form , so as to give a new initial g‑; thus *orẟ § 100 iii (2) > gorẟ f. b.t. 7 through *ᵹorẟ, this being taken for the soft mutation after the art., as in ir guit (≡ ỿr ᵹw͡yẟ) f. b.b. 97 ‘the goose’. Later gallt for allt f. ‘slope’; gerfydd beside herw̯ydd for erw̯yẟ § 215 ii (5). The Mn. godidog g. 252 for odidog ‘rare’, and N.W. dial. gonest for onest probably involve a confusion of initial o- with the prefix go- § 156 i (16).

(3) Conversely initial g is sometimes lost, as in euog ‘guilty’ for geuog (geuawc Ỻ.A. 155 “mendaces”, gau ‘false’); elor f. ‘bier’ for gelor m.a. i 205a, met. for *gerol < Lat. gerula (elawr g. 234 is factitious).

Loss of Syllables.

113. i. (1) The last syllable of every Brit. word, or Lat. word borrowed in the Brit. period, which contained more than one syllable, is lost in W. Thus W. gwynn f. gwenn ‘white’ < Brit. *u̯indos f. *u̯indā, W. ciwed < Lat. cīvitas, W. ciwdod < Lat. cīvitātem, § 115 i. The syllable doubtless became unaccented