Page:Morris-Jones Welsh Grammar 0191.png

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§ 113
LOSS OF SYLLABLES
191

gold.’ Other similar doublets are Tudwal and Tudawal r.p. 1394, Dingad and Dinogat b.a. 22. The aw in Dyfnawal is the regular development of ou̯ before a vowel, see § 76 iii (1); before another consonant the ‑o- remains, as seen in Dinogat.

(4) The forms used in writing are always traditional, and in the above inscriptions the names have probably archaic forms preserved with the Latin in which they are embedded, since other evidence points to the loss of the terminations at this period. The re-formations consequent on the loss of the endings are largely the same in Bret. and W.; thus W. ‑au, Bret. ‑ou represents the pl. ‑ou̯es of u-stems, § 120 i; these stems could not have been very numerous, and the addition of W. ‑au and Bret. ‑ou to nouns of all classes denoting common objects, and to tad, mam and others, can hardly be an accidental coincidence, and is clearly subsequent to the breakdown of the Brit. declension. It seems therefore probable that the new language was in an advanced stage of development before the separation of the two dialects.

In the oldest ms. of Bede, a.d. 737, the stem-vowels and terminations are completely lost, as in Car-legion, Ban-cor, Dinoot. The reduction was therefore an established fact in the early 8th cent.

(5) The vowel of the penult is sometimes lost after a diphthong, apparently when the accent originally fell on the ultima, as in claer < *klii̯arós § 75 vi (1); haul < *sāu̯eli̯ós § 76 v (1); so probably cawr < *kou̯arós § 76 iii (4). With haul ‘sun’ < *sau’li̯ós < *sāu̯eli̯ós contrast the disyllable huan ‘sun’ < *sā́u̯anos < *sā́u̯ₑnos (with n-suff. like E. sun, cf. Walde² 721); affected au, short because unaccented, gives W. au § 76 v (1); and accented ā́u gives W. u § 76 iii (5); see § 76 v Note, p. 108.

ii. In a disyllabic proclitic a final short vowel might disappear in the Brit. period; thus Ar. *mene ‘my’ > *men, and caused the nasal mutation, § 107 ii, iv.

iii. (1) The final consonant of a monosyllabic proclitic was lost in W.; thus Brit. *men ‘my’ gave W. fy ‘my’; but not till after it had mutated the following initial (in this case causing the nasal mutation of mediae § 107 iv).

(2) But the consonantal ending of an accented monosyllable was in general retained; thus W. chw̯ech ‘six’ < Kelt. *su̯eks (but chwe before a noun); W. nos ‘night’ < Brit. *noss < *nots < *noqts § 96 ii (5); W. moch ‘early’: Lat. mox; W. yn ‘in’ < Brit. *en < Ar. *en.