adjectives. Bret. preserves traces of a wider use of ken which shows that it is an adverb or conjunction: ken ar re binvidik, ken ar re baour ‘les riches aussi bien que les pauvres’ Troude, Die. Fr.-Bret. s.v. aussi 3. The W. lenition is probably more original than the Bret. non-mutation, as ‑n tends to cause provection. The base of cynn is very probably *kom- as has been supposed, but it contains an additional element, doubtless an adverbial suffix, probably the loc. suffix *‑dhi or *‑dhe § 162 vi (2), thus cynn < *kon-dhi; cf. Umbr. ponne ‘cum’ < *qu̯om-de, O.Lat. quamde ‘quam’.
In Ml. W. beside kyn- as kyndebycket w.m. 34, and kynn written separately as kynn decket Ỻ.A. 19, 67, kynn gadarnnet do. 67, etc. we sometimes find ky- as kygyfyg̃het r.m. 150, ky ẟruttet ib. This is due to the loss of final unaccented ‑nn, see § 110 v (2).
The misspelling can for cɥn arose in the 18th cent., and was adopted by Pughe ; but there is absolutely no justification for it either in the earlier written language or in the spoken dialects.
The Ir. eqtv. in ‑ithir, ‑idir is not phonetically related to the W. eqtv.
§ 148. i. The following adjectives are compared irregularly:—
(1) agos ‘near’ § 222 i (3); eqtv. mor agos s.g. 34, Job xli 16, kynnesset c.m. 58; cpv. nes; spv. Ml. nessaf, now spelt nesaf.
W. nessaf, Ir. nessam < *ned-’sₑmo‑s: Osc. nessimas ‘proximae’, Umb. nesimei ‘proxime’: Skr. náhyati ‘binds’ (h < *dh), √nedh- ‘bind’. The cpv. nes (≡ nēs) < *ned-’son < *ned-sōn; as final ‑ōn became ‑on § 59 v, it would not affect the vowel; see § 147 iv (3).
In the dialects agos is often compared regularly (a)gosach, (a)gosa’, thus ffor’ gosa’ ‘nearest way’ for lit. fort (≡ fforẟ) nessaf m.a. i 367b. These forms sometimes crept into the written language in the late period; see Silvan Evans s.v. agos.
(2) bỿchan ‘small, little’; eqtv. bỿchaned, lleied; cpv. Ml. llei, Mn. llai; spv. lleiaf.
bychan § 101 ii (2); vychanet, yr bychanet w.m. 44; am beth kynvychanet a hynny s.g. 107 ‘for so small a thing as that’. For llai see § 104 ii (2). Rhys Brydydd used a spv. bychanaf, see Pughe s.v. mymryn.
(3) cỿnnar ‘early’, buan ‘quick’; eqtv. cỿnted; cpv. cɥnt; spv. cỿntaf.—buan is also compared regularly: buaned D.G. 132, buanach do. 225, Galarnad iv 19; so cynnar, spv. cynharaf ‘earliest’ etc.
Ni wyẟwn i varch gynt…no hwnn r.m. 9 ‘I knew of no fleeter steed than this’.
buan § 63 vii (3);—cynt (: Ir. cēt, Gaul. Cintu‑) is perhaps cpv. in meaning only; it is believed to be cognate with Goth. hindumists;
