respectively. mor softens the initial of the adj. except when it is ll or rh; but mwy and mwyaf take the radical; thus mwy dymunol Ps. xix 10, Diar. xvi 16 ‘more desirable’.
mwy and mwyaf are of course the cpv. and spv. of mawr. As they do not cause lenition, they represent Brit. forms ending in consonants. mwy may come directly from the neut. nom-acc. form *māis < *mā- + ‑is as in Lat. mag-is; the corresponding form of the spv. would be *māisamon (cf. Lat. plūrimum, Gk. πλεῖστον), which would give mwyaf ‘with the rad., since the nasal mutation of mediae survived only after fy, yn and numerals § 107 i.
mor is probably the pos. mawr unaccented, forming a loose compound with the adj., thus representing Brit. *māro‑; and so causing lenition. For o instead of aw see § 71 i (2). It is now generally accented, and pronounced mŏ́r; D.D. gives it as mòr (≡ mŏ́r), but mṓr (cf. pōb § 168 i (3)) may sometimes be heard, when it is emphatic. It was first used as an exclamative, thus OW. mortru ox. gl. eheu, morliaus do. gl. quam multos. The transition from the literal meaning ‘*greatly sad’ of the compound mor-dru, through ‘*very sad!’ to ‘how sad!’ is easy; and as the last meaning is equivalent to that of the exclamative eqtv., the form mor dru naturally came to be regarded as a periphrastic eqtv., and was used later with a ‘as’ and the compared noun. See examples below.
ii. (1) mwy and mwyaf are only used to compare compounds and derivatives where inflexional comparison is not feasible.
mwy da, mwy drwg, etc., are not used by adult speakers; Wms.’s enw mwyaf mawr 750 is a childish expression called forth by the exigencies of rhyme.
(2) On the other hand forms with mor are, as shown above, different in origin from the equative, and have had a separate existence from the outset. Hence mor is used freely before all adjectives at all periods. Thus:
Exclamative: mortru gl. eheu!—Mor truan genhyf mor truan a ẟeryv b.b. 1 ‘How sad to me, how sad [is] what has happened.’—Poet emendigeit y gof ay digones…mor dost yw w.m. 477 ‘Accursed be the smith that made it, so painful is it.’—mor ẟyrys yw r.m. 120 ‘so tangled is it.’—mor hagɏr y gwelei y ẟelw ry oed arnaw w.m. 251 ‘so ugly did he perceive the appearance that he bore.’—mor ẟirẏeit…mor dec r.p. 1385 ‘how bad…how fair.’
- Wylo’r wyf lawer afon
- Drosti hi, mor drist yw hon.—Gut.O., a 14967/119.
‘I weep many a river for her, so sad is she.’
- Truan, mor wann yw’r einioes,
- Trymed yw tor amod oes!—T.A., j 17/201.
‘Alas, how weak is life, how sad is the breaking of life’s promise.’
