property’ whence *(h)eu ‘property’. When *(h)eu became obsolete as an enclitic it was replaced in the sense of ‘property’ by meu, which gives meueẟ ‘property’ (meuet m.a. i 361b). It was followed by i ‘to’ and a pronoun: Ae meu ẏ minneu dy verch di weithon? Meu heb ynteu r.m. 142, lit. ‘is thy daughter property to me now? Property [i. e. Yes] said the other’; vy merch inneu a geffy yn veu itt do. 125 ‘and my daughter thou shalt have as property to thee’, i.e. for thine own; yn veu iẟaw e hun do. 207 ‘as property for himself’. In its orig. form the last expression would be *eu iẟaw; of this eiẟaw is an obvious contraction; similarly eiẟi for *eu iẟi; eiẟunt for *eu iẟunt. On the analogy of eiẟaw ef (for *eu iẟaw ef) arose meu i, teu di. In eiẟaw ef the ef is of course the ordinary affixed pron. supplementing the personal ending of iẟaw, see § 160 iii (2) (b).
(3) The use of yn *eu for the later yn veu is attested in the O. W. nou glossing genitives in m.c.; as nouirfionou gl. rosarum = (y)n *eu yr ffioneu ‘as the property of the roses’, i.e. that of the roses (n- representing yn before a vowel is common, e.g. ny l.l. 120 ‘in its’ § 107 ii). It is found before the 1st pl. pron.: nouni gl. nostrum = (y)n *eu (y)nny; later *eu ynny became einym on the analogy of the prepositional form of eiẟaw, and of gennym ‘(belonging) to us’ (mae gennym ‘we possess’); einwch was evidently formed from einym on the analogy of gennwch.
The processes which produced these forms have repeated themselves at later periods: eiẟo ‘his’ (like the old *eu ‘his’) became a noun meaning ‘property’; it began to be used with a dependent genitive in the 14th century: a vu eiẟaw dy vam di s.g. 270 ‘was thy mother’s property’; eiẟaw nep Ỻ.A. 35; eiddo’r Arglwydd 1 Cor. x 26; thus O. W. n‑ou-ir-fionou would now be yn eiddo’r ffïon. From eiddo were formed the new 1st and 2nd sg. and pl. forms eiddof (fi), eiddot (ti), eiddom (ni), eiddoch (chwi), carrying further the analogy of eiddo (ef). Lastly, there is a recent tendency, instead of yn eiddo (ef), to say yn eiddo iddo (ef), which exactly reproduces yn *eu iẟaw (ef), which is the origin of yn eiẟo (ef).
The Relative Pronoun.
§ 162. i. The forms of the relative pronoun are—nom. acc. a [soft]; adverbial cases, before vowels Ml. yd, yẟ, Mn. yr, before consonants Ml. yd [soft], Ml. and Mn. y [rad.]; in the genitive and in cases governed by prepositions both a and yẟ (yr), y are used.