# A Welsh Grammar, Historical and Comparative/Accidence1

Accidence
The article
§ 114. i. The definite article is ỿr, ’r or ỿ. There is no indefinite article in Welsh.
ii. The full form ỿr is used before a vowel or h, as ỿr afon ‘the river’, ỿr haul ‘the sun’, dwfr ỿr afon, gwres ỿr haul; the ỿ is elided after a vowel, as i’r afon ‘into the river’, o’r tɥ ‘from the house’; before a consonant the r is dropped, unless the ỿ has been elided as above, as ỿn ỿ tɥ ‘in the house’.
w̯- counts as a consonant: ỿ w̯aedd ‘the cry’; i̯- as a vowel in Mn. W. ỿr i̯aith ‘the language’; in Ml. W. as a vowel or a consonant, as ỿr i̯arll r.m. 188 l. 25; 189 ll. 13, 30; 190 l. 7; ỿ iarll 189 ll. 2, 20. As initial wy is w͡y § 38 iv, we have in the standard language yr ŵy ‘the egg’, yr ŵyr ‘the grandson’, yr ŵyth ‘the eight’, yr w͡ythnos ‘the week’, yr w͡ylo ‘the weeping’, yr w͡yneb ‘the face’, yr w͡ybren ‘the sky’. Similarly yr W͡yddfa ‘Snowdon’, yr W͡yddgrug ‘Mold’, with radical gw͡y- fem., see v.
iii. O. W. has only the first two forms, written ir and r; thus ir tri ox. ‘the three’, ir pimphet do. ‘the fifth’, ir bis bichan do. ‘the little finger’, ir mant do. ‘the thumb’, ir guolleuni juv. ‘the light’, or deccolion m.c. gl. decadibus, or bardaul leteinepp m.c. gl. epica pagina, dir escip l.l. 120 ‘to the bishops’. After a diphthong we have ir, as nou ir emid m.c. ‘that of the brass’. The form ỿ is in regular use in early Ml. W., as E betev ae gulich y glav b.b. 63 ‘the graves which the rain wets’.
In Ml. W. r is used after a ‘and; with’, o ‘from’, ẏ ‘to’, na ‘nor’, no ‘than’; but usually y or yr after other words ending in vowels, as kyrchu y llys, … a chyrchu y bordeu w.m. 5, llyna y llys do. 6, etc. The reason is probably that the article, as a proclitic, was generally joined to the following word, thus yllys ‘the court’, so that these groups became isolated in the scribe’s mind, and were written in their isolated forms. On the other hand, the article could not be separated from the above monosyllables (cf. yny which is the regular form of yn y ‘in the’), hence after these it assumes its post-​vocalic form. It was undoubtedly spoken r after all vowels then as now, except when a pause came between the words; for we find early examples of r even after diphthongs; thus kir llaw r eirccheid b.b. 10 ‘beside the suppliants’, mi yw r iarll w.m. 137 ‘I am the earl’, gwirẏon yw r vorwyn do. 138 ‘the maid is innocent’, erglyw r pobloeẟ r.p. 1201 ‘the peoples will hearken’. In some cases y is written where the metre requires r as Pa gur yw y porthawr? b.b. 94 ‘What man is the porter?’, where we should have yw r, as the line is 5 syll. Sometimes yr is written before a consonant: Pieu ir bet b.b. 66 for pieu’r beẟ ‘whose is the grave?’; llyma yr weẟ r.m. 2 for llyma’r weẟ ‘this is the manner’. In the early Mn. bards ’r is regular, esp. after pure vowels; and it is general in later prose, e.g. the 1620 Bible, though not without exception here. Pughe attempted to substitute y for it everywhere, and under his influence y was adopted in many late edns. of the Bible, except after a, o, i, na. This preference for y is chiefly due to the mistaken notion that r forms no part of the word, but was put in before vowels “for the sake of euphony”. We have seen above that the article is yr, and of the clipped forms ’r is older than y.
iv. The Ir. article is ind, after prepositions sind, from Kelt. *sendos, which gives W. hynn ‘this’, see § 164 vi. This occurs in W. in yn awr ‘now’, lit. ‘this hour’ (O. Bret. annaor, Ir. ind or sa), and y naill for *yn aill § 165 (Bret. ann eil § 166 iii, Ir. ind-ala). The art. in Corn. is en or an; in Ml. Bret. an; in Mn. Bret. ann before vowels, t‑, d‑, n- and h‑, al before l‑, ar before other consonants (so the Bret. indef. art. eunn, eul, eur, from un ‘one’).
Pedersen Gr. i 153 ff. quotes late examples of n > r after a cons. in Ir. dialects and Bret., and one or two cases of the change before a cons. as Ml. Ir. marbad for O.Ir. mainbad, Bret. mor-go ‘horse collar’ for *mon-go (obviously cases of dissim. of nasals). No such change as n > r is known in Welsh, which prefers to change r to the easier n § 100 i (2). W. yr can only be identified with Ir. ind by a rule made ad hoc; this is the only form of the art. in W. (yn awr is not ‘the hour’ but ‘this hour’); the ‑r abounds in the earliest period, and cannot be compared with Bret. ‑r, which is late, and may have spread from ar before r‑. The fact that there is a demonst. pron. ar in W. used before the rel., see § 164 v, makes the derivation of yr from hynn still less probable. There is no reason why the W. and Ir. articles should be the same word; the use of a demonst. as art. is much later than the separation of the P and Q groups. Gaulish has no art.; Pedersen Gr. ii 177 quotes σοσιν νεμητον ‘this temple’ as an example of the art. in Gaul., which is as if one were to quote in hoc tumulo from a Lat. inscr. as an example of the Latin “article” hic.
Though common in the O. W. glosses and prose fragments, the art. seldom occurs in the early poetry; it is not found in juv. sk., and is rare in the b.a.: Gwyr a aeth Gatraeth ‘[the] men who went to Catraeth’. It does not occur in O. Corn. or O. Bret., see Loth Voc. ​38 (ann is the demonst. in annaor above). Brit. no doubt had several demonstratives used before nouns; but the adoption of one to be used as an art. seems to be later than the separation of W., Corn, and Bret., and independent in each. The origin of the W. yr is not clear. Brit. had an l-demonstrative seen in Ml. W. y lleill beside y neill § 165 vi, cf. yll § 160 i (2); and ‑l is more likely than ‑n to have become ‑r. But yr may come from a demonst. with locative ‑r- suffix, as in E. here, there, which might be declined with stem ‑ro‑, cf. Lat. suprā; yr < *is-ros? cf. Lat. ille <is-le.
v. The initial consonant of a fem. sg. noun (except ll- and rh-) undergoes the soft mutation after the art.
Note initial gw͡y‑: yr ŵyl ‘the holiday’, yr ŵydd ‘the goose’; initial gw̯y‑: y w̯yrth ‘the miracle’, y w̯ŷs ‘the summons’.
The mutation shows that the art. had the o/ā-declension in Brit.
Nouns
§ 115. i. The old Keltic declension is lost in W., §§ 4, § 113; a noun has one form for all cases. This is usually derived from the old nominative, as ciwed ‘rabble’ < Lat. cīvitas; sometimes from the accusative, as ciwdod ‘people’ < cīvitātem. (In W., ciwed and ciwdod are different words, not different cases of the same word.) Traces of the oblique cases survive in adverbial and prepositional expressions, §§ 215, 220.
ii. The noun in W. has two numbers, the singular and the plural. Traces of the use of the dual are seen in deurudd ‘cheeks’, dwyfron ‘breasts’, dwylaw ‘hands’; the last has become the ordinary pl. of llaw ‘hand’.
The dual of o-stems may have given the same form as the sg., as in Ir., where we have fer ‘man’ < *u̯iros, and fer ‘(two) men’, apparently from *u̯irŏ, as *u̯irō would have given *fiur (cf. Gk. δύο, Vedic voc. ‑a; but W. dau implies ‑ō in *dúu̯ō itself). Thus W. dau darw ‘two bulls’ (deudarw̯ p. 52), déu-wr L.G.C. 185 ‘two men’ (‑wr keeps its sg. form while the pl. became gwŷr § 66 iii (1)). But in nouns with consonant stems the dual must have taken the same form as the pl.; thus Ar. *uqsō > W. ych ‘ox’, but the dual *uqsene and the pl. *uqsenes both gave ychen; so we have Ml. W. deu ychen r.m. 121 ‘two oxen’, deu vroder do. 26 ‘two brothers’; and, by analogy, dwy wrageẟ a.l. ii 98 ‘two women’. In Late Mn. W. the sg. form only is used.
​The dual, whether it agreed in form with the sg. or the pl., formerly preserved the effect of its old vocalic ending in the soft mutation of a following adj., as deu wyẟel vonllwm w.m. 56 ‘two bare-backed Irishmen’, y ddwy wragedd rywiogach L.G.C. 127 ‘the two women [who are] kinder’.
iii. In W. the noun has two genders only, the masculine and the feminine.
The following traces of the old neuter survive: (1) nouns of vacillating gender § 142 i.—(2) The neut. dual in Kelt. had been reformed with ‑n on the analogy of the sing., e.g. Ir. da n‑droch ‘2 wheels’; hence in W. after dau, some nouns, originally neuter, keep p‑, t‑, c- unmutated § 106 iii (4); thus dau cant or deucant ‘200’, dau tu or deutu ‘both sides’; and by analogy dau pen or deupen ‘two ends’.
Number.
§ 116. The plural of a noun is formed from the singular either by vowel change or by the addition of a termination, which may also be accompanied by vowel change. But where the singular has been formed by the addition to the stem of a singular termination, this is usually dropped in the plural, and sometimes a plural termination is substituted for it, in either case with or without change of vowel. There are thus seven different ways of deducing the pl. from the sing.: i. change of vowel; ii. addition of pl. ending; iii. addition of pl. ending with vowel change; iv. loss of sg. ending; v. loss of sg. ending with vowel change; vi substitution of pl. for sg. ending; vii. substitution of pl. for sg. ending with vowel change.
Parisyllabic Nouns.
§ 117. i. The vowel change that takes place when the pl. is formed from the sg. without the addition or subtraction of an ending is the ultimate i-affection; see § 83 ii. This was originally caused by the pl. termination ‑ī of o-stems; thus *bardos gave barẟ ‘bard’, but *bardī gave beirẟ ‘bards’; and also by ‑ī of neut. i-stems, as in mŷr ‘seas’ < *morī § 122 ii (4); possibly -ū of neut. u-stems, but original examples are doubtful. Later, when the cause of the affection had been forgotten, it came to be regarded merely as a sign of the pl., and was extended to all classes of stems.
​Examples: Ml. and Mn. W. march ‘horse’, pl. meirch; tarw̯ ‘bull’, pl. teirw̯; carw̯ ‘deer’, pl. ceirw̯; gwalch ‘hawk’, pl. gweilch; alarch ‘swan’, pl. eleirch, elyrch; salm ‘psalm’, pl. Ml. seilɏm Ỻ.A. 107, beside salmeu r.p. 1303, Mn. salmau; llygad ‘eye’, pl. Ml. llygeit, Mn. llygaid; dafad ‘sheep’, pl. Ml. deveit, Mn. defaid; brân ‘crow’, pl. Ml. brein, Mn. brain; Ml. manach, Ml. and Mn. mynach ‘monk’, pl. Ml. meneich, myneich, Mn. menych, myneich (late mynachod); paladr ‘beam, ray’, pl. peleidr, pelydr; Mn. bustach ‘bullock’, pl. bustych; Ml. and Mn. maen ‘stone’, pl. Ml. mein, Mn. main Dat. xvii 4 (later meini); cyllell ‘knife’, pl. cyllyll; castell ‘castle’, pl. cestyll; gwaëll ‘knitting needle’, pl. gwëyll D.G. 458; kerẟ ‘song’, pl. kyrẟ r.p. 1245 (poet.); môr ‘sea’, pl. mŷr D.G. 146 (poet.; in prose generally moroedd); porth ‘gate’, pl. pyrth; Cymro, pl. Cymry; esgob ‘bishop’, pl. esgyb, see § 129 i (1); amws w.m. 472 (‘horse’, pl. emys do. 85; asgwrn ‘bone’, pl. esgyrn; croen ‘skin’, pl. crŵyn; oen ‘lamb’, pl. ŵyn; croes ‘cross’, pl. crwys, later croesau, but crwys as late as Wms. 102.
    Ni roddwn yn Hiraddug
    Fy eleirch er dengmeirch dug.—D.I.D., m 148/676 r., d. 36.
‘I would not exchange my swans in Hiraddug for ten of a duke’s horses.’
    M’redudd Fychan lân i lys,
    Oedd ami i dda a’i emys.—G.Gl., m 146/188.
‘Maredudd Fychan of the bright court, many were his goods and his horses.’
    Myneich a rhent, main a chrwys,
    Mintai rugl mewn tair eglwys.—G.Gl., m 146/271.
‘Monks with a rental, [and] stones and crosses, a prosperous community in three churches.’
There does not seem to be an example of aw > eu in a pl. noun; but another affection aw > yw (§ 76 v (2)) occurs in alaw ‘water-lily’, pl. elyw b.t. 32.
ii. haearn ‘iron’ has pl. heyrn, and rhaeadr ‘cataract’ has rhëydr, rhyeidr § 69 ii (3), § 75 vi (3); pennog ‘herring’ has penwaig § 36 iii; i̯wrch ‘roebuck’ has ɥrch § 36 ii, later i̯yrchod g. 167; gŵr ‘man’ is for *gw̯ŵr and has pl. gw̯ɥ̂r § 66 iii (1), and so its compounds, as pregethwr ‘preacher’, pl. pregethw̯yr; gwrda ‘goodman’, pl. gw̯ɥrda.
D. 38 gives ieirch rh. with lleneirch; but the pl. of llannerch ‘glade’ is llennyrch; the correct reading seems to be ɥrch/llennyrch see I.G. 287.
iii. Anomalous vowel changes occur in—(1) troed ‘foot’, pl. traed § 65 ii (1); and tɥ̂ ‘house’, pl. Ml. tei, Mn. tai § 104 ii (2). The compounds of the latter have ‑tei Mn. ‑tai, or ‑tyeu Mn ‑tyau; as Mordei b.a. 1, gwindei r.p. 1202 ‘banqueting houses’; llettyeu r.p. 1274 ‘lodgings’, clafdyeu do. 1269 ‘hospitals’, hundyeu w.m. 5 ‘sleeping rooms’.
In Gwynedd ‑dai is generally accented, as beu-dắi ‘cow-houses’, pop-tắi ‘ovens’, gweith-dắi ‘workshops’; but eleuséndai ‘alms-houses’.
(2) Ml. W. biw ‘ox’ (e.g. karcharaur goruit, cul biw b.b. 90 ‘the horse is a prisoner, the ox is lean), pl. bu (e.g. can-mu w.m. 455 ‘100 oxen’); biw is also frequently pl., e.g. b.t. 59.
biw < Brit. *būu̯s < *ɡ$^{u̯}$ōus; bu < *bāu̯es < *ɡ$^{u̯}$ōu̯es; pl. biw from a re-formed *būu̯es.
(3) Other cases are carreg, pl. cerrig (for cerryg) § 77 i; crogen, cragen, pl. cregin (for cregyn) § 77 ii; asyn ‘ass’, Ml. pl. essynn w.m. 81, h.m. ii 226 (the irregularity is in the sg., where the orig. a was restored), Mn. pl. asynnod; llo ‘calf’ pl. lloi for llo-ï b.t. 59.
iv. Ml.W. pebyll m. ‘tent’ § 70 i (pl. pebylleu), Mn. pebyll sg. W.Ỻ. 216, is treated as pl. in the Bible, with a new sg. pabell f., from Wm.S.’s hypothetic pabell hwn glossing y pebyll hynn sg. 2 Cor. v 4. It is generally supposed that amws is a similar, but natural and early, analogical sg. from emys assumed to be pl. < admissus (rather *ammissus since ‑dm- > ẟf) for admissārius, but such an error is unlikely at an early period when the word was in common use ; e…y in the sg. is not unusual, e.g. ceffyl.
§ 118. i. In many parisyllabic nouns, after the loss of the Brit. endings, the pl. was not distinguished from the sg. by affection as above. These were (1) neut. nouns, whose pl. ending ‑ā did not affect; thus Brit. *arganton, pl. *argantā > W. arian, which is sg. and pl. § 133 ii.—(2) Nouns in which the vowel is not capable of i-affection (Brit. ĭ, ā, etc.) ; thus Lat. piscis, pl. pisces > W. pysc ‘fish’ sg. r.m. 131, usually pl.—(3) ​Nouns in which the vowel is affected in the sg. and pl.; thus Brit. *u̯radi̯os, pl. *u̯radi̯ī > W. gwraidd ‘root’ or ‘roots’.
ii. As it is inconvenient to have the same form for sg. and pl., new distinctions grew up. These took three forms: (1) Nouns belonging to the first of the above classes had their vowel affected to form a pl.; probably some of those mentioned in § 117 i are examples of this.—(2) A pl. termination was added; thus as Lat. medicus, medicī had both become meẟyg, a new pl. meẟygon was formed; and for pl. pysg a collective pyscawt Mn. W. pysgod was used, § 123 iii.—(3) A sg. termination, m. ‑yn(n), f. ‑en(n) was added; thus gwraidd in the sg. became gwreiddyn; and as pysg continued to be used as a pl., a new sg. pysgodyn was formed from the pl. pyscawt.
Imparisyllabic Nouns.
§ 119. The W. pl. terminations are the Brit, stem-endings of imparisyllabic nouns, which were lost in the sg. representing the old nom. sg., but survived in the pl. after the loss of the pl. endings *‑es, neut. *‑a, § 113 i. Thus Lat. latrō and its Brit. pl. *latrŏnes gave W. lleidr, pl. lladron, by regular sound-change; then the ‑on of the latter and similar nouns naturally came to be regarded as a pl. ending, and was added to nouns of other declensions where a pl. sign was needed, as to meddyg, see above. Such additions were made on some analogy, mostly of meaning, sometimes of form.
u-stems.
§ 120. i. Mn. W. ‑au, Ml. W. ‑eu, O. W. ‑ou comes from Brit. *´‑ou̯es, *´‑ou̯a the pl. endings of u-stems; thus Brit. *katus, pl. *kátou̯es, gave W. cad ‘battle’, pl. cadau. This termination spread and became the commonest in W. (and Bret.). It was added to—
(1) most names of common objects; as penn-eu w.m. 41, Mn. W. pennau ‘heads’; clust-eu ib., Mn. clusti̯au ‘ears’; guefl-eu ib., Mn. gweflau ‘lips’; amrann-eu ib., r.p. 1270, Mn. amrannau, late amrantau, sg. amrant ‘eyelid’; arv-eu w.m. 7, Mn. arfau ‘arms’; tlyss-eu do. 37, Mn. tlysau, sg. tlws ‘jewel’; loggou l.l. 120 (gg ≡ ŋŋ), llongeu w.m. 39, Mn. llongau ‘ships’; badeu w.m. 39, Mn. ​badau ‘boats’; tonnou juv., Ml. tonneu, Mn. tonnau ‘waves’; pebylleu w.m. 44 ‘tents’; betev (t ≡ ẟ) b.b. 63, Mn. beddau ‘graves’; fruytheu, llannev do. 56, Mn. ffrwythau ‘fruits’, llannau ‘churches’, etc. So drysau ‘doors’, cadeiriau ‘chairs’, canhwyllau ‘candles’, llyfrau ‘books’, etc. etc.
The chief exceptions are nouns taking ‑i, see § 122 ii (2), and names of implements taking -ion, § 121 ii (2).
(2) Some nouns denoting persons, as tadau ‘fathers’; mamau ‘mothers’; kenhadeu w.m. 184 ‘messengers’, Late Mn. W. cenhadon; meicheu w.m. 25 ‘sureties’, now meichiau; dwyweu r.b.b. 67 ‘gods’, Mn. W. duwiau; fem. nouns in ‑es, as breninesau ‘queens’, etc.
(3) A few names of animals, as hebogeu w.m. 12 ‘hawks’; keffyleu w.m. 119; keilogeu Ỻ.A. 165; bleiddiau § 123 iv (4).
(4) Many abstract nouns, as drygau ‘evils’; brodẏeu r.p. 1238 ‘judgements’; poeneu w.m. 49, poenau ‘pains’; gofidiau ‘sorrows’; meddylẏeu § 121 ii (3) ‘thoughts’, etc.; and abstract derivatives in ‑ad or ‑iad, ‑aeth, ‑as, ‑der, ‑did, ‑dod, ‑edd, ‑yd; as bwriadau ‘intentions’, gweledigaethau ‘visions’, priodasau ‘weddings’, mwynderau ‘delights’, gwendidau ‘weaknesses’, pererindodau ‘pilgrimages’, troseddau ‘transgressions’, clefydau ‘fevers’. Also some names of times, seasons, etc., after dieu § 132 (2): oriau ‘hours’; bore-eu r.p. 1290 ‘mornings’; nosseu c.m. 1, sg. nos ‘night’, wythnosau ‘weeks’; but misoedd, blynyddoedd § 122.
(5) The neologists of the 16th cent. took aroglau ‘smell’ for a pl., in spite of popular usage which treats it as sg. to this day. They manufactured a sg. arogl and a v.n. arogli, vb. aroglaf, which with various derivatives are used in the Bible. But the word is aroglau, see arogleu Ỻ.A. 81 translating “odor” 232, vb. arogleuaf b.t. 79, v.n. arogleuo, present-day coll. ’ogleuo.
ii. When ‑au is added to a stem ending in i̯, § 35, the combination is ‑iau; e.g. O.W. hestoriou, cloriou, enmeituou, dificiuou § 25 i, Ml. W. gruẟẏeu w.m. 140, Mn. W. gruddi̯au ‘cheeks’; glivẏeu w.m. 434, glini̯au ‘knees’. In Mn. W. i̯au is used after ‑ei‑, as geiri̯au ‘words’ § 35 ii. It came to be generally used to form new plurals, especially of borrowed words, e.g. words in ‑p, ‑t, ‑c, § 51 ii, as heti̯au ‘hats’, capi̯au ‘caps’, brati̯au ‘aprons’ (but Ml. W. bratteu w.m. 23 ‘rags’), carpi̯au ‘rags’, llanci̯au ‘youths’, etc.
​iii. (1) In Brit. the nom.-acc. sg. neut. ending must in some cases have been *‑ū (instead of *‑u), cf. Lat. cornū, etc. (so sometimes in Skr., see Brugmann² II ii 144), as in *dakrū > W. deigr ‘tear’ (e.g. llawer deigɏr a wyleis i h.m. ii 129 ‘many a tear have I wept’, bob deigr Dat. vii 17 “πᾶν δάκρυον”). The pl. ending might be *‑ou̯a (< *‑uu̯ə) or ‑ū (< *‑uu̯ə contracted, § 63 vii (2)); deigr ‘tears’ from the latter is doubtful, though used by Gr.O. 50; the former gives the usual pl. dagrau § 76 iii (2). See also § 125 iii Note.
(2) cainc ‘branch’ may be a fem. u̯ā-stem, with nom. sg. in ‑ū, Thurneysen Gr. 182; thus cainc < *kaŋkū, pl. cangau, Ml. W. cag̃eu b.b. 48 < *káŋkou̯ās.
iv. The pl. ending ‑au does not affect a preceding vowel, see § 76 iii (2); ceg̃eu b.b. 47 is a scribal error as shown by cag̃eu 48.
n-stems.
§ 121. i. ‑i̯on and ‑on come from Brit. ‑i̯ones and ‑ones, pl. endings of n-stems.
The Brit. forms were *‑ǖ < *‑ō, pl. ‑ones, as in Brittones; but *‑i̯ǖ < ‑i̯ō, pl. ‑i̯ones, as in Verturiones, Gaul. Suessiones, seems to have predominated, as in Goidelic (Thurneysen Gr. 202). Hence the greater prevalence of ‑i̯on. in W. Borrowed words were of course declined like native, and Lat. latrōnes > Brit. *latrŏnes > W. lladron.
In Ar., nouns in ‑ō(n), ‑i̯ō(n), ‑ii̯ō(n) (loss of ‑n § 101 ii (4)) were (a) nomina agentis, frequently from adjectives with o‑, i̯o‑, ii̯o- stems; thus Gk. στράβων ‘squinter’: στραβός ‘squinting’; οὐρανίων ‘heavenly one’: οὐράνιος ‘heavenly’; (b) abstract nouns, as Lat. ratio. Thus the use of ‑ion in W., which is added to names of persons and instruments, and to abstract nouns, corresponds roughly to the original value of the suffix.
‑on goes back to Brit. in nouns in which the vowel is affected in the sg., § 125 iii; after ‑hai < *‑sagi̯ō, pl. ‑heion re-formed for *‑haeon < *‑sagi̯ones, and after ‑ydd, pl. ‑yddi̯on, re-formed for ‑yẟon < ‑íi̯ones, as in gweryddon § 110 ii (3). But in most cases it is a new addition in W., as in ymerodron, pl. of ymherawdr < Lat. imperātor. W. dyni̯on is also prob. an analogical formation, for Ir. duine implies *donii̯os, and Bret. and Corn. use tud, tus ‘people’ for the pl. The adj. *doni̯os and its pl. *doni̯ī would both give dyn, to which ‑i̯on was added to form the new pl.
ii. ‑i̯on is added to (1) many nouns denoting persons, as dyn ‘man’, pl. dynion; mab ‘boy, son’, pl. meibion, Ml. meibon § 35 ii (1), O. W. mepion § 70 ii (1); gwas ‘servant’, pl. gweision, Ml. gweisson w.m. 33; ŵyr ‘grandson’, pl. w͡yrion, Ml. wyron r.b.b. 49; gwastrawd ‘groom’, pl. gwastrodẏon w.m. 33; including derivatives in ‑(h)ai, ‑ydd, ‑og Ml. ‑awc, ‑or Ml. ‑awr, ‑ig, ‑awdr, as gwestai ‘guest’, pl. gwesteion Ỻ.A. 168; crydd, pl. cryddion, ​Bret. kere, pl. kereon § 86 i (5); gwehydd ‘weaver’, pl. gwehyddion; marchog ‘knight’, pl. marchogion; cantor ‘singer’, pl. cantorion; pendefig ‘chieftain’, pl. pendefigion; dysgawdr ‘doctor’, pl. dysgodron (in Recent W. re-formed as dysgawd-wr, ‑w̯yr); and adjectives used as nouns § 145 iii. In a few cases the ending is ‑on, as meddygon § 118 ii; Iddew ‘Jew’, pl. Iddewon, Ml. W. Iẟewon Ỻ.A. 19, Iẟeon do. 17; athrawon, etc. § 125 iii.
(2) Some names of implements: cŷn ‘chisel’, pl. cynion; ebill ‘auger’, pl. ebillion; trosol ‘bar, lever’, pl. trosolion; ysgol, Ml. yscawl ‘ladder’, pl. ysgolion, Ml. yscolẏon w.m. 189; ysgolion ‘schools’ follows this probably.
(3) Some abstract nouns: rhybuddion ‘warnings’ (Ml. r͑ybuẟẏeu w.m. 72); esgusion ‘excuses’; trafferthion ‘troubles’; with ‑on: gofalon ‘cares’; cysuron ‘comforts’; but most take ‑au § 120 i (4). H.M. has meddylion ii 194, m 147/639 r., for the usual meddyliau, Ml. W. meẟylẏeu r.p. 1201, 1303.
(4) ebol, Ml. ebawl ‘colt’, pl. ebolion, Ml. ebolẏon w.m. 45; keneu, see § 125 iii; planhigion ‘plants’, sg. planhig-yn.
iii. ‑en < Brit. *‑enes < Ar. *‑enes survives only in ychen ‘oxen’, sg. ych § 69 v; and in Ml. W. Pryden ‘Picts’ (Gynt a Gwyẟyl a Phryden b.a. 24 ‘Danes and Irish and Picts’), O. W. Priten gen. xix.
Ar. ‑en- was the F-grade of the suffix, of which ‑on- was the F°-grade, and ‑ōn the L°-grade § 63 iii.
The first occurrence of the misspelling ychain, § 31 ii (2), known to me is in Rhydychain in the title of the 1690 Bible; it did not come into common use before the 19th cent. The form is always ychen in Ml. W. and in the rhymes of the bards before the recent period. See ychen w.m. 480, r.m. 121, b.t. 59, Ỻ.A. 109, r.p. 1241, m.a. i 230, 426; r͑yt ychen ‘Oxford’ see indexes of r.m. and r.b.b.
    Da’r ardd ychen mewn pen pant.—W.Ỻ. f. 8.
‘Well do oxen plough at the end of a valley.’
    Dig wyf am dewi gofeg
    Yn pen yn Rhydychen deg.—H.D. (m. I.H.S.), p 100/125.
‘I am wroth because the muse of our chief is silenced in fair Oxford.’—See ben/ychen D.G. 400, gên/ychen do. 318, men/ychen L.G.C. 189; wên/Rhydychen S.Ph. c.c. 189; rryd ychen/dalen p 54/242 r.
iv. The R-grade ₑn of the stem-ending became ‑ann- in Kelt. § 62 i (2). In Ir. it appears as ‑ann; in W. as a pl. ending it was affected ​in every case to ‑ein(n), tending to become ‑eint or to be replaced by ‑eu. The affection prob. comes from neut. dual forms, of which the ending in Pr. Ar. was *‑ī. Thus Ml. W. ysgyveint m.m. 2, Mn. W. ysgyfaint ‘lungs’ < *squmₑn-ī, old neut. dual; the noun has no sg.;—O.W. anu ‘name’ pl. enuein. Ml. W. pl. enweu, with a new sg. enw, Mn. W. enw, pl. enwau (the a- survived in anwedig G.R. [122, 220], Gwyn. dial. § 112 i (2)): Ir. ainm, pl. anmann, neut.;—cam ‘step’, O.W. pl. cemmein, now camau: Ir. cēim, pl. cēimmenn, neut.;—rhwym ‘band’, O. W. pl. ruimmein, now rhwymau;—gof ‘smith’, also gofan(n) b.t. 7, pl. Ml. W. goveẏn a.l. i 72, Mn. W. gofaint: Ir. goba, gen. gobann;—edn ‘bird’, once ednan m.a. i 195, pl. ednein (printed ednain m.a. i 207), etneint r.p. 1245, Mn. ednaint Gr.O. 10;—llw ‘oath’, Ml. W. pl. cam lyein Ỻ.A. 158, camlyeu r.p. 1201 ‘false oaths’, Mn. W. llŵon, Gwyn. dial. llyfon.
i-stems.
§ 122. i. ‑i, ‑ydd, ‑oedd, ‑edd represent the Brit. endings of i‑, i̯o‑, i̯ā- and i̯e- stems.
ii. i-stems, (1) The vowel is not affected in the sg. All the above endings occur in the pl.
The Ar. nom. endings were m.f. sg. *‑is, pl. *‑ei̯es; neut. sg. *‑i, pl. *‑ii̯ə, *‑ī. In Brit. the sg. *‑is, *‑i became *‑es, *‑e and did not cause affection; the pl. *‑eies became *‑ii̯es which gave ‑i, ‑ydd or ‑oedd according to the accentuation § 75 v, iv; the neut. pl. *‑ii̯ə > *‑iia > ‑edd or ‑oedd according to accentuation; and *‑ī affected the preceding vowel and dropped.
(2) ‑i and ‑ydd both form the pl. of tref ‘town’; thus trewi (≡ trefi) b.b. 54, trewit (≡ trefyẟ) do. 91, Mn. W. trefi § 160 iii (2), and trefydd D.G. 3; cantref ‘cantred’ makes cantrevoeẟ r.b.b. 407 ff., but Mn. W. cantref-i, ‑ydd like tref; see § 75 iv, v.
eglwys ‘church’ follows tref in Mn.W. (eglwysyẟ p 147/5 r.), but Ml. W. has eglwysseu r.p. 1046, m.a. i 273a. In Ml. W. fforest follows tref: foresti r.b.b. 199, fforestyẟ r.m. 195, Mn. W. fforestydd only. plwyf ‘parish’ (a late meaning) also takes ‑i or ‑ydd in Recent W., but earlier plwyvau m.a. ii 613.
‑i was added to some names of persons: saer ‘craftsman’, pl. seiri w.m. 189; maer ‘steward’, pl. meiri b.b. 54; cawr ‘giant’, pl. cewri (rarely ceuri) § 76 iv (3); merthyr ‘martyr’, pl. merthyri Ỻ.A. 126; prophwydi ib.; arglwydd, pl. arglwyẟi M.A. i 198a; so all in Mn. W. (in Late W. merthyron also).
​‑i was also added to many names of things with e or a in the sg., the ‑i of course affecting the latter; as llestr-i w.m. 6 ‘vessels’; gwernenn-i a hwylbrenn-i do. 51 ‘masts and yards’; canhwyllbrenn-i, also ‑au, both in 1 Chron. xxviii 15 ‘candlesticks’; fenestr-i m.a. i 216a ‘windows’; cethr-i I.G. 584 ‘nails’; perth-i r.p. 1272 ‘bushes’;—banier-i m.a. i 197b ‘banners’, sg. bani̯ar; per-i ib. ‘spears’, sg. pâr; defn-i ‘drops’ § 202 v (3), for dafneu r.p. 1184; der-i r.p. 1318 ‘oaks’, sg. dâr f.
The use of ‑i has been extended in Mn. W.; thus Ml. W. kerẟeu w.m. 6 ‘songs’, Mn. W. cerddi T.A. and later; Ml. W. garẟeu r.b.b. 145 ‘gardens’, Mn. W. gerddi D.G. 258; Ml. W. llwyneu r.b.b. 40 ‘bushes’, so llwynau D.G. 60, later llwyni; Ml. W. mein ‘stones’ (sg. maen), Late Mn. W. meini (Ml. meini in ZE. 284 is an error for mein, see r.m. 196, l. 5); beddi b.cw. 59 beside the usual beddau, Ml. beteu (t ≡ ẟ) b.b. 63.
(3) ‑ydd and ‑oedd are found in avon-it (≡ ‑yẟ) b.b. 91 ‘rivers’, avon-oeẟ r.b.b. 40, Mn. W. afonydd; gwladoeẟ m.a. i 199a, c.m. 2, r.b.b. 44, w.m. 190, later gwledyẟ in the last-quoted passage in r.m. 91, Mn. W. gwledydd; keyryẟ w.m. 192 ‘castles’, kaeroeẟ r.p. 1230, also caereu b.a. 26, Mn. W. keyrydd W.Ỻ. 64, caerau G.Gl. m 146/163; dinassoeẟ w.m. 190, r.m. 91, 93, Mn.W. dinasoedd, rarely dinessyẟ p 147/5 r., G.Gl. p 152/201. They are added to nouns in ‑fa, as Mn. W. porfeydd, porfaoedd ‘pastures’ (most of them with only one in use), Ml. W. tyrvahoeẟ r.p. 1241 ‘crowds’; as well as ‑au, Ml. W. ‑eu: presswylvaeu Ỻ.A. 57 ‘habitations’, eisteẟvaen do. 62, ‘seats’ (‑aeu later contr. to ‑ā́u).
‑ydd alone occurs in meyssyẟ r.p. 1188 ‘fields’, Mn. W. meysydd (wrongly spelt meusydd), sg. maes; heolyẟ r.m. 175 ‘streets’; bro-yẟ r.p. 1189 ‘regions’; dolyẟ do. 1188 ‘meadows’ (also doleu b.t. 33); gweunyẟ r.p. 1286 ‘meadows’, sg. gweun, gwaun; lluoss-it (≡ ‑yẟ) b.b. 66, r.p. 1188 ‘hosts’, sg. lliaws; nentydd ‘brooks’, poet. naint D.G. 25, sg. nant; coedydd ‘trees’, ystormydd ‘storms’, etc.
(4) Old neut. nouns take ‑oedd or ‑edd, sometimes alternating with vowel-affection; as môr m. ‘sea’, pl. moroedd < *mórii̯a beside mŷr < *morī, § 117 i; dant m. ‘tooth’, pl. dannedd < *dantíi̯a beside deint r.p. 1036, daint D.D. s.v.; deint is also sg., see § iii (2). ‑oedd may be orig. m. or f. also, see (1). ​‑edd and ‑oedd are added to nouns orig. of other declensions as follows:
‑eẟ in Ml. W., ‑oedd in Mn. W. are added to tir m. ‘land’ (an old neut. s-stem), pl. tiret (‑t ≡ ‑ẟ) b.b. 33, tireẟ r.b.b. 40 (beside tirion § 35 iii), Mn. W. tiroedd D.G. 436, 524; mynydd m. ‘mountain’ (< *moníi̯o‑), pl. mynyẟeẟ w.m. 250, b.t. 11, r.b.b. 40, Mn. mynyddoedd; dwfr m. ‘water’ (neut. o-stem), pl. dyfreẟ Ỻ.A. 54, 65, Mn. dyfroedd.
mynyẟeẟ having become mynyẟe in S. W. dialects (cf. eiste § 110 iv (3)), this was wrongly standardized as mynyddau by some recent writers, but the traditional lit. form mynyddoedd prevails. The same remark applies to blynyddoedd, now sometimes written blynyddau for dial. blynyẟe < *blynyẟeẟ. In the above words ‑oeẟ may be old as a N. W. form, the prevailing forms in Ml. W. being S. W.
‑oedd was added to cant m. ‘hundred’ (neut. o-stem), pl. cannoedd; nerth m. ‘strength’ (neut. o-stem); mil f. ‘thousand’; mur m. ‘wall’, pl. muroeẟ w.m. 191, muroedd g. 237, later muriau; llu m. ‘host’ (m. o-stem), pl. lluoeẟ r.m. 175, Mn. lluoedd; byd m. ‘world’ (m. u-stem), pl. bydoeẟ m.a. i 199, Mn. bydoedd; nifer m. ‘host’, pl. niveroeẟ w.m. 54, Mn. niferoedd; mis m. ‘month’, pl. misoedd; teyrnas f. ‘kingdom’, pl. tyrnassoeẟ w.m. 50, Mn. teyrnasoedd; tŵr m. ‘tower’ (< E. < Fr.), pl. tyroeẟ w.m. 191, tyreu do. 133, Mn. tyrau; iaith f. ‘language’, pl. ieithoeẟ w.m. 469, b.t. 4, Mn. ieithoedd; gw̯ledd f. ‘feast’, pl. gwleddoedd D.G. 524, gwleddau do. 8; gwisg f. ‘dress’, pl. gwisgoedd; oes f. ‘age’, pl. O. W. oisou (with ð added at some distance, see fac. b.s.ch. 2, for ‘deest’ according to Lindsay, EWS. 46), Ml. W. oessoeẟ Ỻ.A. 103, oesseu b.t. 15, 19, Mn. W. oesoedd, oesau; achoet (t ≡ ẟ) B.B. 53, Mn. achoedd, achau ‘lineage’ both in L.G.C. 213, sg. ach f.; dyfnderoedd ‘depths’, blinder-oedd, ‑au ‘troubles’.
iii. i̯o-stems. (1) The vowel is affected in the sg.; the pl. ends in ‑ydd, ‑oedd, ‑edd.
The Ar. nom. endings were m. sg. *‑(i)i̯os, pl. *‑(i)i̯ōs; neut. sg. *‑(i)i̯om, pl. *-(i)i̯ā. In Kelt. *-(i)i̯ōs gave place to *‑(i)i̯oi > *‑(i)i̯ī; this gave ‑yẟ or ‑oeẟ according to the accent; neut. *‑íi̯ā gave ‑eẟ; ‑eẟ in m. nouns is prob. for ‑oeẟ. Where neither sg. nor pl. had i before i̯, we had e.g. dyn ‘man’ and ‘*men’; then a new dynion for the latter § 121 i.
​(2) Ml. W. bugeil ‘shepherd’, pl. bugelyẟ Ỻ.A. 109, r.b.b. 245 < *boukoli̯os pl. *boukolíi̯ī. This was a rare type, and in Mn. W. a new pl. was formed: bugail, pl. bugeiliaid. But the f. adain ‘wing’ (i̯ā-stem), pl. adanedd, had a new pl. made by affecting this, as if the word belonged to the ‑i̯o- declension: adain, pl. adenydd § 125 iii.
The word for ‘tooth’ seems partly to have passed over to this declension; thus *danti̯on pl. *dantíi̯ā giving sg. deint Ỻ.A. 67 translating “dens”, Mn. W. daint, as heb un-daint D.G. 323 'without one tooth ', pl. dannedd as for sg. dant § ii (4) above. In Gwyn. dial. the sg. is daint.
The ending was ‑oeẟ in brenhinoet b.b. 53 ‘kings’, Mn. W. brenhinoedd; but the more usual Ml. form is breenhineẟ l.l. 120, brenhineẟ w.m. 178–9, prob. with ‑eẟ for ‑oeẟ § 78 ii. So teyrneẟ r.p. 1313, D.G. 181 ‘kings’, ewythreẟ r.m. 140 ‘uncles’; cystlwn ‘family’, pl. cystlyneẟ r.p. 1267.
    Cystlynedd Gwynedd i gyd,
    Cynafon Hwlcyn hefyd.—G.Gl. m 1/no. 49.
‘All the families of Gwynedd, and the scions of Hwlcyn too.’
iv. Fem. i̯ē- and i̯ā-stems. (1) The vowel is affected in the sg. Pl. ending ‑edd.
i̯ē- and i̯ā-stems have R-grade forms in ‑ī, p. 81. In Lat. and Balt. they remain distinct or have become so (Lat. dūritia: dūritiēs). In Kelt. they seem to be mixed, see Thurneysen, Gr. 180 f.; but as ē > ī in Kelt., the meaning of the facts is often obscure. In other branches ‑i̯ē- and ‑i̯ā- are indistinguishable. The W. sg. may come from *‑i̯ā, *‑i̯ē, or *‑ī; pl. ‑eẟ < *‑íi̯ās.
(2) blwyddyn ‘year’ (Ir. blīadain) < *bleidonī, pl. blynedd < *blidníi̯ās § 125 v (1); this pl. form is used only after numerals; for other purposes a new pl. was formed by adding ‑edd to the sg., as blwyẟyneẟ w.m. 37, then by metath. blwynyẟeẟ Ỻ.A. 105, Mn. W. blynyddoedd, S. W. dial. blynyẟe(ẟ) (whence latterly a false blynyddau see ii (4)).—modryb ‘aunt’ < *mātr-aq$^{u̯}$ī (√ōq$^{u̯}$- § 69 ii (4)), pl. modrabedd c.c. 282 (so in Gwyn. dial.; ‑o- < sg.) < *mātraq$^{u̯}$íi̯ās; the form modrybeẟ r.p. 1362 seems to be re-made from the sg., as modreped ox. 2.—edau ‘thread’, pl. edafedd § 76 vii (1); adain ‘wing’ pl. adanedd, etc., see § 125 iii.
blwydd means ‘a year of one’s age’ or adj. ‘year old’ pl. blwyddiaid, § 145 iii Note, teirblwydd ‘three years old’, pymtheg̃mlwyẟ r.b.b. 185 ‘fifteen years old’, etc. The use by recent writers of blwydd for ‘year’ is as foreign to the spoken language as it is to the literary tradition, and the forms blwyddau, blwyddi for ‘years’ are pure fabrications.
(3) ‑edd, later replaced by ‑ydd, was added to *chwïor < *su̯esores, the pl. of chwaer ‘sister’, as chwioreẟ Ỻ.A. 38, r.b.b. 39, w.m. 158; in the last passage chwioryẟ in r.m. 226; Mn. W. chw̯ïóredd T.A., Wm.S., later only chw̯ïórydd; § 75 vi (2).
t-stems.
§ 123. i. ‑ed < Brit. *‑etes occurs in merched ‘daughters’, Ml. W. merchet w.m. 469, merched (d ≡ d) 468; pryfed ‘worms’, Ml. W. pryved (d ≡ d) b.b. 81. D.G. has hued 30, 93 ‘hounds’ (sg. huad W.Ỻ. 166, O.G. c 82 s.v.). In Ml. W. we also have guystviled b.b. 53 ‘beasts’; and in O. W. ætinet brounbreithet ox. gl. cicadae.
The stem-form is seen in Gaul. Cing-es, gen. ‑etos, and Nemetes ‘nobiles?’ beside the ‑eto- stem in nemeto- ‘temple’. As it seems to have been used to form names of persons it may be original in merch, which would so be from *merke(s)s < *merkets (pl. *merketes) < *mer(i)k-et‑: Skr. maryakáḥ § 101 iv (1), √merēi̯- § 125 v (1).—pryf is an old i-stem § 61 i (1), ending therefore in *‑es (< *‑is), which seems to have been mistaken for *‑e(s)s < *‑ets.
ii. ‑od, Ml. W. ‑ot < Brit. *‑otes occurs in llygod ‘mice’, sg. llyg (< *lukō(s)s) and llygoden (Ir. luch ‘mouse’, gen. lochad, Bret. logodenn, pl. logod): Gaul. Lucot-ios, Λουκοτ-ικνος.
The above is an example of the survival in W. of Brit. ‑ot- as seen by its cognates; but the ending ‑od became fertile in the formation of new plurals. It was added to diminutives, and forms with gemination, which is a peculiarity of child language, and of names of animals § 93 iii (2).
(1) It was added to most names of animals: llewot w.m. 229, Ỻ.A. 165 ‘lions’, now llewod; eryrot Ỻ.A. 167 ‘eagles’, now eryrod; llydnot r.m. 52, w.m. 73, now llydnod, sg. llwdn ‘pullus’; hyẟot w.m. 158, now hyddod ‘stags’; gwiberot do. 229, now gwiberod ‘vipers’; ednot Ỻ.A. 130, now ednod ‘birds’ (also ednaint, § 121 iv, and in O. W. ætinet i above). In Mn. W. ​cathod, llwynogod, ewigod (Ml. W. ewigeẟ r.m. 118), ysgyfarnogod, crancod (Bardsey crainc, so G.Gr. p 77/193), colomennod, etc.
(2) It was added to some names of persons: gwiẟonot w.m. 178 ‘witches’; meudwyot Ỻ.A. 117 ‘hermits’ (also meudwyaid D.G. 409); gw̯rach ‘hag’, pl. gwrachiot p 12/124 r., Mn. W. gwrachḯod D.G. 332, in which ‑od seems to be added to an old pl. *gw̯rechi (cf. the adj. gw̯rachḯaidd).
    Er ŵyn a gw̯lân arwain glod
    A chýwydd i w̯rachḯod.—I.B.H., br. iv 104.
‘For lambs and wool he brings praise and song to old women.’
It is found in genethod ‘girls’ sg. geneth (old geminated form, § 93 iii (2)); and is added to diminutives in ‑an, as in babanod ‘babies’, llebanod ‘clowns’ (whence by analogy the biblical publicanod); in ‑ach, as in bwbachod ‘bugbears’, corachod ‘dwarfs’ (by analogy in Late W. mynachod for myneich ‘monks’); in ‑yn(n) or ‑en(n), as in lliprynnod ‘weaklings’, mursennod ‘prudes’, dyhirod ‘knaves’ sg. dyhiryn; and to other nouns originally in a contemptuous sense, as eurychod ‘tinkers,’ twrneiod a chlarcod b.cw. 62, Gwyddelod in Late W. for Gwyddyl ‘Irishmen’, Ffrancod for Ffrainc. The substitution in Late W. of ‑od for another termination in the names of relatives etc. comes from child-language, as in tadmaethod Esa. xlix 23 for tadmaethau. Ml. W. tatmaetheu w.m. 37; ewythrod for ewythredd § 122 iii (2), cyfnitherod for cyfnitheroedd W.Ỻ. C.Ỻ. 132.
(3) It occurs after a few names of things: (α) geminated forms, or what appeared to be such, as cỿchod sg. cwch ‘boat’; nythod ‘nests’, Ml. W. nethod (e ≡ ỿ) a.l. i 24; bythod, sg. bwth ‘hut’; (β) diminutive forms, as tenynnod ‘halters’ sg. tennyn; bythynnod ‘cottages’, sg. bwthyn; and by false analogy Mn. W. tyddynnod ‘small farms’, for Ml. W. tyẟynneu a.l. i 168, 182; bwlanod sg. bwlan ‘a vessel of straw’; (γ) some names of coins: dimeiot r.b.b. 384 now dimeiau ‘halfpennies’; ffyrllig̃ot ib. now ffyrlingod ‘farthings’; ffloringod D.G. 287 ‘florins’, hatlingod ‘half-farthings’; (δ) personifications etc.: angheuod b.cw. 65 ‘death-sprites’; eilunod ‘idols’, erthylod ‘abortions’.
iii. Ml. W. ‑awt occurs in pyscawt r.m. 52, w.m. 73, r.b.b. 149, b.t. 8, b.b. 89 ‘fish’ < Lat. piscātus, § 118 ii (2); and in ​gorwyẟawt b.t. 36 ‘horses’, sg. gorw͡yẟ; eẟystrawt b.t. 70 ‘horses’ sg. eddystr or eddestr. The first survives as pysgod, in which the ending is now indistinguishable from old ‑od.
iv. ‑i̯aid, Ml. W. ‑ẏeit, ‑eit, is the pl. formed by affection of the ending ‑i̯ad, Ml. W. ‑ẏat § 143 iv (5); thus offeiriad ‘priest’ pl. offeiriaid, Ml. W. offeireit Ỻ.A. 117. All names of living things in ‑i̯ad (except cariad) form their pl. so; thus ceinẏeid m.a. i 285 ‘singers’, lleitẏeid (t ≡ ẟ) ib. now lleiddiaid ‘murderers’, gleissẏeid ib., now gleisiaid, sg. gleisiad ‘salmon’; but abstract nouns in ‑iad have ‑iadau § 120 i (4); cariad ‘lover’ is the same as cariad ‘love’ and has pl. cariadau Hos. ii 5, 7, 10.
But ‑iaid is also added to form the pl. of names of living things whose sg. does not end in ‑iad:
(1) Names of classes and descriptions of persons: personnẏeit Ỻ.A. 117, now personiaid, sg. person ‘parson’; conffessorieit do. 70; r͑aclovẏeit w.m. 456, Mn. W. rhaglofiaid, sg. rhaglaw ‘deputy’; barwnẏeit r.m. 179, now barwniaid, sg. barwn ‘baron’; makwyveit w.m. 15, mackwyeit r.m. 9, sg. maccwy(f) ‘youth’; bẏleẏnẏeẏt a.l. i 24, sg. bilaen r.b.b. 123 ‘villain’; cythreulẏeit m.a. i 251b ‘devils’; ysgwierẏeit s.g. 11 ‘squires’; in Mn. W. pennaethiaid Ps. ii 2, sg. pennaeth; estroniaid ‘strangers’, meistraid ‘masters’, gefeilliaid ‘twins’, Protestaniaid, Methodistiaid, etc. Also adjectives used as nouns, § 145 iii.
(2) Tribal and national names: Albanẏeit r.b.b. 271, also Albanwyr do. 270, sg. Albanwr ‘Scotchman’; Corannyeit r.m. 96, no sg.; Brytanẏeit do. 91, no sg.; y Groecieit a’r Lhadinieit J.D.R. [xiv] ‘the Greeks and Latins’; Rhufeiniaid, Corinthiaid, etc. Also family and personal names: y Llwydiaid ‘the Lloyds’, y Lleisioniaid L.G.C. 110 ‘the Leyshons’, Koytmoriaid p 61/33 r.
(3) All names in ‑ur of living things: pechadurẏeit Ỻ.A. 152 now pechaduriaid, sg. pechadur ‘sinner’; kreadurẏeit do. 4, now creaduriaid, sg. creadur ‘creature’; awdurieid J.D.R. [xiv], awdurẏeit r.p. 1375, sg. awdur ib. ‘author’ (the pl. awduron seems to come from the gorseddic writings, the source of numerous fabrications); Mn.W. ffoäduriaid, cysgaduriaid, henuriaid, etc.
Other nouns in ‑ur take either ‑i̯au, as gw̯niaduri̯au ‘thimbles’, pladuri̯au ‘scythes’, or ‑au as papurau ‘papers’, mesurau ‘measures’, or ‑on as murmuron, cysuron.
​(4) Some generic names of animals; as anifelleit Ỻ.A. 165, w.m. 238, now anifeiliaid, sg. anifail ‘animal’; mileit r.m. 129, Mn. W. milod, sg. mil ‘animal’; so bwystvileit r.b.b. 40 now bwystfilod, sg. bwystfil; ysgrubliaid Gen. xlv 17 ‘beasts’. Also a few specific names, as cameleit Ỻ.A. 165, Mn. W. camelod; Mn. W. bleiddiaid Matt. vii 15 ‘wolves’, also bleiddiau T.A. g. 233, Ml. bleẏẟẏeu m.a. ii 230; gwenoliaid D.G. 20, sg. gwennol ‘swallow’.
Strictly, of course, ‑i̯aid is not a t-stem but a to-stem; thus ‑i̯ad from *‑i̯atos, pl. ‑iaid < *‑i̯atī.
v. ‑ant < Brit. *‑antes, m. f. pl. participial ending occurs in carant b.a. 14, b.b. 46, Ỻ.A. 153, r.m. 130, sg. câr ‘kinsman’ < *karants (Ir. care < *karants) < *k̑ₑr‑: Armen. ser ‘progeny, family’, E. her‑d, Lat. crēsco, √k̑er- ‘grow’. In Early Ml. W. carant was already affected into kereint C. m.a. i 244, Mn. W. ceraint, later also cerynt M.K. [71] ‘kinsmen’ (not ‘lovers’). On the analogy of this was formed the pl. of Ml. W. nei (now nai) ‘nephew’: neẏeẏnt a.l. i 8, nẏeint w.m. 89, Ỻ.A. 121, Mn.W. neiaint; and of ceifn ‘3rd cousin’: keywneynt (≡ keivneint) b. ch. 76 defined ib. as ‘children of the 4th mother’ (those of the 2nd being ‘cousins’, etc.). Ml. W. meddweint Ỻ.A. 55 ‘drunkards’ may be an old participial form. A few other nouns have ‑eint, Mn. W. ‑aint affected for an earlier *‑ann, § 121 iv.
r-stems.
§ 124. i. ‑er < Brit. *‑eres occurs in broder w.m. 38, r.m. 26, later affected to brodyr r.m. 140; broder survived, as in T.A. g. 229, Wm.S. e.g. Act. xv 23, but was at length ousted by brodyr, cf. § 122 iv (3). In Ml. W. brodorion also is used, R.M. 203, 207. Sg. brawd ‘brother’, § 59 ii, § 63 iii.
brodorion also meant ‘fellow-countrymen, clansmen’ b.b. 51, 55 (cf. Gk. φρᾱ́τωρ); in Late Mn. W. it came to mean ‘natives’; brodor ‘a native’ is a new sg. deduced from this pl.
-yr was added (instead of the old ‑awr) to gwayw ‘spear’ (also in Mn. W. ‘pain’), giving gw̯aew̯yr c.m. 48, but more usually gwewyr r.b. 1074 (for *gw̯eyw̯yr).
    Ofera’ gwaith fu i’r gwŷr
    Eliaw ôl i wewyr.—D.N., p 99/598.
‘It was the vainest task for men to anoint the marks of his spears.’
​ii. ‑awr is common in Early Ml. W. poetry: gwaewaur b.b. 58, b.a. 9 (see fac.) ‘spears’, ysgwydawr b.a. 9 ‘shields’, cleẟyvawr, byẟinawr, llavnawr ib. ‘swords, armies, blades’; later (in prose) gwaewar w.m. 182, r.m. 85.
-awr < Brit. *‑āres < Ar. *‑ōres.
Vowel Changes.
125. The vowel changes which occur when an ending is added to form the pl. are the following:
i. Mutation § 81: brawd ‘brother’, pl. brodyr; brawd ‘judgement’, pl. brodiau; daw ‘son-in-law’, pl. dofẏon r.b.b. 68; rhaw ‘spade’, pl. rhofiau § 110 iii (1); cwrr ‘edge’, pl. cỿrrau; dɥn ‘man’, pl. dỿni̯on; sail ‘foundation’, pl. seiliau; ffau ‘den’, pl. ffeuau; gwaun ‘meadow’, pl. gweunydd; buwch ‘cow’, pl. buchod, etc. etc.
ii. Penultimate Affection § 83 iii: The endings which cause affection are ‑i, ‑ydd, ‑i̯aid, ‑i̯on: pâr, peri; dâr, deri; maer, meiri; cawr, cewri; § 122 ii (2);—caer, ceyrydd; maes, meysydd; do. (3);—cymar ‘mate’, pl. cymheiriaid; gefell r.p. 1302 ‘twin’ (< Lat. gemellus), pl. gefeilliaid; penkeirẟẏeit, anr͑eigẏon § 70 ii (2); mab ‘son’, pl. meibion, etc.; see § 128 ii.
iii. Reversion. In some cases the vowel is affected in the sg., but reverts to (or, historically speaking, retains) its original sound in the plural:
Fem. iē- or iā-stems, with pl. ending ‑edd, § 122 iv: adein b.b. 82, adain D.G. 132, 421 ‘wing’, pl. adaneẟ r.m. 155, r.b.b. 64, later affected to adenydd; celain ‘corpse’, pl. celanedd or calaneẟ r.b.b. 49; edeu, edau ‘thread’, pl. edafedd or adaveẟ r.m. 154; elain ‘fawn’, pl. elanedd or alaneẟ a.l. i 20; gw̯raig, Ml. W. gwreic, pl. gw̯rageẟ; neidr ‘snake’, pl. nadredd, anadreẟ § 21 iii, later nadroedd; r͑iein r.p. 1239, m.a. i 329b, 421b, Mn. W. rhiain D.G. 39, 95, 117, 130, 308, etc. ‘maiden’, pl. r͑ianeẟ w.m. 166, r.p. 1282, rhianedd D.G. 125, 234, 371.—Neut. io-stem: daint, pl. dannedd § 122 iii (2).—Fem. uā-stem, pl. ending ‑au: cainc ‘branch’, Ml. W. ceing w.m. 108, pl. cag̃eu b.b. 48, now cangau, see § 120 iii (2).—Neut. u-stem, pl. ending ‑au: deigr ‘tear’, pl. dagrau, see § 120 iii (1).—Mas. and fem. n-stems, pl. ending ​‑on (Brit. nom. sg. ‑ō, pl. ‑ones) § 121 i: athro, pl. athrawon § 76 v (5), athraon § 36 iii; keneu w.m. 483 ‘whelp’, pl. kanawon w.m. 28, canaon § 36 iii, cỿnawon r.m. 18, cỿnavon r.p. 1209, late cenawon; draig ‘dragon’, pl. dragon, later dreigeu Ỻ.A. 153, now dreigiau; lleidr ‘thief’, pl. lladron; Sais ‘Englishman’, pl. Saeson § 69 ii (2), Ml. W. sg. Seis Ỻ.A. 120, pl. Saeson b.b. 60, 66, r.b.b. 41, 71, etc., Saesson b.b. 48, 51, b.a. 4. On ych (affection of *wch), pl. ychen, see § 69 v.
    Edn a’i draed ydwy’n y drain,
    A’r glud ar gil i adain.—T.A., a 14866/201.
‘I am a bird with his feet in the thorns, and the lime on the edge of his wing.’
    Hwde un o’i hadanedd;
    E heda byth hyd y bedd.—I.F., m 160/456.
‘Take one of its [the swallow’s] wings; it will fly always till death’ [lit. ‘till the grave’].
    Llathen heb yr adenydd
    Yn y saeth a dynnai sydd.—Gut.O., a 14967/50.
‘There is a yard without the feathers in the arrow which he drew.’
    Mai nodwydd ym mlaen edau
    Y mae lliw hon i’m lleihau.—D.G. 296 (? T.A.).
‘As a needle threaded, does her aspect make me spare.’
    Aur a dyf ar edafedd
    Ar y llwyn er mwyn a’i medd.—D.G. 87.
‘Gold grows on threads on the bush [of broom] for the sake of [her] who owns it.’
    Ni’m cymer i fy rhḯain:
    Ni’m gwrthyd f’anwylyd fain.—D.G. 429.
‘My damsel will not have me: my slender love will not reject me.’
    Er bod arian rhïánedd
    Fwy na’i bwys ar faen y bedd.—H.D. p 99/402.
‘Though there be [of] maidens’ money more than his weight on the gravestone.’
    Fy mrawd, mi a rois fy mryd
    Ar ddau genau oedd gennyd.—G.I.H., p 77/384.
‘My brother, I have set my heart on two whelps that thou hadst.’
    Kedyrn ac ievainc ydynt,
    Kynafon aur Kynfyn ynt.—Gut.O., p 100/343.
‘Strong and young are they; they are the golden scions of Cynfyn.’ ​
Note.—Reversion has puzzled writers of the late modern period, and lexicographers. adain was used regularly by the Early Mn. bards; but the Bible has aden, deduced from the pl. adenydd; from aden a spurious pl. edyn was formed, which seems to occur first in E.P., ps. lvii 1, but did not make its way into the spoken language. In the 1620 Bible ceneu is, by a slip, correctly written in Esa. xi 6, elsewhere it is carefully misspelt cenew; in later editions this became cenaw, an impossible form, since ‑aw could not affect the original a to e; see § 76 v (5). On athro, misspelt athraw, see ibid. Pughe gives eleined as the pl. of elain, and actually asserts that the pl. of gwraig is gwreigedd! He also invented the singulars rhian, edan. Silvan Evans s.v. celan notes this; but himself inserts the equally spurious dagr ‘tear’ and deigron ‘tears’. In his Llythyraeth p. 17 he attempted to change the spelling of Saeson to Seison.
iv. Exchange of ultimate for penultimate affection: Ml. W. bugeil, bugelyẟ, Mn. W. adain, adenydd § 122 iii (2); Ml. W. gwelleu r.m. 123, w.m. 483, ‘shears’, Mn. W. gwellau, pl. gwelleifiau, new lit. sg. gwellaif § 76 vii (1).
v. Anomalous changes: (1) morw͡yn ‘virgin’, pl. morỿnion b.b. 61, morynẏon w.m. 99, Ỻ.A. 109, r.b.b. 70. This was altered to morwynion in the Bible, but persists in the spoken language as m’rỿni̯on. Note the double rhymes in
    Lleẟɏf englỿnẏon lliw r͑os gwỿnnẏon,
    lloer morỿnẏon llawr Meirẏonyẟ.—I.C. r.p. 1287.
‘Sad verses [to her of] the colour of white roses, the moon of the maidens of the land of Merioneth.’
The same change occurs in blw͡yddyn, pl. blỿnedd § 122 iv (2).
This change seems to be due to the survival in Brit. under different accentuations of two R-grades of ēi, namely R$_{1e}$ ei, and R$_2$ i, § 63 vii (5). Thus morw͡yn < Brit. *moréini̯ō < *marei- < *mₑrei‑; morỿni̯on < Brit. *morini̯ónes < *mₑri‑, √merēi‑: Lat. marī-tus < *mₑrī- with R$_3$ ī.—blw͡yẟyn ‘year’, Ir. blíadain < *bleidonī, a fem. i̯ā-stem from an adj. *blei-d-ono‑s from a vb. stem *blei‑d- ‘to blow’, √bhlēi‑, extension of *bhelē‑, *bhelō- whence O.H.G. bluo-ian (< *bhlō‑) ‘to blossom’, Ml. W. blawt ‘blossom’, Lat. flōs, etc. § 59 v, thus blwyẟyn ‘*budding season’; pl. blýneẟ < *blidníi̯ās; tair blyneẟ ‘three < *seasons’.
(2) chwaer pl. chwïorydd § 75 vi (2), § vii (2).
(3) achos pl. achosion, Ml. W. achaws pl. achwysson Ỻ.A. 129, see § 75 i (3).
​(4) celfyẟyd ‘art’, Ml. W. pl. kelvydodeu.
celfyẟyd < *kalmíi̯o-tūts; kelvydod- < *kalmii̯o-tā́t-es, owing to the interchange of ‑tūt‑, -tāt‑; § 99 ii (2), § 143 iii (10), (24).
Plural of Nouns with Singular Endings.
§ 126. Nouns with the singular endings ‑yn and ‑en fall into three classes for the purposes of pl. formation.
i. Class 1. The sg. ending is dropped, with or without vowel change; thus, without vowel change: pluen ‘feather’, pl. plu; mochyn ‘pig’, pl. moch; cwningen ‘rabbit’, pl. cwning g. 226; blewyn ‘a hair’, pl. blew. The vowel changes that take place when the ending is dropped are the following:
(1) Mutation: conyn ‘stalk’, pl. cawn; deilen b.t. 28, Gen. viii 11, ‘leaf’, pl. dail; cneuen ‘nut’, pl. cnau; gwenỿnen ‘bee’, pl. gwenɥn, etc.
(2) Ultimate Affection: collen ‘hazel’, pl. cɥll; onnen ‘ash’, pl. ɥnn; dalen w.m. 231, r.m. 167, Ps. i 3 ‘leaf’, pl. dail, chwannen ‘flea’, pl. chwain; draenen ‘hawthorn’, pl. drain; tywarchen ‘sod’, pl. tyweirch, tywyrch:
    Drylliwr cwys i droi lle’r ceirch,
    Daint haearn dan y tyweirch.—T.A. c. i 341.
‘The cutter of a furrow to turn up the bed of the corn, an iron tooth under the sods.’
(3) Reversion. As ‑yn causes penultimate affection, when it drops the vowel reverts to its original sound: plentyn ‘child’, pl. plant; aderyn ‘bird’, pl. adar.
(4) Exchange of penultimate for ultimate affection: giewyn ‘sinew’, pl. gḯau; Ml. W. llyssewyn Ỻ.A. 97, 166 ‘plant’, pl. llysseu m.m. 3, Mn. llyssau W.Ỻ. 99, llysiau.
ii. Class 2. A plural ending is substituted for the sg. ending, as diferyn ‘drop’, pl. diferion; crwydryn ‘vagrant’, pl. crwydraid; meddwyn ‘drunkard’, pl. meddwon; planhigyn ‘plant’, pl. planhigion; cwningen ‘rabbit’, pl. cwningod. The following vowel changes occur:
(1) Affection: mïaren ‘bramble ’, pl. mïeri (mwyeri r.b.b. 48).
(2) Reversion: gelyn ‘enemy’, old pl. galon b.a. 26, and ​some nouns with two singulars, as deigryn ‘tear’, pl. dagrau § 130 ii.
iii. Class 3. A pl. ending is added to the sg. ending, as gelyn ‘enemy’, pl. gelinion b.b. 71, gelynẏon r.b.b. 71, Mn. W. gelỿni̯on; defnyn Gr.O. 48, defnynnau Luc xxii 44; dalen ‘leaf’, pl. dalennau Ex. xxxix 3; mursennod, bythynnod § 123 ii.
iv. In some nouns final ‑yn or ‑en is not the singular ending but part of the stem; in these the n of ‑yn is not necessarily double when an ending is added; and ‑en is affected to ‑yn; thus telɥn f. ‘harp’, pl. telỿnau; tyddɥn m. ‘small farm’, § 98 i (3), pl. tỿddỿnnod, Ml. W. tyẟynneu a.l. i 168, 180, 182; maharen m. c.m. 26, myharen D.G. 202 ‘ram’, pl. meheryn; crogen, cragen, ‘shell’, pl. cregin § 117 iii (3); elltrewyn § 76 v (5), pl. *‑yneẟ not found; blwyẟyn § 122 iv (2).
Plural Formed from Derivatives.
§ 127. The pl. of a few nouns is formed by adding a pl. ending to a derivative: glaw ‘rain’, pl. glawogyẟ r.b.b. 324, g. 98; Ml. W. cristawn ‘christian’ pl. cristonogion b.b. 71, Mn.W. cristi̯on, pl. cristi̯onogi̯on, cristnogi̯on; llif ‘flood’, pl. llifogydd; addurn ‘adornment’, pl. addurniadau; crwydr ‘wandering’, pl. crwydr(i̯)adau; serch ‘affection’, pl. serchi̯adau; dychryn ‘terror’, pl. dychryni̯adau, dychrynfeydd; rheg ‘curse’, pl. rhegfeydd; dyn ‘man’, pl. dyniabon r.p. 1196, dyneẟon Ỻ.A. ii beside dyni̯on; cas Deut. vii 10 ‘hater, foe’, pl. caseion W.Ỻ. 8, also pl. cas do. 5.
Beside glawogydd the dialects have glawiau, evidently a new formation, though Bret. has glaoiou. The misspelling gwlaw occurs first about the end of the 17th cent., and was substituted in the Bible for the correct form glaw by R.M., 1746. The word always appears with gl- in Ml. W., as glav b.b. 63, glaw Ỻ.A. 13, 42, r.m. 146, m.a. i 396, r.p. 585, 1032 (4 times), 1055; gwlaw s.g. 147 is of course glaw in the ms., see P 11/95b; and of course there is no trace of gw̯- in the spoken language. The word cannot be from *u̯o-lau̯- as is usually assumed, for there is no example of the reduction of the prefix *u̯o- before a consonant to g- or even to gw‑; and that the same reduction took place also in Bret. glao, Corn. glaw is incredible. The etymology of the word is doubtful, but it probably represents Brit. *glou- (? *glo-u̯o‑: Skr. jala- ‘water, rain’).
camrau is used in the Bible for ‘steps’; but the true pl. of cam is camau Ỻ 28/96 r., Ml.W. kammeu r.b.b. 149, O.W. cemmein § 121 iv; and camrau is a mere misspelling of kam-re, see § 31 ii (2).
Double Plurals.
§ 128. Double plurals are of common occurrence, and are formed in the following ways:
i. A second pl. ending is added to the first: celain ‘corpse’, pl. celanedd, double pl. celaneddau Ps. cx 6; deigr ‘tear’, pl. dagrau, double pl. dagreuoeẟ Ỻ.A. 71, r.b.b. 146, 149; so blodeu ‘flowers’, double pl. blodeuoeẟ r.b.b. 40, sg. blodeuyn; dieu ‘days’, double pl. dieuoeẟ do. 9, 25, sg. dyẟ; llysseu ‘plants’, double pl. llysseuoeẟ Ỻ.A. 70; dynion, double pl. dynẏoneu r.p. 1303; neges ‘errand’, pl. negesau, double pl. negeseuau m.l. ii 97; peth ‘thing’, pl. pethau, double pl. petheuau do. 112, 119 ‘various things’; esgid ‘shoe’, esgidiau ‘shoes’, esgideuau ‘pairs of shoes’; mach ‘surety’, pl. meichi̯au, double pl. meichiafon.
ii. A pl. ending is added to a pl. formed by affection: thus cloch ‘bell’, pl. clych s.g. 380, double pl. clychau; sant ‘saint’, pl. seint b.b. 85, Ỻ.A. 69, double pl. seinnẏeu h.m. ii 227, Mn. W. seintiau; angel ‘angel’, pl. engyl m.a. i 282, double pl. engylẏon Ỻ.A. 155, w.m. 118, b.b. 70 etc., Mn. W. angỿli̯on (e- > a- § 83 iii Note 2).
In old formations ‑i̯on affected the preceding vowel, thus the ei of meibi̯on is the affection of a by i̯, as shown by the intermediate form mepion § 70 ii (1). But meibion seemed to be the pl. meib with ‑i̯on added; and on this analogy ‑i̯on was added to engyl. The y in angylion is not an old affection of the e by i̯, for that would be ei, cf. anr͑eigẏon, etc., § 70 ii (2). angelion is a new formation probably due to Wm.S., and, though used in the Bible by Dr. M. and Dr. P., has failed to supplant angylion as the spoken form. Silvan Evans’s statement that angelion very frequently occurs in Ml. mss. is a gross error, supported only by a quotation from a 17th cent. copy, h.m. ii 337, of a tract appearing in Ỻ.A., where the reading is eg̃ylẏonn 129.
In most cases however ‑i̯on is added to the sg., and does not affect ae, e, o: kaethẏon r.p. 1272, ysgolion ‘schools’.
iii. The diminutive pl. endings ‑ach (‑i̯ach) and ‑os are added to pl. nouns, as cryddionach Gr.O. 208, dynionach do. 93, J.D.R. [xx]; dreiniach ‘thorns’; plantos, gwragedhos, dilhados (dh ≡ ẟ, lh ≡ ll) J.D.R. [xv] ‘children, women, clothes’; cỿnos ‘little dogs’; more rarely to sg. nouns: branos r.m. 154, L.G.C. 148, ‘little crows’, caregos ‘pebbles’, dernynnach ‘bits’.
Sometimes a final media is now hardened before the ending: pryfetach, merchetos. This is prob. due to late diminutive doubling (d‑d > tt, etc.).
​iv. A noun with a pl. ending sometimes has its vowels affected as an additional sign of the pl., as ceraint for carant § 123 v, adenyẟ for adaneẟ § 125 iii, brodyr for broder § 124 i, which are therefore, in a sense, double plurals.
Plural Doublets.
§ 129. i. A noun not ending in ‑yn or ‑en may have more than one pl. form in the following ways:
(1) One pl. may be formed by affection and one by the addition of an ending: môr ‘sea’, pl. mŷr, moroeẟ § 122 ii (4); arf ‘weapon’, pl. arveu w.m. 97, 99, etc., poet, eirf D.G. 2; esgob ‘bishop’, pl. esgyb, later esgobion (15th cent, Gnt.O. a 14967/87), esgobiaid (T.A. a 14975/61), the first and last now obsolete; Ml.W. kévɏnderw̯ ‘cousin’, pl. kévɏndɥru, a.l. i 222, Mn. W. cefnder, pl. cefndyr, cefnderoedd L.G.C. 167.
In Recent Welsh new and inelegant weak forms are sometimes found, as castelli, alarchod for cestyll, elyrch. On the other hand in the late period we meet with spurious strong forms, such as edyn § 125 iii Note; and latterly emrynt for amrannau (amrantau) § 120 i (1); brieill for briallu § 134 ii; creig for creigiau.
(2) Two or more plurals may be formed by adding different endings: tref ‘town’, pl. trefi, trefydd § 122 ii (2); kaer ‘castle’, pl. keyrydd, kaeroedd, caereu, do. (3); achau, achoedd L.G.C. 213 ‘ancestry’; dyn § 127, etc. See § 131 i.
(3) Two plurals with the same ending may have different vowel changes; thus Ml. W. ceing old pl. cangeu § 125 iii, newer pl. ceingheu Ỻ.A. 144; these survive in Mn. W. as cainc pl. cangau, ceinciau. So cawr ‘giant’, pl. ceuri, cewri § 76 iv (3); achaws, achos ‘cause’ pl. achwysson § 125 v (3), achuysẏon a.l. i 30, and achosion.
ii. A noun ending in ‑yn or ‑en may have more than one pl. form as follows:
(1) Some nouns of class 1, § 126 i, have two plurals, one without and one with the vowel affected; as gwïalen ‘twig’, pl. gwḯal or gwḯail; seren ‘star’, pl. sêr b.t. 26, or sɥ̂r Ỻ.A. 5, the latter now obsolete; collen ‘hazel’, pl. coll m.m. 32, generally cɥll; onnen ‘ash’, pl. onn, more usually ɥnn; mellten ‘flash of lightning’, pl. mellt Ỻ.A. 107, rarely mɥllt r.b.b. 259.
    Ni thawaf, od af heb dâl,
    Mwy nog eos mewn gw̯ī́al.—D.G. 418, cf. 151.
‘I will not be silent, though I go without pay, more than a nightinggale in the branches.’
    E gaeodd Mai â gwī́ail
    Y llwybrau yn dyrrau dail.—D.G. 442, cf. 87, 162, 225.
‘May has blocked up with twigs the paths into masses of leaves.’
    Mawr yw seren y morwyr,
    Mwy yw no swrn o’r mân sŷr.—L.G.C. 459.
‘Great is the star of the mariners, greater than a cluster of small stars.’
    Dy ryw cyn amled a’r onn,
    Derw̯goed yw’r dreigiau dewrion.—T.A. a 14975/11.
‘Thy kindred are as numerous as ash-trees, but the brave dragons are oaks.’
(2) A noun may fall in more than one of the classes mentioned in § 126; thus cwningen, pl. 1 cwning, 2 cwningod; gelyn, pl. 1 galon, 3 gelynion; dalen, pl. 1 dail, 3 dalennau; defnyn, pl. 2 dafnau, 3 defynnau; asen ‘rib’, pl. 1 ais, 2 asau, 3 asennau.
    Rhyfedd yw’r ais, a’i rhifo,
    Fal cronglwyd lle tynnwyd to.—I.B.H., f. 17.
‘Strange are my ribs, and to be counted, like rafters where the roof has been taken away.’
    Ef a wŷs ar fy asau
    Am gelu hyn im gulhau.—B.Br. p 82/293, cf. D.G. 295.
‘It is evident from my ribs that I have become lean through concealing this [secret].’
    Siôn ffriw ac asennau Ffranc
    Sy lew brau—Salbri ieuanc.—T. A., a 14965/44.
‘Siôn, of the face and frame of a Frank, is a spirited lion—young Salesbury.’
Singular Doublets.
§ 130. i. A noun not ending in ‑yn or ‑en may have two forms of the sg. owing to various phonetic accidents: (1) ‑yf: ‑eu § 76 vii: cleẟyf r.p. 1236 ‘sword’, cleẟeu do. 1369, pl. cleẟyfeu; neẟyf do. 1237 ‘adze’, and neẟeu.
(2) dant, daint ‘tooth’, pl. dannedd § 122 iii (2).
(3) gwyry, gwyrf, gwerydd ‘virgin’, pl. gweryddon § 110 ii (3).
​(4) paret w.m. 92, parwyt b.t. 27 (the latter obsolete), pl. parwydydd ‘walls’ (of a house).
(5) gwarthafl ‘stirrup’, Mn. W. gwarthol (‑afl > ‑awl > ‑ol), pl. gwarthafleu, Mn. gwarthaflau.
(6) dydd ‘day’, dyw in dyw Sul etc., pl. dyddiau, dī́au.
ii. A noun may have a sg. form with, and one without, a sg. ending; as deigr, deigryn ‘tear’, pl. dagrau; erfyn, arf ‘weapon’, pl. arfau § 129 i (1); edau, edefyn ‘thread’, pl. edafedd, § 125 iii. The diminutive form has sometimes a pl. of its own; as dafn ‘drop’, pl. dafnau § 122 ii (2), and defnyn ‘drop’, pl. defnynnau § 126 iii; cainc ‘branch’, pl. cangau, ceinciau § 129 i (3); cangen ‘branch’, pl. canghennau T.A. g. 251.
iii. Nouns ending in ‑yn or ‑en, Class 1 § 126 i, may have two singulars, (1) one formed with each ending; thus adar ‘birds’, sg. m. aderyn and f. adaren b.b. 107, the latter obsolete; ysgall ‘thistles’, sg. ysgellyn and ysgallen, both in use; cawn, sg. conyn ‘stalk’, cawnen ‘rush’; gwḯal or gwḯail, sg. gwïalen, or gwïelyn c.c. 265.
(2) With different vowel changes; as dail ‘leaves’, old sg. dalen § 126 i (2), newer sg. deilen, re-formed from the pl. § 126 i (1).
Desynonymized Doublets.
§ 131. i. Many pl. doublets, especially those with different endings, § 129 i (2), have been desynonymized, some early, as bronneu w.m. 94, D.G. 233 ‘breasts’, bronnyẟ m.a. i 415, D.G. 70, ‘hills’, sg. bron ‘breast, hill’; personiaid § 123 iv (1) ‘parsons’, personau ‘persons’ (personẏeu c.m. 19), sg. person in both senses. The following occur in Mn. W.: canoniaid ‘canons’ (men), canonau ‘regulations’, sg. canon; cynghorion ‘counsels’, cynghorau ‘councils’, sg. cyngor; llwythau ‘tribes’, llwythi ‘loads’ (but llwythau ‘loads’ Ex. v 5, vi 6, llwythi ‘tribes’ J.D.R. 291), sg. llwyth; prydiau ‘times’, prydau ‘meals’, sg. pryd; pwysau ‘weights’, pwysi ‘lbs.’, sg. pwys; ysbrydion ‘spirits’ (beings), ysbrydoedd ‘spirits’ in other senses (but Ml. W. ysprydoeẟ, s.g. 308–9, ysprydẏeu do. 310, both in the former sense); anrheithiau ‘spoils’, anrheithi ‘dear ones’, sg. anrhaith ‘booty; darling’, § 156 ii (1).
​ii. In some cases the desynonymization is only partial: tadau means both ‘fathers’ and ‘ancestors’, but teit Ỻ.A. 121, Mn. W. taid means the latter only, as
    Penaethiaid yw dy daid oll.—G.I.H., Ỻ 133/211.
‘All thy ancestors are chieftains.’ teidiau ‘ancestors’ is perhaps to be treated as the pl. of taid ‘grandfather’, a derivative (< *tati̯os?) of tad, cf. nain ‘grandmother’ (< *nani̯ā?). The pl. ais, while continuing to mean ‘ribs’, was used for ‘breast’ D.G. 316, and became a sg. noun, fem. (like bron), as
    Am Robert y mae’r ebwch
    Yn f’ ais drom anafus drwch.—T.A., g. 230.
‘For Robert is the cry in my heavy wounded broken breast.’
But asau and asennau retained their literal meaning. In the spoken language now, ais is ‘laths’ (sg. eisen), asennau ‘ribs’ (sg. asen).
iii. Partial desynonymization extends to the sg. in deilen ‘leaf’ (of a tree only), dalen ‘leaf’ (natural or artificial), dail ‘leaves’ (of trees or books), dalennau ‘leaves’ (artificial only, but Ml. W. dalenneu b.b. 101 ‘leaves’ of trees). Complete desynonymization has taken place in the sg. and pl. in cors f. ‘marsh’, pl. corsydd, and corsen f. ‘reed’, pl. cyrs (in Ml. W. cors, corsydd meant ‘reed, reeds’ also, see Silvan Evans s. v.); tant ‘harp-string’, pl. tannau, and tennyn ‘halter’, pl. tenynnod.
iv. Desynonymization occurs in the sg. only in conyn ‘stalk’, cawnen ‘reed’; gwïalen ‘twig, wand’, gwïelyn ‘osier’ (used in wicker-work—the original meaning, § 75 vi (2)).
In the dialects also coeden ‘tree’ “vox nuperrimè ficta” D.D. and coedyn ‘piece of wood’. The word for ‘tree’ in lit. W. is pren; cf. ny elwir coet o un prenn r.p. 1044 ‘wood is not said of one tree.’
In some cases, of course, the diminutive was from its earliest formation distinct in meaning from its base; as yden f. ‘a grain of corn’ from yd ‘corn’ mas. sg. (yr yd hwn ‘this corn’), pl. ydau ‘varieties of corn’.
Anomalous Plurals.
§ 132. A few anomalous plurals remain to be noticed: (1) ci ‘dog’, pl. cwn; ci < Kelt. *kū < *ku̯ū < Ar. *k̑(u)u̯ō: Skr. s̑vā́ § 89 iii; cŵn < Brit. *kunes < Ar. *k̑unes.
​(2) dydd ‘day’ < *díi̯ēus: Lat. diēs, and dyw ‘day’ in dyw Gwener ‘on Friday’ etc. from an oblique case (Ar. gen. *diu̯és, *diu̯ós), pl. dïeu < Brit. *di̯éues § 100 ii (1), beside dïeuoeẟ § 128 i, and dyẟẏeu Ỻ.A. 51, r.b.b. 9, re-formed from the sg., Mn. W. dyddi̯au, now the usual form, though tridi̯au is still in common use.
Bluitinet a hir dieu (t ≡ ẟ) b.b. 56 ‘years and long days’; deugein niheu Ỻ.A. 21 ‘forty days’; seith nieu r.b.b. 54; deugain nïeu D.G. 198, etc.
(3) duw ‘god’, O. W. duiu- § 78 iv (2) < *dei̯uos (: Lat. deus) is the same word as the above with different vowel grades § 63 vii (4). The Ml. pl. dwyw̯eu Ỻ.A. 73 is formed from the old sg.; geu-dwyeu also occurs do. 44 with loss of w̯; the Mn. pl. duw̯i̯au is a second re-formation.
(4) di̯awl ‘devil’, pl. dïefyl § 100 ii (1), also a late pl. di̯awl(i̯)aid (loss of i̯ by dissim. is usual) ; the pl. dieifl used by Gr.O. is artificial, as possibly the sg. diafl. Wm.S. invented a new sg. diafol, which was adopted in the Bible, and so is considered more respectable than the genuine form.
(5) blwyddyn ‘year’, pl. blynedd, blwyẟyneẟ, blynyddoedd § 122 iv (2), § 125 v (1).
(6) aren pl. eirin § 106 ii (1), new pl. arennau; eirin ‘plums’, new sg. eirinen.
(7) pared, pl. parwydydd § 130 i (4); ffêr ‘ankle’, pl. (old dual) uffarnau, ucharnau § 96 iv (2), late pl. fferau, fferi. Other cases of anomalous vowel changes in § 125 v, § 117 iii.
(8) One or two examples generally quoted of irregular plurals are due to haplology, § 44 iv, and are irregular in the late period only. Mn. W. cydymaith ‘companion’, pl. cymdeithion; Ml. W. sg. cedymdeith w.m. 10, pl. cydymdeithon do. 1;—Mn. W. credadun ‘believer’, pl. credinwyr, a corrupt re-formation from credini̯ol for creduni̯ol, § 77 ix, for credaduni̯ol; Ml. W. credadun, pl. credadunion m.a. i 566.
Nouns with no Plural.
§ 133. The following nouns are used in the sg. only:—
i. Many abstract nouns, simple, as gwanc ‘voracity’, llwnc ​‘swallowing’, llafur ‘labour’, cred ‘belief’, tywydd ‘weather’; or derivative as syched ‘thirst’, tristwch ‘sadness’, ffyddlondeb ‘fidelity’, glendid ‘cleanliness’.
But a large number of abstract nouns have pl. forms: chwant ‘desire’, pl. chwantau; coel ‘belief’, pl. coelion, etc.; see § 120 i (4), § 121 ii (3), § 122 ii (4).
ii. Nouns denoting material or substance, as mêl ‘honey’, glo ‘coal’, ymenyn ‘butter’, gwaed ‘blood’, baw ‘dirt’, llaeth ‘milk’, etc.
There are many exceptions: dyfroedd ‘waters’, sg. dwfr; cigau ‘meats’, ydau § 131 iv, etc.
arian in the sg. means ‘silver’, thus yr arian hwn ‘this silver’, arian byw ‘quicksilver’; but arian is also pl., and as pl. means ‘money’, as yr arian hyn ‘this money’, arian gwynion or arian gleision ‘white’ or ‘grey money’, i. e. silver coins. More rarely aur is pl. in a similar sense: aur melynion or aur rhuddion W.Ỻ. 2. Similarly heyrn the pl. of haearn means ‘irons’ as fire-irons, etc.
The names of woods have the same form as the pl. of the names of trees; thus derw ‘oak’ or ‘oak-trees’, sg. derwen ‘oak-tree’. The same form is used (like arian, aur, haearn, etc.) as an adj.: cadair dderw ‘oak chair’; onn ‘ashen’, etc. (but not ɥnn etc.):
    Llithio ’r wyd y llath hir onn
    Ar galonnau’r gelynion.—T.A., a 14975/95.
‘Thou feedest the long ashen spear on the hearts of the enemies.’
iii. Diminutive nouns in ‑an, ‑ig, ‑cyn, ‑cen; as dynan ‘a little, person’, oenig ‘a little lamb’, bryncyn ‘hillock’, llecyn ‘place’, ffolcen ‘foolish girl’.
If the word does not exist without the suff., or if without the suff. it is an adj., it has a pl. in ‑od, rarely ‑au; mudanod ‘deaf-mutes’, llebanod, etc. § 123 ii (2), ewigod do. (1); crymanau‘sickles’.
iv. Archaic and poetical words such as bun ‘maid’, iôr ‘lord’, cun ‘lord’, huan ‘sun’ § 113 i (5).
v. Proper names of places, months, days, feasts; as Cymru, Ebrill, Calan, Nadolig. Except Suli̯au ‘Sundays’, Sadyrnau ‘Saturdays’. Other days thus: dyddiau Llun ‘Mondays’, etc.
Nouns with no Singular.
§ 134. A few nouns are used in the pl. only: i. bonedd ‘gentlefolk’; rhïeni ‘parents’; nouns in ‑w͡ys denoting inhabitants, as Monwys ‘men of Môn’ § 38 viii.
    Bonedd Gwynedd a genais,
    Blodau’r sir heb ledryw Sais.—T.A., a 14966/27 7.
‘I have sung the nobility of Gwynedd, flowers of the shire with no Saxon alloy.’
The sg. rhiant (pl. rhïaint) given by Pughe seems to be his own invention.
ii. aeron ‘fruits’; gwartheg ‘cattle’; creifion ‘parings’; gwreichion ‘sparks’; names of certain vegetables: bresych ‘cabbages’, chw̯yn(n) ‘weeds’, brïallu b.t. 25, H.M. ii 162 ‘primroses’; in Mn. W. ymysgaroedd ‘bowels’, but Ml. sg. ymysgar s.g. 214.
For pl. names of vegetables a sg. is sometimes formed by adding ‑en, as hesg ‘rushes’, sg. hesgen, or ‑yn as blodeu-yn, rhos-yn. The new and spurious sg. briallen is based on the assumption that ‑u is a pl. ending; so also the spurious pl. brieill.
iii. Adjectives used as nouns: (1) persons: fforddolion ‘wayfarers’, tlodion ‘paupers’; (2) qualities: prydferthion ‘beauties’, § 145 iii.
¶ For the pl. of compound nouns, see § 157 iii.
Gender.
§ 135. The gender of a noun denoting an animate object agrees in general with the sex of the object; thus the nouns gŵr ‘man, husband’, ceffyl ‘horse’, brawd ‘brother’, gwas ‘servant, youth’ are m., and gwraig ‘woman, wife’, caseg ‘mare’, chwaer ‘sister’, morwyn ‘maid’ are f.
§ 136. i. When the same noun is used for both sexes it is generally epicene, that is, it has its own gender whichever sex it denotes.
The following are mas. epicenes: plentyn ‘child’, baban ‘babe’, barcut ‘kite’, eryr ‘eagle’.
The following are fem. epicenes: cennad ‘messenger’, cath ‘cat’, colomen ‘dove’, brân ‘crow’, ysgyfarnog ‘hare’. Thus we say y gennad (not *y cennad) even when we mean a man.
Kymer y gennat honn, a dwc ef ẏ dy Ernallt c.m. 33 ‘Take this messenger and bring him to the house of Ernault’. See also r.b.b. 68, Ỻ.A. 111 and 2 Sam. xi 19–25.
These nouns do not change their gender by the addition of gwryw ‘male’ or benyw ‘female’, as old-fashioned grammarians taught. In ​eryr benyw ‘female eagle’ the non-mutation of the b- of benyw shows that eryr remains mas. In fact the gender of a noun must be ascertained before gwryw or benyw can be added to it.
ii. There are however several nouns of common gender in Welsh, that is, nouns whose gender varies according to the sex of the individual meant. Such are dyn ‘man’ or ‘woman’, dynan ‘little person’, cyfyrder ‘second cousin’, wyr ‘grandchild’, tyst ‘witness’ (< Lat. testis com.), mudan ‘deaf-mute’, perthynas ‘relation’, gefell ‘twin’, cymar ‘mate’, llatai ‘love-messenger’, etc. § 139 v, cyw ‘pullus’, llo ‘calf’. Thus y mudan or y fudan; y perthynas or y berthynas; llo gwryw or llo fenyw.
See cyw f. D.G. 94, usually m.; un gymar f. D.G. 274; teir wyrẏon r.m. 112, w.m. 468 ‘three granddaughters’.
    Y ddyn fwyn oedd ddoe’n f’annerch:
    Aeth yn fud weithian y ferch.—D.E., g. 117.
‘The gentle lady yesterday greeted me: now the maid has become silent.’
    Ŵyr Cadwgon yw honno:
    Ŵyr i fab Meilir yw fo.—L.G.C. 367.
‘She is the granddaughter of Cadwgon; he is the grandson of Meilir’s son.’
    Danfonaf, o byddaf byw,
    At feinwen latai fenyw.—Ỻ., Ỻ 133/102.
‘I will send, if I live, to the maiden a female messenger.’
The initial consonant of dyn is sometimes left unmutated after the art. when f., as pwy yw’r dyn deg? D.G. 53 ‘who is the fair lady?’ But usually y ddyn as above, cf. § 38 vi, ex. 3.
dynes is a N. Walian vulgarism which has found its way into recent literature; it does not occur in the Bible or any standard work. The examples quoted by Silvan Evans are evident misreadings (dynes for y ddyn and dynes sad for dyn sad); but it is found in the work of a poetaster in p 112/365 (early 17th cent.). No pl. has been invented for it. Other late formations are cymhares and wyres, the former used in the 17th cent.
iii. Some mas. nouns used as terms of endearment, etc. become fem. when applied to females; as peth ‘thing’, byd ‘life’, cariad ‘love’, enaid ‘soul’; thus y beth dlawd ‘poor thing’ f.
    ’Y myd wen, mi yw dy ŵr,
    A’th was i’th burlas barlwr.—D.G. 156.
‘My fair life, I am thy husband and thy servant in thy leafy parlour.’
    F’ enaid dlos, ni ddaw nosi
    I adail haf y dêl hi.—D.G. 321.
‘My beautiful soul! there comes no nightfall to the summer-house to which she comes.’
iv. Similarly a mas. abstract noun, when personified is occasionally treated as fem., as doethineb in Diar. i 20, ix 1–4.
§ 137. i. Some mas. names of living objects are made fem. by the addition of ‑es, or by changing ‑yn to ‑en; thus brenin ‘king’, brenhines ‘queen’; bachgen ‘boy’, bachgennes Joel iii 3 ‘girl’; llew ‘lion’, llewes ‘lioness’; asyn ‘ass’, f. asen; coegyn ‘fop’, f. coegen b.cw. 14.
arglwyẟ ‘lord’, arglwyẟes w.m. 11 ‘lady’; marchawc w.m. 2, Mn.W. marchog ‘horseman, rider, knight’, marchoges, w.m. 13, b.cw. 58; iarll, iarlles w.m. 254 ‘earl’, ‘countess’; amhérawdɏr w.m. 178 ‘emperor’, amherodres do. 162; cares I.G. 557 ‘relative’ f.; tywysoges ib. ‘princess’; santes do. 559 ‘saint’ f.; arglwyddes a meistres môr Gr.O. 15 ‘lady and mistress of the sea’.
In old formations the ‑es is seen added to the original stem, as in lleidr ‘thief’, f. lladrones b.cw. 21, see § 121 i; Sais ‘Englishman’, f. Saesnes < Brit. *Saxō, *Saxonissā, § 113 i (2). On the vowel change in Cymro, f. Cymraes see § 65 ii (1).
ii. In the following cases the distinction of gender is irregular: nai ‘nephew’, nith ‘niece’; cefnder(w̯) ‘cousin’, f. cyfnither(w̯); chwegrwn ‘father-in-law’, f. chwegr; hesbwrn, f. hesbin ‘ewe’; ffôl ‘fool’, f. ffolog; gŵr, gw̯raig; ci § 132 (i), gast § 96 ii (3).
nai < Ar. *nepōts; nith < Ar. *neptís § 75 vii (2); cefnderw § 76 vii (3) (O. W. pl. ceintiru) and cyfnitherw̯ are improper compounds representing ceifn derw̯ and cyfnith ẟerw̯; for ceifn lit. ‘co-nephew’ see § 75 vii (1); cyfnith < *kom-neptís ‘co-niece’; derw̯ is an obsolete adj. meaning ‘true’, Ir. derb ‘sure’ < *deru̯os, Ar. base *dereu̯‑: E. true, and doubtless W. pl. derw̯yẟ-on ‘soothsayers’ < *dₑru̯íi̯es (: Gaul. druides < Brit., Caesar b.g. vi 13, Ir. drui < Brit. ?): W. dir ‘true, certain’, Ir. dīr ‘due’ < LR *dēru-s.—chwegr § 94 iv; chwegrwn < *su̯ek̑ru-no‑;—hesbin from W. hesb f. of hysb ‘dry’ § 96 iii (5); the formation of hesbwrn is not clear; perhaps for *hesbrwn formed on the analogy of chwegrwn;—gŵr < Ar. *u̯iros: Lat. vir; gw̯raig < *u̯rakī prob. < *u̯(i)r-āk-ī́, a noun in ‑ī (: ‑ii̯ā, cf. pl. gw̯rageẟ) from a derivative in ‑āk- of *u̯ir-os: cf. Lat. virāgo.
​iii. (1) As in other languages, near relations and familiar animals have names of different origin for males and females: tad ‘father’, mam ‘mother’; brawd, chwaer; ewythr, modryb; ceffyl, caseg; etc.
(2) Names of birds are epicenes, mostly f. as y fwyalch or y fwyalcken ‘the blackbird’, y fronfraith ‘the thrush’, yr ŵydd ‘the goose’, y gog ‘the cuckoo’, y frân ‘the crow’, etc.; but almost an equal number are m., as eryr ‘eagle’, dryw ‘wren’, barcut ‘kite’, hedydd ‘lark’, alarch ‘swan’. The male bird is in some cases distinguished by using ceiliog followed by the specific name in the attributive genitive, as y ceiliog bronfraith or y ceiliog mwyalch; but this cannot be done generally. Note ceiliágwydd ‘gander’ § 74 i. The names of one or two male animals are formed in a similar manner; as bwch gafr ‘he-goat’; gwrcath ‘tom-cat’.
§ 138. The gender of nouns denoting inanimate objects or abstractions can only to a very limited extent be determined by the meaning.
i. The following nouns are mas.:
(1) tymor ‘season’, and the names of the seasons: gwanwyn, haf, hydref, gaeaf, see hydref dwys a’r gwanwyn § 38 viii; so y Garawys, y Grawys ‘Lent’ with g- as a new radical § 101 iii (2), cf. yr holl Arawys a.l. i 338 ‘all Lent’.
(2) mis ‘month’, and the names of the months, as Chwefrol sydd iddo 28 o ddyddiau 1620 Bible Almanac ‘February has 28 days’.
(3) dydd ‘day’, and names of days, see Difiau du § 46 ii (4); so y Pasg ‘Easter’, y Nadolig ‘Christmas’, y Sulgwyn ‘Whitsunday’, y Calan ‘New Year’s Day’; but gŵyl ‘feast’ is f., so that Gŵyl Fair ‘Lady Day’, etc., are f.
(4) gwynt ‘wind’, and the names of points of the compass: y gogledd ‘the north’, y dwyrain ‘the east’, y deheu ‘the south’, y gorllewin ‘the west’.
(5) Nouns denoting material or substance: aur, arian, haearn, pres, pren, derw, ffawydd, glo, maen, pridd, calch, clai, tail, gwair, gwellt, yd, bwyd, bara, cig, gwaed, gwin, cwrw, dwfr, gwydr, lledr, lliain, sidan, glaw, eira, etc.
(6) Verbal nouns; see § 205.
ii. The following nouns are fem.:
(1) gwlad ‘country’, teyrnas ‘kingdom’, ynys ‘island’, and names of countries, etc.: Cymru lân ‘beautiful Wales’, Prydain Fawr ‘Great Britain’, y Fôn fau Gr.O. 16 ‘my Mona’. But tir ‘land’ is m., hence Tir Groeg m. ‘Greece’.
(2) tref ‘town’, llan ‘church’, and names of towns and parishes: Bangor Fawr yn Arfon; Ỻanbadarn Fawr.
(3) afon ‘river’, and names of rivers: Dyfi wendal D.Ỻ. ‘fair-browed Dovey’.
(4) Names of mountains and hills: yr Wyddfa ‘Snowdon’, Carnedd ​Ddafydd, Moelyci; but mynydd ‘mountain’ and bryn ‘hill’ are m., and so therefore are names formed from them, as Mỿnỿ́ddmawr.
(5) iaith ‘language’, and names of languages: y Gymraeg wen E.P. 217; but when the name denotes matter written in a language it is m.: y Cymraeg hwn ‘this (piece of) Welsh’. llythyren ‘letter’ is fem., and names of letters and sounds: a fain ‘thin a’ (i.e. ‘æ’).
(6) Names of trees: derwen ‘oak’, dâr ‘oak’, collen ‘hazel’, etc.
(7) Collective nouns denoting communities, etc.: y genedl ‘the nation’, y werin ‘the people, the crew (of a ship)’, y bobl ‘the people’, y bendefigaeth ‘the nobility’, y gymanfa ‘the assembly’, y gynulleidfa ‘the congregation’, y glêr ‘the bards’ (y fân glêr L.G.C. 71), y dorf, y dyrfa ‘the crowd’, y gynhadledd ‘the assembly’; with some late exceptions, as y cyngor ‘the council’, y bwrdd ‘the board’.
§ 139. The gender of a derivative noun is determined by its ending.
i. The following endings form m. nouns: ‑ach dim. sg., ‑aint, ‑awd, ‑cyn, ‑dab ‑deb, ‑der, ‑did, ‑dod, ‑dra, ‑dwr, ‑edd, ‑hâd, ‑i ‑ni ‑i̯oni, ‑i̯ad ‑ad, ‑i̯ant, ‑inab ‑ineb, ‑rwydd, ‑wch (‑wg), ‑yd, ‑yn.
Examples: bwbach, henaint, traethawd, llecyn, un-dab, ‑deb, blinder, gwendid, cryndod, ffieidd-dra, cryfdwr, amynedd, glanhâd, tlodi, noethni, drygioni, cariad, teimlad, mwyni̯ant, doethin-ab, ‑eb, enbydrwydd, tywyll-wch, (‑wg), iechyd, offeryn.
Exceptions: awdurdod, trindod; buchedd, cynghanedd, trugaredd, see § 143 iii (13); cenadwri (f. after cennad); adeilad § 205; caniad ‘song’ (f. after cân) but caniad ‘singing’ m.; galwad (f. after galwedigaeth); blwyddyn, elltrewyn, odyn, telyn, twymyn. In the last group ‑yn is not the sg. ending ‑ynn, see § 126 iv.
ii. The following endings form f. nouns: ‑ach (abstract), ‑aeth ‑i̯aeth etc., ‑as, ‑ed, ‑ell, ‑en, ‑es, ‑fa, ‑ur.
Examples: cyfeillach, cosbedigaeth, athrawiaeth, teyrnas, colled, asgell, seren, llynges, porfa, natur, pladur.
There are many exceptions in ‑aeth and ‑i̯aeth; as claddedigaeth, darfodedigaeth, gwasanaeth, hiraeth, amrywi̯aeth, gwahaniaeth, lluniaeth.—Other exceptions are lludded, caethiwed, syched, pared; castell, cawell, hiriell ‘angel’ D. 43; maharen; hanes m. in N.W.—gw̯nïadur ‘thimble’ is m. in N.W.; names of persons in ‑ur are mas. (f. ‑ures).
iii. The following endings form derivatives having the same gender as the noun to which they are affixed: ‑aid ‘‑ful’, ‑an dimin., ‑awd, ‑od ‘stroke, blow’; as crochanaid m. ‘potful’; llwyaid f. ‘spoonful’; maban m. ‘babe’, gwreigan f. ‘little woman’, dynan com. ‘little person’; cleddyfod m. ‘stroke of sword’, ffonnod f. ‘blow of a stick’, dyrnod m., arfod f. (cleddyfawd f. D.G. 473 is exceptional).
iv. ‑og (‑awc) forms m. titles and designations, as tywysog ‘prince’, marchog ‘knight’, swyddog ‘officer’, cymydog ‘neighbour’, taeog ‘villain’; and f. terms of reproach, as ffolog ‘fool’ f., budrog ‘slattern’, slebog id. Names of inanimate objects in ‑og are generally f., as arffedog ‘apron’, clustog ‘cushion’, mawnog ‘bog’.
​‑ig forms m. titles, as gwledig ‘prince’, pendefig ‘chief’, and f. diminutives as oenig, etc.
‑in is m. in brenin ‘king’, dewin ‘sage’, buelin ‘drinking horn’, ewin ‘(finger‑)​nail’, gorllewin ‘west’; otherwise f., as byddin, cegin, cribin, gwerin, hesbin, megin, melin.
v. ‑ai, Ml. W. ‑ei (for ‑hei) forms nouns of com. gender, as llatai § 136 ii; see cicai f. D.G. 166.
§ 140. i. No useful rule can be laid down for determining by the form the gender of nouns without derivative endings. It is true that nouns having w or y in the ultima are mostly m., and those having o or e are mostly f.; thus asgwrn, arddwrn, dwrn, dwfr, ellyll, byd, bryn are m.; colofn, tonn, ffordd, ffenestr, gwên, deddf are f. But exceptions are so numerous that the rule is of no great practical value.
The reason for the rule is that Brit. u and i, which normally give W. w and y, were affected to o and e by the lost f. ending ‑ā, § 68, thus bringing about a preponderance of f. nouns with o and e. The reasons for the numerous exceptions are the following: (1) o and e may be original Brit., and not the result of affection at all, as in môr m. ‘sea’, penn m. ‘head’; (2) y is often due to affection by the lost f. ending ‑ī; as in blwyddyn f., telyn f. etc.; (3) endings other than ‑ā, ‑ī caused no affection; hence ffrwd f., hwch f. etc.
u seems to some extent to have followed the analogy of w, thus W. cur m. < Lat. cūra f.; most monosyllables with u are thus m.; but clud ‘vehicle’, tud ‘people, country’, hug ‘covering’, dun ‘thigh’, hun ‘sleep’, punt ‘£1’, ffust ‘flail’ are f.
There is no reason why a, i and the diphthongs should be distinctive of gender; and rules which make them the basis of such a distinction are arbitrary, and worse than useless. Thus Mendus Jones, Gr.² 75, states that monosyllables having a are f.; Anwyl, Gr. 28, says they are m., and names 13 exceptions (omitting gardd, sarff, barf, nant, cad, llath, barn, etc., etc.); actually, the proportion of m. to f. (excluding Eng. words, and names of males and females, as tad, mam) is about 55:45. Similarly monos. with i are said to be m.; in reality the numbers of m. and f. are practically equal:—m., llid, gwrid, pridd, llif ‘flood’, rhif, brig, cig, cil, mil ‘animal’, ffin, llin, min, gwin, glin, tir, mis, plisg, llith ‘mash’;—f., pi, crib, gwib, gwich, tid, ffridd, llif ‘saw’, gwig, pig, hil, mil ‘1000’, hin, tin, trin, rhin, gwisg, cist, llith ‘lesson’.
ii. A few doublets occur with m. ‑w‑, f. ‑o‑; as cwd m. ‘bag’, cod f. ‘purse’. The others are borrowed words containing ‑or + cons.; as torf ‘crowd’ < Lat. turba: twrf ‘tumult’;—fforch ‘a fork’ < Lat. furca: ffwrch ‘the fork, haunches’;—ffordd ‘way’ < ​O.E. ford: i ffwrdd ‘away’;—bord ‘board, table’ < M.E. bord: bwrdd id. < O.E. bord.
Also with ‑yn: ‑en, as ysgellyn: ysgallen § 130 iii, coegyn: coegen etc., § 137 i, ffwlcyn: ffolcen, and S.W. dial. crwtyn ‘boy’: croten ‘girl’.
§ 141. i. The gender of a compound noun is generally that of its subordinating element; thus eluséndy ‘almshouse’ m. like ty ‘house’, this being the subordinating, and elusen the subordinate element. So gwínllan ‘vineyard’ f. like llan; canhẃyllbren ‘candlestick’ m. like pren.
There are a few exceptions, possibly due to a change in the gender of the simple noun: cartref m. ‘home’, pentref m. ‘village’ (though tref is now f.) § 111 v (2); pendro f. ‘vertigo’ (tro m.), as Mae’r bendro ar y llo lleiaf r.p. 1278.
Epithetized compounds have the same gender as the sex of the person; thus all-tud ‘exile’ generally m. (tud f.).
ii. The above rule also holds for improper compounds, § 46, in which the subordinating element comes first; thus tréf-tad ‘heritage’ f.; dỿ́dd-brawd ‘day of judgement’ m.; pónt-bren ‘wooden bridge’ f.; pén-cerdd ‘chief of song’ m.
§ 142. i. There are many nouns of vacillating or uncertain gender. Some of them are old neuters, like braich from Lat. bracchium. In other cases the uncertainty is due to the action of analogy.
ii. The gender sometimes varies according to meaning or use:—golwg ‘sight’ m., as in golwg byr ‘short sight’ (but f. in Ỻ.A. 107): golwg ‘appearance’ f., as in teg yr olwg ‘fair to see’;—bath or math ‘kind’ m., as dau fath ‘two kinds’: with the art. f., as y fath ‘the kind’, y fath beth ‘the kind of thing’;—man ‘spot’ m., as ẏ’r ẟeu van gochẏon w.m. 140 ‘to the two red spots’, man gwan ‘weak spot’: man ‘place’ f. generally as in Matt, xxviii 6, often m. as in Jer. vii 3; note yn y fan ‘immediately’, yn y man ‘by and by’;—to ‘roof’ m. as in aderyn y to ‘sparrow’: to ‘generation’ sometimes f., as in L.G.C. 204;—coes ‘leg’ f.: coes ‘stalk’ or ‘handle’ of a spade, etc. (where there is only one) m., dim. coesyn m.—Unrelated pairs: gwaith ‘work’ m., gwaith ‘fois’ f., as in dwy waith ‘twice’; llif m., llif f.; mil m., mil f.; llith m., llith f.; § 140 i.
iii. Some nouns have different genders in Ml. and Mn. W. This is sometimes due to a break in the tradition owing to the word becoming obsolete in the spoken language; in other cases it is due to, or has been helped by, analogy. Early Mn. W. generally agrees with Ml. W.; the break comes in the Late Mn. period.
​The following are m. in Ml. W., f. in Late W.: damwein w.m. 29, r.m. 19 ‘accident’; breint l.l. 121, r.b.b. 71 ‘privilege’; dinas c.m. 3, 8, Ỻ.A. 44, D.G. 325 ‘stronghold, city’, still m. in place-names; nef Ỻ.A. 4 ‘heaven’, S.Ph. (m. W.Ỻ.) late 16th cent. has ne’ gwyn, but H.S. mid. 15th already has nef f., see § 160 iii (2) (c); chwedɏl r.m. 192 ‘tale’, chwedl drwg Ps. cxii 7; gruẟ Ỻ.A. 93 ‘cheek’, y grudd, deurudd in the bards, but f. in Bible; gweithret a.l. i 526, b.b. 7, Ỻ.A. 132; ergit r.b.b. 42; krevyẟ Ỻ.A. 143.
The following are f. in Ml. W., m. in late W.: tangneveẟ w.m. 43, r.m. 30, 38 (but y tangneveẟ w.m. 55) ‘peace’, m. in Bible; gwirioneẟ w.m. 29, r.m. 19 ‘truth’, m. in Bible and later bards, c.c. 357; cyg̃reir c.m. 18, r.m. 160 ‘truce’, m. in Bible, Deut. xxix 14; r͑ydit r.b.b. 83 ‘freedom’; person c.m. 19, Ỻ.A. 3 ‘person’; llynn w.m. 51, r.m. 36 ‘lake’; llys w.m. 5, r.m. 3 ‘court’.
In some cases the gender fluctuates in Ml. W.: breich, as in c.m. 18 ar y breich ‘on the arm’, and in the next line ẏ’r vreich ‘to the arm’; it is m. in the Bible, but now f. except in place-names;—heul ‘sun’, m. Ỻ.A. 3, f. do. 161, generally f. in the bards, m. in Bible, f. in Wms. 257, now m.; heulwen is an improper compound of haul wenn § 46 ii (1);—clot ‘praise’ m. as clot bychan w.m. 142, r.m. 212, generally f. in the bards g. 184, f. in the Bible, 1 Bren. x 7, now m., orig. neut. § 66 v.
iv. The difference is in some cases dialectal: ciniaw ‘dinner’ f. in w.m. 61, r.m. 43, now f. in S.W. but m. in N.W.; troed m. in Ml.W. e.g. deudroet always (not dwy‑), m. in N.W., f. in S.W. The following are f. in S.W., m. in N.W.: cyflog, hanes, garr, gwnïadur, llyn, pwys, munud, clorian (though ar y funud, yn y glorian in N.W. also); in Mn. Lit. W. these are mostly m. as in N.W.; crib ‘comb' now m. in N.W., but crib ‘ridge’ f. On the other hand in N.W. cusan (m. c.m. 58, 61) and cwpan (m. in Bible) are sometimes treated as f., doubtless a late misuse, as also the use in some parts of canhwyllbren as f. But clust m. r.b.b. 54, m. in S.W., is f. in N.W. and in the Bible. N.W. is not uniform: sach m. in Gwynedd (< Lat. saccus) is f. in Powys.
Derivative Nouns.
§ 143. Derivative nouns are formed from simple nouns, from adjectives, and verb-stems by the addition of the following endings:
i. Diminutive endings, largely used to form singular nouns § 126: m. ‑yn, f. ‑en. The O.W. forms are ‑inn, ‑enn, and the n is doubled in Ml. and Mn. W. when a syllable is added, as defnynn-au Can. v 2, canghenn-au Luc. xiii 19. They probably represent the Ar. suffixes ‑ino‑, ‑inā- with dimin. gemination § 93 iii (2), giving Brit. *‑inno‑s, *‑innā.
They may also be added to adjectives and vb.-stems, as coeg-yn ‘fop’, (coeg ‘empty, vain’), ysgogyn ‘swaggerer’ (ysgog-i ‘to shake’).
ii. Diminutive endings added to nouns: ‑ach, as corrach ‘dwarf’ < a Brit. *‑akkos, with dimin. gemination;—‑an, as dynan ‘little ​person’, gwreigan ‘little woman’; this appears in late Brit. as ‑agn‑; in Ir. it is ‑ān; see § 104 ii (1);—‑ell, as in i̯ỿrchell ‘a roe’, < Brit. *‑ellā or *‑illā;—‑ig, as in oenig ‘lamb’, < Brit. *‑īkā;—‑cyn, f. ‑cen, sometimes added to contracted personal names, as Hwlcyn for Hywel, appears to be comparatively late, and may be from E. ‑kin. iii. Abstract and collective noun endings, etc.: (1) ‑ach as cyfeillach ‘friendship’ cyfrinach ‘secret’ (< *‑aksā, v.n. suffix § 203 i (3) (4)).
(2) ‑aeth ‘act’ < *‑aktā, § 203 i (1), as in gwasanaeth ‘service’ < *u̯o-ssān-āktā < *u̯po-stā-no-aktā § 96 ii (2); as *gwasan does not occur, the suffix is here felt to be ‑ánaeth. It takes the form ‑i̯aeth from stems in ‑i̯, thus added to ‑aid in dysg-éid-i̯aeth ‘learning’; hence hynáfi̯aeth ‘antiquity’, gofáni̯aeth ‘smithing’; hence ‑ániaeth in gw̯lỿbáni̯aeth ‘wet weather’. So ‑ḯaeth as marsiandḯaeth ‘commerce’; ‑nḯaeth as saernḯaeth ‘workmanship’, mechnḯaeth ‘surety’. In arglwyddḯaeth, arglẃyddi̯aeth both accentuations occur, see Arglwyddḯaeth (4 syll.) D.G. 8; Gw̯ledd Dduw a’i arglwyddḯaeth Gut.O. m 146/397 r. ‘The feast of God and his Lordship’: Pe talai’r ŵydd arglẃyddi̯aeth D.G. 210 ‘If the goose paid tribute’. The form in Late W. is the last. The ending is also added to verbal adjectives in ‑adwy, ‑edig, as ofnadwyaeth ‘terror’, poenedigaeth ‘torture’, erledigaeth for erlidedigaeth § 44 iv. It is also seen in ‑adaeth, ‑dabaeth, ‑debaeth, ‑wri̯aeth, etc.
(3) ‑aid, Ml. W. ‑eit < *‑ati̯o‑s, *‑ati̯ā: llwyaid § 139 iii.
(4) ‑aint, Ml. W. ‑eint: henaint ‘old age’; dioddefaint ‘suffering’ § 203 ii (3), q.v.
(5) ‑an: cusan ‘kiss’, chwiban ‘whistle’, v.n. suff. § 203 vi (1).
(6) ‑as < *assā: teyrnas f. ‘kingdom’; also ‑i̯as, as trigi̯as ‘residence’: Ir. ‑as m. < *‑assu- (: Goth. ‑assu‑): ?*‑ət‑tā, *‑ət‑tu‑.
(7) ‑awd, ‑od, Ml. W. ‑awt < *‑āt‑: traethawd 'treatise' < Lat. tractātus; molawd ‘praise’: Ir. molad; used to denote the stroke of a weapon cleẟyfawt, etc. § 139 iii < *‑ātiō.
(8) ‑deb, ‑dab, ‑dábaeth, ‑débaeth, ‑íneb, ‑ínab all contain *ap- < *əq$^{u̯}$‑, √ōq$^{u̯}$‑ like Lat. antīquus, Skr. prátīka‑m ‘face’ and W. wyneb § 100 v. In ‑deb *ap‑ is added to a ‑ti- stem, in ‑ineb to Brit. ‑īni- (as in brenin iv (10)); ´‑i̯a‑ > i̯e > e § 65 vi; in ‑dab ‑inab to allied adj. stems in ‑to‑, ‑īno- (cf. Brugmann² II i 285); ´‑oa‑ > ´‑ā‑ > a. Silvan Evans states s.v. duwdab that ‑dab etc. are “local forms”, meaning that the ‑a- is Gwyn. a for e, § 6 iii, which is absurd, for dial. a does not extend to the penult as in ‑dabaeth (dial, atab, atebodd, not *atabodd). The forms with a occur before any trace of dial. a, and are used by writers of all parts: diweirdap p 14/2 r. (circa 1250), dewindabaeth r.b.b. 16, 38, 41, 42, c.m. 93; doethinab m 117 r. (c. 1285), r.b.b. fac. opp. p. 1 (c. 1310–1330); cowreindab S.T., Ỻ 169/39 r.; hydab L.G.C. 195; geudab Ps. lxii 9.
    Y Drindod a ro undab
    Er deigr Mair deg ar i Mab.—T.A. c. ii 78.
a: Printed dro.
‘The Trinity bring about union for the sake of fair Mary’s tear for her Son.’
​(9) ‑der, ‑ter < *‑tero- cpv. suff.: dyfn-der ‘depth’.
(10) ‑did, ‑tid, Ml. W. ‑dit, ‑tit < Ar. *‑tūt‑: gwen-did ‘weakness’; ‑dod, ‑tod, Ml. W. ‑dawt, ‑tawt < Ar. *‑tāt‑: cryn-dod ‘trembling’;—: Lat. vir-tut- (< *u̯iro-tūt‑); cīvi-tāt‑.
‑dra, ‑tra, see (22) below.
(11) ‑dwr < *‑turo‑, prob. ‑ro- added to ‑tu- stem., cf. Gk. μάρ-τυρος: cryfdwr ‘strength’.
(12) ‑ed, Ml. W. ‑et, partly < ‑itās, as in ciwed < Lat. cīvitās; partly < *‑e‑to, Ml. W. dyly‑et < *dligeto‑n: Ir. dliget.—syched ‘thirst’; nodd-ed ‘protection’, colled ‘loss’, etc.
(13) ‑edd < *‑íi̯ā; trugaredd ‘mercy’ < *trougākaríi̯ā: Ir. trōcaire;—: Gk. ‑ίᾱ, ἀναρχία, etc. Most nouns with this ending have become mas. in W.; but many retain the orig. gender § 139 i.
(14) ‑eg < ‑ikā; as gramadeg < grammatica; so hanereg ‘half-measure’ < Brit. *san-ter-ikā. It forms the names of languages as Saesneg, Gwyddeleg, Ffrangeg, Gwyndodeg ‘the dialect of Gwynedd’, Gro-eg, Cymrá-ëg. In the last two contraction took place. Wm.S. took ‑aeg for the ending in Cymráeg, and so, beside the correct Saesneg, wrote Saesnaeg and Saesonaeg, see the headings in his Dic. Gwyddelaeg, Ffrancaeg etc. were also formed, either by him or by his imitators. D.D. s.v. aeg vehemently protests against these solecisms, and against the use of aeg as a word meaning ‘language’.—Kanys Yspaenec a ẟywedei y kawr c.m. 19 ‘For it was Spanish that the giant spoke’. Kymraëc/chwec r.p. 1189. Ffrangec ẟa lóew̯dec ẟiletẏeith do. 1225 ‘Good clear pure French’.
    Dysgais yr eang Ffrangeg;
    Doeth yw i dysg, da iaith deg.—I.R., p 82/309 r.
‘I have learnt the rich French language; wise is its learning, fair good tongue.’
(15) ‑es < *issā: buches ‘herd of cows, place for milking’; llynges ‘fleet’, lloches ‘hiding-place’; cf. iv (4).
(16) ‑fa: 1. < *‑mag- ‘place’: por-fa ‘pasture’; cam-fa ‘stile’; trig-fa ‘dwelling place’; cyrch-fa ‘resort’.—2. Abstr. for ‑fan(n) v.n. ending § 203 ii (4), by loss of ‑nn § 110 v (2) < Ar. *‑mₑn- § 62 i (2): llosg-fa ‘a burning’; lladd-fa ‘slaughter’; cryn-fa ‘tremor’; bodd-fa ‘deluge’. The two are confused, and the second class have plurals like the first, as llosgfeydd.
(17) ‑i is the same as the v.n. ending ‑i, see § 202 ii; thus tlodi ‘poverty’ (also as v.n. ‘to impoverish’), noethi ‘nakedness’ (v.n. ‘to denude’), diogi ‘idleness’ (v.n. ‘to idle’), caledi ‘hardship’, gwegi ‘vanity’, ymddifedi ‘destitution’.
(18) ‑i̯ad, ‑ad added to verb-stems is properly ‑ad, as shown by ​such forms as carad, e.g. llu du di‑garad b.b. 86, and especially the form ‑hā́d (for ‑ha‑ad), which would be *‑haead if the ending were ‑i̯ad; but with stems in ‑i̯- we have e.g. rhodi̯-ad (: rhodi̯af); from these ‑i̯ad was generalized, but too late to cause penultimate affection; hence cari̯ad ‘love’ (‑iad agent affects, see iv (5)). ‑ad, pl. ‑adau is from *‑ə-tu- (Ar. *‑tu- verbal-abstr. suffix): Lat. supine genitum < *g̑enə-tu‑m; ‑ad f. < *‑ə-tā § 203 iii (8).
(19) ‑i̯ant is similarly ‑ant < *‑n̥t‑, participial suffix, as in Ml. W. derewant Ỻ.A. 152 ‘stink’, Mn. W. drewi̯ant; it generally appears as ‑i̯ant in Ml. and Mn. W.: meẟẏant w.m. 8, Mn. W. meddiant ‘possession’.
(20) ‑id in addewid f. ‘promise’, perhaps < *‑ī-tā (: Lat. fīnītus); in cadernid m. ‘might’ < *‑ī-tu- (: Lat. sup. vestītum);—rhyddid is a late re-formation of rhy(ẟ)-did.
(21) ‑ni < Brit. *gnīmu‑, O.W. gnim ‘work’ § 203 vii (4): mech-ni ‘bail’ (mach ‘a surety’), noeth-ni ‘nakedness’; ‑i̯oni < ‑i̯ono-gnīm- § 155 ii (1): haeli̯oni ‘liberality’; also ‑oni in barddoni (bardhony a.l. i 78) ‘bardism’. As ‑ni is for *‑ᵹni, and nᵹn > n § 110 ii (1), the ending cannot be distinguished from ‑i after n; thus trueni ‘wretchedness’, gwrthuni ‘unseemliness’ may have ‑i or *‑ᵹni.
(22) ‑red, lit. ‘course’, < *‑reto‑, √ret‑ § 63 ii: gweithred ‘action’, Ml. W. brithred ‘confusion’ ( = Ir. brechtrad ‘commingling’); in a more literal sense, hydred ‘length’, lledred ‘breadth’.
‑rwydd, lit. ‘course’, < *‑reido‑: Gaul. rēda ‘waggon’ < *reidā, W. rhwydd ‘easy, without let, perfunctory’, lit. ‘*running’; a fertile abstr. suff. in W.: enbyd-rwydd ‘peril’, gwallgof-rwydd ‘insanity’.
‑dra, ‑tra, lit. ‘course’ < *´‑trog‑, √treɡh‑ § 65 ii (1): e‑ofn‑dra ‘fearlessness’.
(23) ‑wch < *‑is-qo‑, v.n. ending; see § 201 iii (2): ‘darkness’, heddwch ‘peace’. The ‑wg in the by-form tywyllwg is prob. due to dissim. of continuants; see § 201 iii (3).
(24) ‑yd < *‑o-tūts, nom. sg. of *‑o-tūt- (10): bywyd ‘life’, Ir. bethu < Kelt. *biu̯otūts; mebyd ‘youth’; partly perhaps < *‑itī (: Lat. ‑itia, and substituted for it, as tristyd < *trīstitī < trīstitia).
(25) ‑ynt in helynt ‘course’; tremynt (dremynt) ‘sight’; prob. *‑en- + ‑tī.
iv. Endings denoting agent or person: (1) ‑adur < Lat. ‑ātōrem, as in pechadur < peccātōrem, extended to new formations: henadur ‘elder’, penadur ‘chieftain’; in creadur ‘creature’ it comes of course from ‑ātūra.
(2) ‑ai, Ml. W. ‑ei, properly ‑hei for it hardens the preceding consonant, < *‑sagi̯ō ‘seeker’ § 104 ii (2), as blotai ‘beggar of meal’ (blawd ‘meal’), cynutai ‘gatherer of firewood’ (cynnud ‘firewood’) etc. The late artificial formation mynegai ‘index’ is wrong in form (it should be *mynacai) and in meaning (it should denote a ‘seeker’).
(3) ‑awdr < Lat. ‑ātor, as in ymhérawdr < imperātor, créawdr < creātor, extended in W., as in dysgawdr ‘teacher’, llywi̯awdr ‘ruler’.
​For W. awdr ‘author’ < Lat. au(c)tor (beside awdur < acc. au(c)tōrem) the dial, form awdwr (with parasitic w § 16 v (3)) came to be used in Late W. The above words were then mistaken for compounds of this, and wrongly spelt and accented ymheráwdwr, creáwdwr. Lastly the ‑wr was mistaken for ‑wr ‘man’, (8) below, and a new pl. ymherawdwyr formed instead of the true pl. ym(h)erodron; but ym(h)erodraeth remains.
(4) ‑es < Brit. *‑issā: Lat. ‑issa: brenhines etc. § 137 i.
(5) ‑i̯ad: hebryngẏat w.m. 4 ‘guide’; it affects a to ei: lleiddi̯ad ‘killer’ (lladd ‘kill’), datgeini̯ad ‘singer’; after w̯ the i̯ is lost § 36 v, as geilwad ‘caller’ (galw ‘call’), ceidwad ‘keeper, saviour’ (cadw ‘keep’). It implies Brit. ‑i̯atis (or i̯atā): Gaul. Ναμαυσατις, Γαλάται: Ir. ‑ith, i-stem; the suffix is ‑ti- (or ‑tā): Gk. μάντις, κρι-τή‑ς; ‑i̯a- or ‑a- < ‑i̯ə- or ‑ə‑; the affection of the vowel shows that the ‑i̯a- form was already generalized in Brit.
(6) ‑og, Ml. W. ‑awc < Brit. ‑ākos adj. suffix § 153 (5) forms m. nouns as tywysog ‘prince’, marchog ‘knight’, swyddog ‘officer’, and f. nouns as ffolog, see § 139 iv; the former have feminines in ‑oges: tywysoges ‘princess’, cymydoges ‘neighbour’.
(7) ‑or, Ml. W. ‑awr < Lat. ‑ārius as kag̃hellaur a.l. i 62, Mn. W. canghellor < cancellārius, extended in W.: telynor ‘harpist’, cantor ‘singer’; f. ‑ores: cantores.
(8) ‑wr ‘man’: pregethwr ‘preacher’, gweithi̯wr ‘worker’ etc.; ‑w̯raig ‘woman’: gólchw̯raig ‘washerwoman’.
(9) ‑ydd < Brit. ‑íi̯ō: crydd ‘shoemaker’ § 86 i (5), melinydd ‘miller’, prydydd ‘poet’; ‑edydd < ‑atíi̯o: dringhedydd ‘climber’, nofiedydd D.G. 502 ‘swimmer’; ‑idyẟ: llemidit w.m. 466 llemhidyẟ r.m. 110 ‘leaper’; f. ‑yddes: prydyddes ‘poetess’, ‑adyddes: gwnïadyddes ‘sempstress’.
(10) Endings of more restricted use: ‑ig in pendefig ‘chieftain’, gwledig ‘prince’, < *‑ī-ko‑, § 153 (9).
‑in in brenin < *‑īni‑; cf. pl. brenhinoedd; ‑in from Lat. ‑īno- in dewin for *diwin < dīvīnus, per(i̯)erin ‘pilgrim’ < *pergerīnos < peregrīnus.
v. Endings denoting instrument or thing: (1) ‑adur, iv (1): Ml. W. paladur, Mn. W. pladur ‘scythe’, gwnïadur ‘thimble’ etc.
(2) ‑in < ‑īna: melin ‘mill’ < Lat. molīna; cegin § 89 iii; so cribin, megin, etc. § 139 iv. The m. buelin may have ‑in < *‑ikno‑, cf. Gaul. celicnon ‘tower’, √qel- ‘high’: Lat. celsus, columen.
(3) ‑ell < ‑ella or ‑illa: padell ‘pan’ < Lat. patella; pibell ‘pipe’, ffynhonnell ‘fountain, source’.
(4) ‑og iv (6), besides names of persons, forms f. names of things, as arffedog ‘apron’, clustog ‘cushion’, of plants, as tewbanog ‘mullein’, of places, as mawnog ‘peat-bog’, brwynog ‘marsh’, etc., and m. names of birds as cyffylog ‘woodcock’, and animals, as draenog ‘hedgehog’, llwynog ‘fox’.
(5) ‑wr iv (8): crafwr ‘scraper’.
Adjectives
Number.
§ 144. The pl. of adjectives is formed from tbe sg. as follows:
i. By change of vowel. The change is the ultimate i-affection § 83 ii; cf. § 117 i. Examples: bychan ‘little’, pl. bychein Ỻ.A. 2, Mn. W. bychain, so llydan ‘broad’, truan ‘wretched’, buan ‘quick’; cadarn ‘strong’, pl. kedeirn w.m. 40, kedyrn do. 51, Mn. W. cedyrn; ieuanc ‘young’, pl. ieueinc w.m. 181, Mn. W. ieuainc; harẟ ‘handsome’, pl. heirẟ; byẟar ‘deaf’ pl. byẟeir r.p. 1196, Mn. W. byddair.
ii. By adding the ending ‑i̯on. Examples: mud ‘mute’, pl. mudẏon r.p. 1196, Mn. W. mudi̯on; coch ‘red’, pl. cochẏon r.p. 1236, Mn. W. cochi̯on; glew ‘bold’, pl. glewi̯on; cul ‘narrow’, pl. culi̯on.
iii. The addition of ‑i̯on causes the following vowel changes:
(1) Mutation § 81: tlawd ‘poor’, pl. tlodyon r.p. 1196, Mn. W. tlodi̯on; trwm ‘heavy’, pl. trymẏon r.m. 14, Mn. W. trỿmi̯on; llwm ‘bare’, pl. llỿmi̯on; llɥm ‘keen’, pl. llỿmi̯on; melɥn ‘yellow’, pl. melỿni̯on; Mn. W. main ‘slender’, pl. meinion,etc.
The comparatively late pl. mawrion is an exception; an older form is perhaps morẏon b.t. 45; but the original form mawr < *mārī (like the sg. mawr < *māros) generally remained: lloppaneu mawr w.m. 23, r.m. 14 ‘big boots’. A similar exception is trawsion m.a. i 544.
(2) Penultimate affection § 83 iii: glas ‘blue’, pl. gleissẏon r.p. 1196, now written gleision; dall ‘blind’, pl. deillẏon ib., Mn. W. deilli̯on; claf ‘sick’, pl. cleivẏon ib., Mn. W. cleifi̯on; gwag, pl. gweigion; cadr, pl. ceidrẏon r.p. 1169 (ceidron iv).
e is not affected: uchel ‘high’ pl. uchelion m.a. i 565a; see gwelwon etc. iv. a is unaffected in the late pl. meddalion; the old pl. is meddal like the sg.: petheu clayr meẟal Ỻ.A. 70 “blanda et mollia”. ae remains unaffected, and the ending in some old forms is written ‑on, as haelon b.b. 3, r.p. 1169, m.a. i 283a, later haelion.
iv. After the groups mentioned in § 36 v–vii, the i̯ drops, so that the ending appears as ‑on: gwelw̯ ‘pale’, pl. gwelw̯on r.p. 1196, gweddw̯ ‘widowed’, pl. gweẟw̯on do. 1236; chw̯erw̯ ‘bitter’, pl. chw̯erw̯on; hoyw̯ ‘sprightly’, pl. hoyw̯on; du ‘black’, pl. duon; teneu ‘thin’, pl. teneuon; budr ‘dirty’, pl. budron; garw̯ ‘rough’, pl. geirw̯on; marw̯ ‘dead’, pl. meirw̯on; llathr ‘bright’, ​pl. lleithron (lleithɏrẏon in w. 7bi). The affection of the vowel in geirw̯on etc. bears witness to the lost i̯.
In most Ml. W. mss. the i̯, following ei, is lost after all consonants, as in S.W. dialects, § 35 ii, as deillon r.p. 1236 (beside deillẏon 1196).
v. Some adjectives have two plurals, one formed by affection, and one by adding ‑i̯on: hardd ‘handsome’, pl. heirdd, heirddion; garw̯ ‘rough’, pl. geirw̯, geirw̯on; marw ‘dead’, pl. meirw̯, meirw̯on.
caled usually remains unchanged: rhai caled T.A. c. ii 79, pethau caled Ex. xviii 26, cf. 1 Bren. x 1, xiv 6; but caledion Judas 15 (though calet here also in Wm.S.), cledion c.c. 334. The spoken forms are caled and cledion. The form celyd R.G.D. 96 seems to be a recent invention; Wms. 372 has Yr hoelion geirwon caled, changed in recent hymnbooks to celyd. Similarly Cymraeg is sg. and pl.: henweu Kymraec s.g. 172 ‘Welsh names’.
§ 145. i. The only pl. forms which are originally adjectival are those produced by vowel affection; where these exist they generally accompany pl. nouns, thus gwŷr cedyrn, not gwŷr cadarn. But we have seen that from the Ar. period *‑i̯ō, pl. *‑i̯ones formed nouns corresponding to adjectives in *‑i̯os § 121 i; and there can be no doubt that W. forms in ‑i̯on (from *‑i̯ones) were originally nouns, as they may still be, e.g. y tlodion ‘the poor’. The distinction between these nouns and adjectives proper was obscured by the fact that adjectives might be used as nouns, e.g. y kedyrn w.m. 51 ‘the mighty’; then, in imitation of gwŷr cedyrn ‘mighty men’, expressions like plant tlodion ‘poor children’ were formed for the sake of formal agreement, as the agreement was not apparent in an adj. like tlawd which had the same form for sg. and pl. But the old tradition persisted, and the use of forms in ‑i̯on was, and is, optional: eriron du, …coch, eririon gwinn, …glas, …lluid b.b. 72–3 ‘black…, red…, white…, blue…, grey eagles’; dynyon mwyn r.m. 21 ‘gentle folk’, meirch dof do. 31 ‘tame horses’; and is more frequent in later than in earlier periods, thus bratteu trwm of w.m. 23 appears as bratteu trymẏon in the later r.m. 14. Hence we find (1) as forms in ‑i̯on were not really needed, many adjectives remained without them, and have no distinctive pl. forms; (2) in many cases plurals in ‑i̯on remain substantival.
ii. The following adjectives have no distinctive plural forms in use:
​(1) The simple adjectives (or old derivatives no longer recognized as such): bach, ban, call, cas, certh, craff, cu, cun, chweg, da, dig, drwg, fflwch, gau, gwâr, gwir, gwymp, hafal, hagr, hawdd, hên, hoff, llawen, llesg, lion, llwyr, mad, mân, pur, rhad, serfyll, serth, sobr, swrth, teg.
bychain is pl. of bychan, not of bach, which is sg. and pl. like the others in the above list; thus plentyn bach ‘little child’, pl. plant bach.
    Yr adar bach a rwydud
    A’th iaith dwyllodrus a’th hud.—D.G. 313.
‘Thou wouldst snare the little birds with thy deceiving words and thy wile.’
drwg is also an abstract noun, pl. drygau ‘evils’, hagr is included in D.’s list; Rowland’s hagron is obviously spurious—it would be *heigron if genuine. hên is included because henẏon Ỻ.A. 95 is only known to occur once, and that in verse. D. y C. has hyff as pl. of hoff, as well as ag̃hlyff, pryff and cryff as pl. of anghloff, praff, craff apparently extemporized r.p. 1361 (praff has pl. preiffion). mân is usually pl. as in cerrig mân ‘small stones’, often sg. as in gro mân ‘fine gravel’.
glân ‘clean’ has pl. gleinẏon Ỻ.A. 102, r.p. 1236, which is comparatively rare, and became extinct. D. 56 includes tywyll, but quotes an example of tywyllion; this and one or two others like melysion (for melys pl., Diar. xxiii 8) are not uncommon in Late Mn. W.
(2) Adjectives of the equative or comparative degree. But superlative adjectives have substantival plurals.
(3) Derivative adjectives in ‑adwy, ‑aid, ‑aidd, ‑ar, ‑gar, ‑in, ‑lyd, 153. But adjectives in ‑ig, ‑og, ‑ol, ‑us have plurals in ‑i̯on, which commonly precede their nouns, but may follow them, as gwyr bonheẟigẏon s.g. 62 ‘gentlemen’.
nefolẏon wybodeu ac ysprydolẏon gelvydodeu Ỻ.A. 103 ‘heavenly sciences and spiritual arts’, cf. 102. Deddfolion ddynion a ddyfalant m.a. i 26 ‘law-abiding men they deride’. o’r nefolion a’r daearolion a thanddaearolion bethau Phil. ii 10.—Nerthoeẟ nefolẏon… neu wrthẏeu r͑yveẟolẏon Ỻ.A. 102 ‘heavenly powers or wonderful miracles’.
    Y mae’r sir wedi marw Siôn
    Yn wag o wŷr enwogion.—Gut.O., g. 219.
‘The county, after the death of Siôn, is void of famous men.’
    Rhoed yn un bedd mawredd Môn—
    Eu deugorff urddedigion.—H.K.
‘In one grave has been laid the greatness of Môn, their two noble bodies.’
​(4) Most compound adjectives, as hy-glyw, hy-glod, e-ang, ffrwyth-lon, melỿs-lais, etc. But when the second element is an adj. which may take ‑i̯on, the ending is sometimes affixed to the compound; thus claer-wynnẏon Ỻ.A. 92 ‘bright’, gloyw-ẟuon do. 93 ‘glossy-back’; glas-feinion D.G. 87 ‘green and slender’, tal- gryfi̯on Ezek. iii 7 “of an hard forehead”.
D. 56 quotes cyn-dynion, erchyllion (erch-hyllion) as exceptional forms in
    Dynion cyndynion dinerth
    Hyllion erchyllion a cherth.—Anon.
‘Stubborn (but) weak men, ugly, hideous and strange.’
iii. Many adjectives have substantival plurals used partly as abstract nouns as uchelion Gr.O. 120 ‘heights’, but chiefly to denote classes of persons; the sg. is also in some cases substantival. The pl. is formed either by affection or by adding ‑i̯on or ‑i̯aid, Ml. W. ‑ẏon, ‑ẏeit; the latter is used for persons only, and causes the same penult, affection as ‑i̯on, except in late formations. Thus caeth ‘slave’ pl. keith, Mn. W. caith L.G.C. 63, or Ml. W. keithẏeit or Mn. W. caethion; byddar ‘deaf’ pl. byddair, later formation byddariaid; balch ‘proud’ pl. beilch r.p. 1334 l. 46, beilchion, beilchiaid; truan ‘wretch’ pl. truain, trueinion, trueiniaid; gwan ‘weak’, pl. gweinẏon m.a. i 220b, gweinẏeit r.p. 1196, Mn. W. gweiniaid; dall ‘blind’ pl. deillion, deilliaid.
    Ar ol y ferch ar ŵyl Fair
    O gloi’r bedd e glyw’r byddair.—T.A., c. ii 83.
‘The deaf hear [the lamentations] for the maid on Lady Day at the closing of the grave.’
    A’i lun gwrol yn gorwedd
    Ef a wna i’r beilch ofni’r bedd.—T.A., a 14975/107.
‘Since his manly form lies [in it], he makes the proud fear the grave.’
    Be chwilid pob ach aliwn,
    Bylchau’n ach beilchion a wn.—TA., a 14966/277.
‘If every alien pedigree were examined I know gaps in the pedigree of proud ones.’
    A phlaid o feilchiaid a fydd.—D.E., p 100/249.
‘And there will be a company of the proud.’
Note. gweini̯aid is often used adjectivally in Mn. W., as rhai gweiniaid 1 Cor. ix 22; on the other hand gweinion is often a noun ​even as late as c.c. 338 (dated 1588). blwyddiaid is the only form of the pl. of the adj. blwydd ‘year old’, and is used adjectivally, as saith oen blwyddiaid Lev. xxiii 18; see § 122 iv (2), p. 206.
iv. Many superlatives have pl. forms which are substantival only; one, hynaif ‘elders’, is formed by affection; the others take ‑i̯on or ‑i̯aid, as goreuon, hynafi̯aid (the a of ‑af is not affected); eithafoeẟ r.m. 186, L.G.C. 140, 152 (beside eithafion) and pellafoedd are peculiar in having ‑oedd.
    Hopcyn ar lasfryn a’i laif,
    Hwnnw oedd fal yr hynaif.—L.G.C. 167, cf. 10.
‘Hopkin on a green hill with his sword, he was as the men of old.’
    Llan Nefydd, lle i hynafiaid.—T.A., a 31102/158.
‘Llan Nefydd, the place of his ancestors.’
    I wyth ynys y’th aned,
    O’th ofn crynn eithafion Cred.—T.A., a 14971/390.
‘For eight islands hast thou been born, the uttermost parts of Christendom tremble for fear of thee.’
v. Derivatives in ‑ig, ‑og, ‑ol, ‑us have substantival plurals in ‑i̯on only; as y dysgedigion ‘the learned’, y cyfoethogion ‘the wealthy’, meidrolion ‘finite beings’, rheidusion m.a. i 315a ‘needy ones’.
Ac yr wyf inneu yn mynet yn erbyn bonheẟigẏon y wlat hon s.g. 293 ‘and I am going against the gentlemen of this country’. Efe a dywallt ddirmyg ar foneddigion Ps. cvii 40.
vi. Many compounds have plurals used as nouns only: kyvoedẏon C. m.a. i 233b ‘contemporaries’, anwariaid ‘savages’, y ffyddloniaid ‘the faithful’; pengryniaid and pengrynion ‘round-heads’'; prydferthion ‘beauties’, abstract.
Gender.
146. i. Many adjectives containing w or ɥ have f. forms in which these vowels are affected to o or e respectively, §§ 68, 83. The change takes place chiefly in monosyllables.
ii. Monosyllables containing w or y may be classified thus:—
(1) In the following the affection takes place in the f., in the literary language:—w: blwng I.G. 198 ‘angry’, f. blong see ex.; brwnt ‘dirty’; bwlch (kic bwlch a.l. i 524 ‘meat in cut’), f. bolch ​r.p. 1327; crwm ‘bent’; crwn ‘round’; dwfn ‘deep’; llwfr ‘cowardly’; llwm ‘bare’; mwll ‘sultry’; mws r.p. 1348 ‘stale’, f. mos I.G. 406; pŵl ‘blunt’, f. pôl Ỻ. Ỻ 133/211a; tlws ‘beautiful’; trwch I.G. 491 ‘maimed’, f. troch do. 285; trwm ‘heavy’; trwsgl ‘clumsy’; twll w.m. 133, G.Gr. d.g. 247 ‘perforated’, f. toll r.p. 1045; twnn I.G. 497 ‘battered’, f. tonn, see ex.—y: brych ‘spotted’; byrr ‘short’; cryf ‘strong’; cryg ‘hoarse’ f. grec r.p. 1274, I.G. 628, D.G. 223; ffyrf ‘thick’; gwlyb ‘wet’; gwyn(n) ‘white’; gwyrdd ‘green’ (but see § 68); hysb ‘dry’; llyfn ‘smooth’; llym ‘keen’; sych ‘dry’; syth ‘upright’; tyn(n) ‘tight’. All the f. forms of the y-group are in colloquial use, except creg.
    Rhoes hwrdd i’m llong, rhoes flong floedd.—G.Gr. p 51/49.
‘[The billow] gave my ship a push, and gave an angry shout.’
    Oer yw rhew ar warr heol;
    Oerach yw ’mronn dona yn d’ôl.—W.Ỻ., g 300.
‘Cold is the frost on the ridge of the roadway; colder is my stricken breast after thee.’
(2) In the following both the unaffected and the affected form are used for the f.; in some cases perhaps the affected is a conscious formation, more or less artificial:—w: fflwch, f. in D.G. 80, but ‑ffloch in comp. I.G. 226 ‘flush’; pwdr ‘rotten’, f. Num. v 21, but podr I.G. 399; rhwth ‘distended’, geg-rwth f. D.G. 344, but roth I.G. 406; swrth, f. sorth ‘prostrate’ Gr.O. 59.—y: clyd ‘sheltered’, clid f. b.b. 62, but cled D.G. 221 and later poetry, see ex., now clyd f.; crych ‘curly’, f. D.G. 75, ‑grech in comp. see iv (1); chwyrn ‘whirling’, f. D.G. 418, late chwern d.p.o. 344; gwydn ‘tough’, gwedn D.G. 50; gwymp ‘fine’, I.R. has gwemp says D. 54; hyll, f. D.G. 71, nos hyll ‘horrid night’ do. 500, later f. hell, but generally hyll, and so in spoken W. (the compound diell is not necessarily f. as D. assumed, but is for di-hyll by dissim. § 16 iv (2), and may be mas. as dïell dëyrn m.a. i 493b).
    Od aeth Rhys o’i glaerllys gled,
    Yr wyf finnau ar fyned.—D.N., m 136/109.
‘If Rhys has gone [to the grave] from his warm bright home, I too am about to go.’
(3) In the following the vowel is never affected, but the unaffected form is m. and f.:—w: brwd ‘warm’, drwg ‘bad’, glwth ‘gluttonous’, gwrdd ‘strong’, gwrm ‘brown’, llwgr ‘corrupt’.—y: dygn ‘grievous’; grym ‘strong’; gwych, f. D.G. 89, 143, 156, 315, 359 ‘fine’ (gwech is a late fabrication); gwychr ‘victorious’; gwyllt see ex.; hy ‘bold’; hydr ‘valiant’; myg ‘admirable’; rhydd ‘free’; rhyn(n) f. D.G. 267 ‘shivering, cold’; syn(n) ‘astonishing’.
    Hed drosof hyd dir Esyllt
    O berfedd gwlad Wynedd wyllt.—D.G. 523.
a: Misprinted i.
‘Fly for my sake as far as the land of Essyllt from the heart of the wild region of Gwynedd.’
iii. The change takes place rarely in uncompounded polysyllables:
(1) Melyn ‘yellow’ has f. melen always.
(2) D.D. gives “manwl et manol” s.v. but cites (from L.G.C. 318) manwl f.; the form manol seems a variant (? late) of manwl rather than a f. For the f. of tywyll L.G.C. and D.E. wrote tywell, which is quite certainly a spurious form, for tywyll originally had in its ult. not y but w͡y § 38 x, § 111 i (2), and could no more take a f. form than llŵyd ‘grey’. The true f. is tywyll: Stavell Gynẟylan ys tywyll r.p. 1045 ‘The hall of C. is dark’; Tywyll yw’r nos,… tywyll yw’r fro D.G. 267 ‘dark is the night, dark is the land’; rhan dywyll Luc xi 36. D. 54 states correctly that tywyll is com., quoting as violating usage (“sed dixit poeta”) the well-known couplet—
    Nos da i’r Ynys Dywell;
    Ni wn oes un ynys well.—L.G.C., m 146/140.
‘Good night to the dark island; I know not if a better island be.’ The name, which denotes Anglesey, is properly yr Ynys Dywyll (Ynis Dowyll Camden⁴ 681, Ynys Dowyll Mona Ant.¹ 24). Rowland 41 gives tywell as regular, and cites the couplet as an example, borrowing it from D. or his translator, but lacking D.’s scholarship. Some recent writers have used the form, having learnt it from these sources; and naturally Wms’s tywll nos is everywhere “corrected” to tywell nos in the new C.-M. hymnbook. The spoken language of course preserves the traditional form nos dywyll.
In Ml. and Early Mn. W. derivatives in ‑lyd had f. forms in ‑led: croc creuled b.b. 41 ‘bloody cross’; y ẟreic danllet s.g. 294, 329 ‘the fiery dragon’; arf wyarlled G.G1. d. 59 ‘gory weapon’;
    Ac uybren drymled ledoer
    A’i lluwch yn gorchuddio’r lloer.—D.G. 229.
b: Printed dremled.
‘And a gloomy chilly sky, and its drift hiding the moon.’
(3) But the bulk of polysyllabic adjectives with w or ɥ in the ult., which are not conscious compounds, have no distinctive f. form: w: agwrdd ‘strong’ amlwg ‘evident’, chwimwth ‘quick’, teilwng ‘worthy’, etc.;—y: melys ‘sweet’, dyrys ‘intricate’, hysbys ‘known’, echrys ‘terrible’, newydd ‘new’, celfydd ‘skilful’, pybyr f. I.G. 111 ‘keen’, ufyll ‘humble’, serfyll ‘prostrate’, etc. etc.
iv. The affection often takes place in compounds:
(1) In the second element when it is an adj. as pen-grych r.m. 163 ‘curly-haired’, f. benn-grech do. 232 (but ben-grych in the earlier ​w.m. 165); claerwyn m.a. i 92 ‘bright’, f. claerwen D.G. 48; mynýgl-wen do. 137 ‘white-throated’, drwyn-llem do. 395 ‘sharp- nosed’; gwallt-felyn g. 157 ‘yellow-haired’, f. gwallt-felen D.G. 107; dí-syml ‘artless’, f. dí-seml D.G. 53.
    Dywed, donn lẃys-gron, lás-greg,
    Chwedl da am ferch wiwdal deg.—G.Gr. p 77/194.
‘Tell me, finely-curved blue hoarse wave, good news of the fair sweet-faced maiden.’
Sometimes the first element is affected in co-ordinate compounds, as tlos-deg D.G. 518 ‘beautiful and fair’, sech-goeg I.G. 406 ‘dry and void’; and in rare cases both elements, as cron-fferf D.G. 38 ‘round and firm’.
(2) But old compounds, consisting of prefix + adj. and others which are not consciously felt to be compounds, retain their vowel unaffected: hy-dyn ‘tractable’, an-hydyn ‘intractable’, cyn-dyn ‘stubborn’, ed-lym ‘keen’, cymysg ‘mixed’, hy-fryd ‘pleasant’, dy-bryd ‘ugly’, cyffelyb ‘like’, amlwg, agwrdd, etc. iii (3),
v. The following are irregular:
(1) brith ‘speckled’ has f. braith, Ml. W. breith, a special case of a-affection, not originally irregular, see § 68.
(2) The change takes place in the penult in bychan ‘little’, f. bechan, see § 101 ii (2), and cwta ‘short’, f. sometimes cota; and sometimes in comparatives and superlatives; see § 147 iii.
vi. There is no distinctive form for the f. pl.
Comparison.
§ 147. i. The adjective in W. has four degrees of comparison, the positive, the equative, the comparative, and the superlative.
As the cpv. is followed by no, later na ‘than’, the equative is preceded by cyn and followed by â (unacc., a): cyn wynned â’r eira ‘as white as snow’; ‘of’ after the spv. is expressed by o: y byrraf o’r ddau lit. ‘the shortest of the two’.
ii. (1) The derived degrees are formed from the positive by the addition of ‑(h)ed, ‑ach, ‑(h)af respectively. The ‑h- of the equative and spv. disappeared after the accent § 48 ii, but hardened final ‑b, ‑d, or ‑g to tenues, even when these were followed by a sonant; in Late Mn. W. the hardening is extended to the cpv. Of course all mutable vowels are mutated, § 81. Thus the present-day comparison is as follows:—
| Positive | Eqtv. | Cpv. | Spv. |
| glân ‘clean’ | glaned | glanach | glanaf |
| teg ‘fair’ | teced | tecach | tecaf |
| gw̯lyb ‘wet’ | gw̯lỿped | gw̯lỿpach | gw̯lỿpaf |
| tlawd ‘poor’ | tloted | tlotach | tlotaf |
| budr ‘dirty’ | butred | butrach | butraf |
| gw̯ɥdn ‘tough’ | gw̯ỿtned | gw̯ỿtnach | gw̯ỿtnaf |
(2) But in Ml. W. the final consonant of the positive was not hardened in the comparative; thus we have tebygach w.m. 44, r.m. 30 ‘more likely’, tegach ‘fairer’ beside teckaf ‘fairest’ w.m. 226, r.m. 164, hyfrydach r.b.b. 50 ‘more pleasant’, r͑eidẏach r.p. 1249 ‘more necessary’. The tenuis is rare: kaletach b.t. 64, 69 ‘harder’. The media remained in Early Mn. W., e.g. rywiogach L.G.C. see § 115 ii; caledach G.G1. c. i 195; tegach T.A. a 14967/89; tlodach see ex.
    Aeth cerdd dafod yn dlodach;
    Aed ef i wlad nef yn iach.—H.D., p 99/416.
‘Poetry became poorer [by his loss]; may he go safe to heaven.’
The equative and superlative, however, always have the tenuis: kyn-debycket w.m. 34, r.m. 22, teccet w.m. 181, r.m. 84, teccaf a gwastataf w.m. 179, r.m. 83, etc. The ‑h- which caused this hardening is sometimes preserved in Ml. W.: dahet r.m. 50 ‘as good’; mwyhaf w.m. 179, r.m. 83; ky vawhet, gurhaw § 149 i (2); pennhaw (‑w ≡ ‑f) b.b. 102; see § 48 iv.
¶ On i̯ before the ending, see § 35 ii (2).
iii. In Ml. W. f. forms of the derived degrees arose, the endings being added to the f. positive; these are new formations, and are less frequent in earlier than in later texts; thus dissymlaf of w.m. 6 becomes disemɏlaf in r.m. 4. Other examples are tromhaf w.m. 82, r.m. 60; gwen(n)ach r.b.b. 60; gwennet r.p. 1239; dofnet do. 1276. A few survive in the Mn. period, eos dlosaf D.G. 402 ‘most beautiful nightingale’; berraf f. 17; Wennaf Wen.
iv. (1) The comparison of adjectives in the Ar. languages is largely formed by means of the Ar. suffix *‑i̯es‑. The L°-grade *‑i̯ōs gives Lat. ‑ior nom. sg. m. f. of the cpv.; the F°-grade ‑i̯os gives Lat. ‑ius the corresponding neuter; the R-grade ‑is is seen in the Lat. cpv. adverb mag-is. The R-grade ‑is- with other suffixes gave many forms of the cpv. and spv.
​(2) The W. spv. ‑haf (= Ir. ‑em, ‑am) is from Kelt. *‑isamos, *‑isamā < Italo-Kelt. *‑isₑm-os, ‑ā, cf. Lat. plūrimus < *plōisₑmos. This is formed by adding the ordinal ending *‑ₑmos (: Lat. sept-imus) to the suffix of comparison ‑is‑, just as the other ordinal ending ‑tos (: Lat. sex-tus) added to ‑is- forms the other spv. ending ‑istos familiar in Gk. and Germanic. [The ‑ss- of Lat. ‑issimus is due to some re-formation, probably ‑is- + ‑simus newly compounded, the latter element containing ‑(i)s- already.]
(3) The W. cpv. ‑ach (Bret. ‑oc’h) seems to come from Brit. *‑aks- for unaccented *‑āks- § 74; probably in full *‑āk’son < *‑āk-isōn (final *‑on for *‑ōn § 59 v) the cpv. in *‑is-ōn (: Gk. ‑ιων, Goth, ‑iza) of a derivative in *‑āk-os of the adj. § 153 (5). The general substitution of the cpv. of a derivative for the ordinary cpv. in *‑i̯ōs is doubtless due to the fact that, after the loss of endings, the cpv. in ‑i̯ōs did not differ from the pos. pl. (*katarn-i̯ōs would give *cedeirn), or in some cases from the pos. sg. (*meliss-i̯ōs would give *melys). The suffix ‑āk- itself prob. had a heightening force, as it has in Lith. when added to an adj.; in Lettish ‑āks is the ordinary cpv. ending. The suffix *‑isōn is formed by adding *‑ōn to the suffix of comparison *‑is‑. It occurs with loss of ‑i- in W. nes, haws, etc. § 148 i, q.v.; the final *‑ōn is the L°-grade of a suffix ‑en‑, which is perhaps to be seen in amgen § 148 ii and haeachen g. 234, apparently an obl. case of haeach § 220 iii (6). The final ‑n of the nom. sg. ‑son is prob. the initial of no ‘than’ § 113 i (1).
(4) The W. eqtv. ‑het (= Bret. exclamative ‑het) seems to be from Brit. *‑is-eto‑s, formed by adding the Kelt. ordinal suffix *‑eto‑s § 154 ii (2) to the suffix of comparison *‑is‑. It contains the same elements as the spv. suffix *‑istos, but is a new and independent formation, in which each element preserves some measure of its significance: ‑is- ‘superior’, ‑eto- ‘in order’. It is equative in meaning only when cyn is prefixed; thus cyn deced â ‘as beautiful as’, lit. ‘equally excelling-in-beauty with’. Without cyn it is an exclamative, as uchet y kwynaf r.p. 1417 ‘how loudly I lament!’; so Ml. Bret. kazret den ‘what a fine man!’ (in the dial. of Leon the spv. is substituted for it, as brasa den ‘what a big man!’). In W. it is largely used substantially as the obj. of a vb. or prep., meaning not the quality denoted by the adj. but the degree of it: er i theced ‘in spite of her superior beauty’.
Zimmer, KZ. xxxiv 161–223, held that the eqtv. was a noun like colled, etc., which became an adj. by being compounded with cyn, which he regarded as *kom‑; cf. lliw ‘colour’, cyfliw ‘of a like colour’. His explanation did not account for the ‑h- in the suffix; hence Stern, ZfCP. iii 164, suggests that the eqtv. is a compound, the second element being allied to Ir. sāith, Lat. satis, but this the vowel does not admit of.—The fact that teced is a noun in er i theced no more proves it to be a noun originally than the use of gwaethaf ​as a noun in er dy waethaf ‘in spite of thy worst’ proves the spv. to be a primitive noun; the ordinal itself is so used, as ar vyn deuẟecvet w.m. 83 ‘on my twelfth’, meaning ‘[I] with eleven others’. Zimmer ignores the difference of meaning between the eqtv. and an abstract noun; er fy nhlodi is ‘in spite of my poverty’, but er fy nhloted is ‘in spite of the degree of my poverty’; the former means ‘though I am poor’, the latter ‘however poor I may be’; the idea of ‘degree’ is common to the W. eqtv. and Bret. exclamative, and it is absurd to assert, as Zimmer does, that it is a meaning read into the form by us moderns.
Some of the irregular equatives given in the next section begin with cỿm‑, cỿn‑, cỿf‑, cỿ‑, which are the regular forms of Kelt. *kom- in composition. These do not require cɥn before them; hence Zimmer believed that cɥn before an equative in ‑(h)ed was identical with the above prefixes, and came from *kom‑. But cɥn is followed by a soft initial, and its ‑n (Ml. ‑nn) is never assimilated to the following consonant; Strachan, who accepts Zimmer’s view, explains this briefly as follows: “the form cyn- with analogical lenation became the general form before all sounds,” Intr. 29. Analogy usually causes the one to conform to the many; but the above explanation involves the assumption of the many conforming to the one in the generalization of the pre-dental form cyn- (which did not take place in any other compounds of *kom‑); it involves the same assumption in the generalization of the apparent lenition in cỿ‑w- (as in cỿ-wir); as the two things (‑n and lenition) could not co-exist in any formation from *kom‑, the two generalizations would have to be independent, so that the improbability is raised to the second degree. Further, the ‑n- of cɥn is not only old enough to provect l- and r- (§ 111 i), as in cɥn llonned, cɥn rhated (as opposed to cỿf-lawn, cỿf-ran from *kom‑), but is actually older than the separation of W. and Bret., for in Ml. Bret, it is quen. Some other explanation of cɥn must therefore be sought.
cɥn (≡ cɥ̆n, in the dialects mostly k̑ĭn) is now a proclitic, though it may be accented for emphasis; it was also a proclitic in Ml. W. for it was generally joined to the eqtv. in writing, though often separated, see below. But its ‑ɥ- shows that originally it was a separate word separately accented, and distinguishes it from all the forms of *kom‑, which have ỿ. In cỿ́n-ddrwg, cɥn forms an improper compound with the adj., and its ɥ becomes ỿ § 46 i; this is the only case of ỿ in cỿn with lenition.—While cỿf- < *kom- can be prefixed to a noun or adj. as cỿf-liw, cỿf-uwch, the form cɥn cannot be put before a noun; we cannot say *cɥn harddwch, *cɥn dlodi, *cɥn rhaid, *cɥn gymdeithas, but must say cɥn hardded, cɥn dloted, cyn rheitied, cynn gytymdeithaset h.m. ii 419. Zimmer notes this, loc. cit. 197, but does not draw the obvious conclusion. The only word in W. not ending in ‑(h)ed used after cyn with lenition is drwg, and that is an adj. In Bret. quen, ken (ker, kel) comes before positive adjectives: quen drouc, quen bras. The inference is that forms in ‑(h)ed are ​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’ < *q$^{u̯}$om-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; ​Eng. hind-er, be-hind, perhaps from √k̑ent- ‘point’; cf. blaenaf ‘foremost, first’: blaen ‘point’;—cyntaf § 106 iii (3); cynnar § 153 (4); cynffon ‘tail’ < *cynh-ffonn shows cynt meaning ‘hind’.
(4) da ‘good’; eqtv. Ml. kynna b.t. 10, r.p. 1403; Ml. kystadɏl m.a. i 290, kystal b.t. 10, w.m. 4, 7, etc., Mn. cystadl, usually cystal; as a noun Ml. dahet w.m. 70, daet r.m. 207, Mn. daëd, daed; cpv. gwell, spv. Ml. goreuhaf b.t. 65, B.B. 42, goreuaf Ỻ.A. 49, but usually goreu, Mn. W. goreu, gorau.
da § 65 ii (1); kynna < *kom-dag‑; daëd and dae̯d, disyll. and monosyll., see exx.;—cystadl § 96 ii (3), cf. distadl ibid.; the frequent use of the word caused the reduction ‑adl > ‑al; J.D.R.’s cystadled, and later cystled seem to be wrongly standardized forms of Gwyn. dial. cystlad, which may well be for cystadl by metathesis;—gwell orig. ‘choice’ § 100 iii (2), prob. not cpv. in form;—goreu appears to be formed from gor- ‘super’ § 156 i (17) and some form of the base *eu̯eseu̯- ‘good’ § 75 vii (3); it is not likely that goreu is shortened from goreuhaf, for the dropping of the ending would be against all analogy; rather goreuhaf is a rhetorical form made from goreu, and apparently not largely used at any time; the Mn. form is goreu, gorau, § 81 iii (1); in the Early Mn. bards it rhymes with ‑au, see ex.—Pughe’s goraf is a fiction.
    Er 'dá-ëd fo’r gair dí-werth,
    Ni bydd gwir heb addaw gwerth.—I.F., m 148/59.
‘However good a word without a bribe may be, it will not be [accepted as] true without the promise of a bribe.’
    Gwae ni dy ddaed gan dy ddwyn.—T.A., g. 230 (7 syll.).
‘Woe to us that thou wert so good since thou art taken away.’ Cf. L.G.C. 190.
    O gwŷl gŵr gael y gorau,
    Oed i’r gŵr hwn drugarhau.—T.A., a 24980/85.
‘If a man sees that he has the best [of it], it is time for that man to relent.’ So iau/orau H.C.Ỻ., Ỻ 133/212b; H.D.p 99/498.
(5) drwg ‘bad’; eqtv. kynẟrwc r.p. 1357, s.g. 11, 34, 37, etc., cỿnddrwg Gen. xli 19; as a noun drycket w.m. 227, Mn. drỿced D.G. 40; cpv. gwaeth; spv. gwaethaf.
drwg, Bret. drouk, droug, Ir. droch‑, drog- < Kelt. *druko- √dhreuɡh/q‑: Skr. drúh‑, dhruk ‘injuring, betraying’, drúhyati ‘hurts’, Germ. Trug: Lat. fraus;—cỿnddrwg § 147 iii (4);—gwaeth, gwaethaf, Bret. gwaz, gwasa, Vann. gwac’h, Corn. gwêth, gwetha; the Bret. forms show that W. wae is for woe, so that Stokes’s *u̯akto‑s Fick⁴ ii 260 is inadmissible; hence probably gw̯aethaf < *gw̯oeẟ-haf < *upo-ped-isₑmos § 75 ii (1): Lat. pessimus < *ped-sₑmos; in that ​case gwaeth is formed from the super­lative; see llydan (11) below. These are, then, the compared forms of gwael ‘base, vile’, the positive often having a suffix lost in compar­ison, cf. mawr, hir, uchel; and gwael repre­sents *upo-ped-lo-s; its deriv­ative gwaelawt ‘bottom’, O. W. guoilaut, preserves the literal meaning (‘under foot’). Of course in Ml. and Mn. W. gwael is compared regularly, its relation to gwaethaf having been forgotten.
(6) hawdd 'easy'; eqtv. hawsset Ỻ.A. 81, Mn. hawsed; cpv. haws; spv. hawssaf Ỻ.A. 81, s.g. 13, Mn. hawsaf.
hawdd, originally ‘pleasant’, as in hawddfyd ‘pleasure’, hawdit (≡ hawẟ-ẟyẟ) b.b. 90 ‘fine day’, hawdd-gar ‘handsome’ § 153 (8) for *hw̯awdd § 94 iv < Ar. *su̯ādu-s: Gk. ἡδύς, Skr. svādú-ḥ, O. E. swēte, Lat. suāvis (< *su̯ādu̯i‑s), etc.;—cpv. haws < *su̯ād’son < *su̯ādisōn = Gk. ἡδῐ́ων < *su̯ādisōn;—spv. hawsaf < *su̯ād’sₑmos; the ‑aw- instead of ‑o- in the penult is due to the lost w̯ before it; cf. gw̯awd ‘song’ < *u̯āt‑, Ml. pl. gwawdeu r.p. 1216. In Gaul. we find Suadu-rix, ‑genus (prob. ‑ā‑). For the develop­ment of the meaning cf. E. ease ‘comfort; facility’.
In Recent W. we sometimes see hawddach and hawddaf which come from the most debased dialect; good speakers still use the standard forms haws, hawsaf.
Similarly an-háwdd, ánawẟ r.p. 1227, etc. § 48 iv, Mn. ánodd ‘difficult', O.W. hanaud cp.; eqtv. anháwsed; cpv. ánaws, ános; spv. anháwsaf.
Owing to its obvious formation the word is generally written anhawdd in the late period; but the regular Mn. form is ánodd, because h is lost after the accent § 48 iv, and un­accented aw > o § 71 ii (1). The spoken form is ánoẟ, in some parts hánoẟ by early metath­esis of h, as perhaps in the O.W. form above.
    Maddau ún ym oedd ánodd
    Na bai yn fyw neb un fodd.—I.D., g. 135; cf. c.c. 193.
‘It was difficult for me to part with one whose like did not live.’
    Eithr 'ános yw d’aros di.—T.A., c. i 340.
‘But it is more difficult to confront thee.’
But the prefix may be separately accented § 45 iv (2), in which case the word is neces­sarily án-háwdd; this form is attested in—
    O deuaf ŵyl i’w dai fo,
    An-háwdd fydd fy nyhúddo.—Gnt.O., a 14967/60.
‘If I come on a holiday to his houses, it will be difficult to comfort me.’
(7) hên ‘old’; eqtv. hỿned; cpv. hɥn b.t. 26 ≡ Mn. hɥ̂n; hỿnach c.c. 342; spv. hỿnaf, O.W. hinham.
​hên, Ir. sen < Ar. *seno‑s = Gk. ἕνος, Skr. sánaḥ, Lith. sė́nas ‘old’, Lat. sen‑;—cpv. hŷn, Ir. siniu < *seni̯ōs = Lat. senior; spv. hyn(h)af < *sen-isₑmos, see llydan below.—The cpv. hɥ̂n is still in collo­quial use, though the later and weaker hynach is more common; in S.W. also a still later henach, henaf, re-formed from the pos.
(8) hir ‘long’; eqtv. kyhyt w.m. 43, cyhyd § 41 v, contr. to cɥ̂d; as a noun hɥ̂d, e.g. in er hyd ‘however long’; cpv. hwy; spv. hwyaf.
hir § 72; the root is *sēi̯‑; cyhyd ‘as long’ < *ko-sit‑; hyd ‘length’, Ir. sith < *si‑t‑, R₂ *sĭ- § 63 vii (5);—cpv. hwy, Ir. sīa < *seison for *sei-isōn ib.;—so spv. hwyaf, Ir. sīam < *seisₑmos.
The contracted form cɥ̂d is common in Mn.W.: cɥd a rhaff D.G. 48 ‘as long as a rope’, cɥd a gw̯ɥdd D.E. g. 124 ‘as long as trees’, cɥd E.P. ps. xliv 23 ‘so long’; cɥd a phregeth ‘as long as a sermon’.—cŷd < cɥ́hɥd (which gives Card. dial. cíchɥd).
(9) i̯euanc, i̯efanc, ifanc § 76 iii (3) ‘young’; eqtv. ieuanghet r.m. 160, ivanghet c.m. 84; cpv. Ml. ieu b.t. 26, 28, Mn. i̯au; also ieuang­hach s.g. 66; ieuangach Job xxx 1; spv. ieuhaf a.l. i 542, ieuaf, ifaf, ieuangaf.
ieuanc, Bret. iaouank, Ir. ōac, contr. ōc (whence W. hog-lanc ‘lad’);—cpv. ieu < *i̯uu̯i̯ōs (Ir. ōa with ‑a from the spv., see 11 below): Skr. yávīyas‑;—spv. i̯euaf, Ir. ōam < *i̯uu̯isₑmos.
(10) issel, now written isel ‘low’; eqtv. isset r.m. 94, Mn. ised; cpv. is (≡ īs); spv. issaf, isaf.
W. issel = Ir. is(s)el. The origin of the word is not certain, but it is most probably cognate with Lat. īmus. Brugmann IF. xxix 210 ff. derives īmus, Osc. imad‑en ‘ab imo’ from *ī or *īd an adv. from the pron. stem *i‑, as Lat. dēmus, dēmum is formed from dē; and quotes other examples of ‘here’ becoming ‘here below’. The Kelt. adj. is obviously formed after *upselo‑s (> W. uchel ‘high’ § 86 iv); if the orig. adv. was *īd, the adj. would be *īd-selo‑s > *īsselo‑s, which gives W. issel, Ir. issel regularly. Pedersen suggests *pēd-selo‑, √ped- ‘foot’; but the connexion with Ital. spv. īmo- is more probable.
(11) llydan ‘wide’; eqtv. cyfled, as a noun lled; cpv. lled, late lletach; spv. lletaf.
W. llydan, Ir. lethan § 63 viii (1); W. lled noun, see ibid.; spv. lletaf < *plet-isₑmo‑s. The cpv. lled, Ir. letha (‑a added in Ir.) is irregular; Osthoff derived W. lled from *plet-is (Thurn­eysen Gr. 227), but it is not clear why the adverbial form ‑is should be general­ized (the regular *pleti̯ōs would give W. *llyd, Ir. *lithiu). As many compar­atives were the same as the super­lative without its ending, e.g. hwy, hwyaf, Ir. sīa, sīam, the proba­bility is that some, ​which differed, were assim­ilated, so that lled is a re-formation of *llyd on the analogy of lletaf. This seems also the simplest expla­nation of Ir. letha and similar forms. In the same way W. hynaf seems to owe its y to the compar­ative hŷn, § 65 iv (1).
The cpv. lled in Job xi 9 is changed in late editions to llettach; the literary form is lled: thus Eidion lled no’r dunnell win Ỻ. a 14967/20 ‘an ox broader than a tun of wine’; cf. L.G.C. 429.
    O drugareddpen Calfaria, sydd yn llawer lled nar byd.—Wms. 490.‘Oh the mercy of mount Calvary, which is much wider than the world.’
(12) mawr ‘large, great’; eqtv. Ml. kymeint, Mn. cỿmaint, and Ml. kymein, Mn. cỿmain § 106 iii (2); as a noun meint, Mn. maint; cpv. Ml. moe § 75 i (3), Ml. and Mn. mwy, as an adv. mwyach also; spv. mwyhaf § 147 ii (2), mwyaf.
W. mawr, Ir. mār, mōr, Gaul. Σεγο-μαρος < Kelt. *mā-ro‑s; cpv. mwy, Ir. māa, mōo, mōu < *mā-i̯ōs § 75 i (3); spv. mwyhaf < *māisₑmos < *mā-is ₑmos;—the eqtv. noun maint < *ma‑ntí‑s < *mā‑ntí‑s § 74 iv, with the suffix of numeral substan­tives such as *dekantí‑s < *dek̑m̥-tí‑s: Skr. das̑atíḥ ‘a decade’; cf. the formation of eqtv. adjec­tives with ordinal suffixes; cf. also pa veint c.m. 78 ‘how many’, y meint gwyr a oeẟ iẟaw r.b.b. 46 ‘the number of men that he had’ = ‘as many as he had’, etc.—The dialectal form cymin(t) of the eqtv. is met with, though rarely, in the bards:
    Nid cymin ar y min mau
    Blys gwin a bias i genau.—D.G. 317.
‘Not so much on my mouth is the desire of wine as of the taste of her lips.’
(13) tren(n) ‘strong’; cpv. trech (≡ trēch); spv. trechaf.
Trechaf treisied, gwannaf gwaedded prov. ‘let the strongest oppress, the weakest cry’. S.T. has a new cpv. trechach f. 6.
W. trenn, Ir. trēn < *trek-sno‑s, √stereɡ‑: Germ, stark, streng, Eng. strong;—cpv. trech, Ir. tressa (with added ‑a) < *trek-’son < *treg-isōn;—spv. trechaf, Ir. tressam < *trek-’sₑmo‑s.
chweg ‘sweet’ has Ml. cpv. chwechach w.m. 481, r.m. 121, formed like trechach from an old cpv. *chwech < *su̯ek-’son.
(14) uchel ‘high’; eqtv. Ml. kyvuch, Mn. cyfuwch, contr. cuwch; exclam. uchet r.p. 1417; as a noun uchet w.m. 189; cpv. Ml. uch, Mn. uwch; spv. uchaf.
uchel § 86 iv, § 96 iv (3); uch, uwch < *up-’son; uchaf < *up- ’sₑmos: Lat. s‑ummus < *s‑up-mo‑s, Gr. ὕπατος < *up-m̥-to‑s. On the mutation uch‑: uwch see § 77 x. The form uwchaf sometimes met with in Late W. ignores the mutation; it is a re-formation from uwch, as children say buwchod for buchod ‘cows’, sg. buwch.
​ii. The following have defective comparison:
(1) Spv. eithaf ‘uttermost’ < *ektₑmos: Lat. extimus, § 109 iv (1) (to cpv. eithr ‘except, but’, Ir. echtar < *ektro‑s: Lat. extrā § 99 v (4); to positive eh- ech- < *eks‑: Lat. ex).
(2) Cpv. amgen ‘other; better’; also a later amgenach s.g. 200, D.N. f.n. 91.
Ac amgen ledɏr no hwnnw ny phrynei ef w.m. 67 ‘And other leather than that he did not buy’.
amgen is a cpv. of similar form to hagen § 222 iii (4), and may be neg. in a(n)- of the cpv. corresponding to the spv. megys § 215 iv (3) ‘like’; thus *n̥‑sm‑āk-is-en- > *amgi̯en > amgen § 100 vi. (As the 2nd syll. drops ‑is- remained and gave i̯ not h.)
(3) prif ‘chief’ < Lat. prīmus is not felt as a spv. in W.; it always forms the first element of a compound: § 155 iii (1).
iii. Equatives with the prefix cỿ- may have before this the prefix go‑, as gogymaint, gogyfuwch etc. Thus—
A’r llall a oeẟ yn kynẟuet ac yn ogymeint a bran s.g. 99 ‘and the other was as black and as large as a crow’. yn ogyfuwch â Duw, Phil. ii 6. This form is sometimes predi­cated of both the things compared: Nid gogyhyd esgeiriau y cloff Diar. xxvi 7.
§ 149. i. Many nouns take the endings of comparison, and thereby become adjec­tives of the respec­tive degrees.
(1) The following are in common use in Mn. W.:
rhaid ‘need’; eqtv. cɥn rheitied D.G. 299 ‘as necessary, as fitting’; cpv. Ml. r͑eidẏach r.p. 1249, Mn. rheitiach ‘more necessary, more fitting’; spv. Ml. r͑eittaf r.p. 1148, Mn. rheitiaf.
rhaid < Kelt. *(p)rat-i̯o- ‘due, due share’ < *prət‑, √perō- ‘dispose’: W. rhad see below, rhann ‘share’, Lat. part- § 63 vii (2), W. barn § 101 iii (2).
elw ‘profit’; cpv. elwach ‘profiting more, better off’, as (pa) faint elwach fyddi di? ‘how much better off wilt thou be?’
elw is properly helw, still so pro­nounced in Gwynedd in phrases like ar dy helw ‘in thy posses­sion’; helw = Ir. selb ‘posses­sion’ both < *sel-u̯o‑, √sel- ‘take’: Ir. selaim ‘I take’, Gk. ἑλεῖν, Goth. saljan, O.E. sellan, E. sell.
blaen ‘point, front’; also adj. as troed blaen ‘fore-foot’; spv. blaenaf, ‘foremost, first’; § 215 iii (10).
ôl ‘rear, track’, as yn ôl ‘after, according to’ § 215 iii (6), ôl troed ‘foot-print’; also adj. as troed ôl ‘hind foot’; spv. olaf ‘last’ < *ol‑isₑmos: Lat. ultimus < *ol-tₑmos.
​pen(n) ‘head’; spv. pennaf ‘chief’; also in Ml. and Early Mn. W. cpv. pennach Ỻ.A. 89, G.Gl. p 83/58 ‘higher, superior’; § 89 iii.
rhad ‘gift, grace’, having become an adj. ‘cheap’ from the phrase yn rhad ‘gratis’, is compared regularly.
rhad < *prət‑: rhann, Skr. pūrtám ‘reward’; see rhaid above.
diwedd ‘end’; spv. diwaethaf ‘last’ Ỻ.A. 7, r.p. 1195, 1249, 1298, p 16/19 r., 1 Petr i 5 by R.D. (in Wm.S.); diwethaf Ỻ.A. 43, 59, p 14/11 r., a.l. i 4, 48, 50, Matt. xx 8 Wm.S.; so in Es. ii 2, xlviii 12, Jer. xxiii 20 in 1620; but generally in 1620, and every­where in late bibles, diweddaf.
a.l. i 48 dẏuedaf does not imply ẟ, as we have pemdec for pymtheg on the same page. The form diweddaf seems to come from Wm.S.’s dyweddaf Matt. xxvii 64; and as it seemed to be “regular” it ousted the tradi­tional forms in the written lang. of the 19th cent.; but the spoken forms are dw̯aetha’ (Powys), dw͡ytha’ (Gwyn.), and dw̯etha’ (S.W.).
    Caned dy feirdd—cyntaf fûm,
    A diwaethaf y deuthum.—T.A., a 14901/26.
‘Let thy bards sing—I was the first [of them], and I have come last’.
The O.W. diued b.s.ch. 2 and Bret. divez, Corn. dewedh, Ir. diad, dead show that the noun diwedd cannot be for *diwaedd; on the other hand diwaethaf cannot well be for diwethaf. The expla­nation of the former seems to be that it comes from an inten­sified form with *‑u̯o‑, which survived only in the spv.; thus diwaethaf < *diw̯oeẟ-haf < *dī-u̯o-(u̯)ed-isamo‑s, cf. gwaethaf (5) above.
diwedd is ‘end’ in the sense of ‘close, conclu­sion’, not a geo­metrical term; hence from *dī- ‘out’ + u̯ed‑, √u̯edh- ‘conduct, lead’: Lith. vedù ‘I conduct, lead’, E. wed, etc., cf. W. gor-ẟiw̯eẟaf ‘I overtake’.
(2) Many other cases occur in Ml. W.: gurhaw (≡ gwrhaf) b.b. 41 ‘most manly’; amserach w.m. 9, r.m. 6 ‘more timely’; llessach w.m. 17, r.m. 11 ‘more bene­ficial’ (lles ‘benefit’); dewissach c.m. 11 ‘prefer­able’ (dewis ‘choice’ noun); pennadurẏaf do. 8 ‘most princely’; ky vawhet R.M. 149 ‘as cowardly’, bawaf r.p. 1278 ‘most vile’ (baw ‘dirt’).
ii (1) Equative adjec­tives are formed from many nouns by prefixing cỿf‑, cỿm‑, (as cyfled, cymaint); thus kyfliw r.b.b. 179 ‘of the same colour’; kyvurẟ w.m. 75 ‘of the same rank’; ​kymoneẟ ib. ‘as noble’ (boneẟ ‘nobility’); kyvoet do. 27 ‘of the same age’; cyfryw ‘of the same kind, such’.
(2) In one or two cases the second element no longer exists in its simple form either as a noun or adj.: cyfred ‘as swift’ (rhedeg to run’); cyfref ‘as thick’ (rhefedd ‘thickness’).
(3) Compounds of un- ‘one’ also form the equivalents of equative adjec­tives: unlliw a D.G. 17 ‘of the same colour as’; neb un fodd § 148 i (6), ‘any one like’ (modd ‘manner’), unwedd a ‘like’, etc.
§ 150. Most adjectives may be compared regularly, including—
i. Many derivatives in ‑aidd, ‑ig, ‑in (not denoting substance), ‑og, ‑us; as peraidd ‘sweet’, eqtv. cyn bereidd­ied, cpv. pereidd­iach, spv. pereidd­iaf; so pwysicaf ‘most important’, gerwinaf ‘roughest’, cyfoeth­ocaf ‘richest’, grymusaf ‘mightiest’. But those contain­ing more than two syllables are mostly compared periphras­tically.
Verbal adjectives in ‑adwy, ‑edig are not compared (except periphras­tically), though caredig ‘kind’, no longer felt as a verbal adj., is, e.g. caredicaf ‘kindest’. Adjec­tives in ‑ol are rarely compared; those in ‑aid, ‑in denoting material, and in ‑lyd are not compared.
ii. Compounds in which the second element is an adjective; as gloyw-ẟúaf Ỻ.A. 93 ‘of a most glossy black’, llathɏr-wýnnaf ib. ‘most lustrous­ly white’, klaer-wýnnaf ib. ‘most brilliant­ly white’, cyn vlaen-llýmet​…​blaen-llýmaf w.m. 176 ‘as sharply pointed​…​most sharply pointed’.
    Dwy fron mor wynion a’r ōd,
    Gloyw̯-w̯ýnnach na gwylanod.—D.G. 148.
‘Two breasts as white as snow, more luminously white than sea-gulls.’
But when the second element is an adj. compared irregularly, the compound cannot be compared, as maléis-ddrwg, troed-lýdan, pen-úchel, etc. A few of these may, however, be compared by adding the endings to derived forms, as gwerth-fawr ‘valuable’, spv. gwerth­vawrussaf Ỻ.A. 80, or gwerth­fawrocaf; clód-fawr ‘cele­brated’, spv. clod­forusaf. (G.M.D. has gwerth­voraf r.p. 1195, an unusual form.)
Adj. compounds with noun final as ysgafn-droed ‘light-footed’ can only be compared periphras­tically.
§ 151. i. Adjectives which cannot take the endings of comparison as above may be compared periphras­tically, by placing before the positive mor, mwy, mwyaf, to form the eqtv., cpv., spv. ​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.’
​Equative: am gyflavan mor anweẟus ac a rywnaethoeẟ w.m. 30 ‘for so horrible a murder as [that] which she had committed.’—pryf mor ẟielw a hwnnw do. 78 ‘so vile a reptile as that.’—peth mor ag̃hywir a hynny r.m. 177 ‘so wrong a thing as that’.
    Ni bu fyd i neb o Fôn
    Mor oer ag y mae’r awron.—H.K.
‘There has not been to any man of Môn so cold a world as it is now.’
(3) mor with a noun forms the equivalent of an eqtv. adj., as O. W. morliaus gl. quam multos; Ml. W. mor eisseu r.p. 1428 ‘how necessary’. The construc­tion is not common, and is now obsolete, but several examples occur in the Early Mn. bards.
The construction arises naturally from the original meaning of mor as explained above, for mor-liaws ‘*great host’ could as easily as mor-luosog ‘*greatly numerous’ come to mean as an exclam­ative ‘how numerous!’
    Nid mor ddihareb nebun
    I’n gwlad ni a hi i hun.—D.G. 440.
‘No one is so proverbial in our land as she herself.’
    I dad, mor wrda ydoedd!—L.G.C. 93.
‘His father, how noble he was!’
    Nid marw ef, nid mor ofud.—T.A., a 14879/20.
‘He is not dead, it is not so sad [as that].’
    Curiais yr ais mor resyn.—S.T., Ỻ 133/170a.
‘I suffered [in] my heart so sorely.’
(4) mor with the cpv. occurs in O mor well Diar. xvi 16 ‘Oh how much better!’ The usual construc­tion is cymaint gwell! but the above may be a stray example of an idiom once in use. It is quite consis­tent with the expla­nation of mor adopted above.
(5) In S.W. dialects mor is sometimes used instead of cyn before the eqtv., as mor laned for cyn laned or mor lân.
(6) The m- of mor is never mutated, but remains in all positions: thus after f. sg. nouns: gyflavan mor anweẟus (2) above; arch mor drahaus r.m. 227 ‘so insolent a request’. This may be due to its exclam­ative origin.
§ 152. i. A positive adjective is sometimes repeated to enhance its meaning. As a rule the iteration forms a loose compound, the second element having its initial softened, as A da dda hyd i ddiwedd W.Ỻ. 62 ‘and very good till his death’. Very rarely it forms a strict compound, as ​
    Péll-bell, ar draws pob hýll-berth,
    Po bellaf, gwaethaf yw’r gwerth.—G.Gl. m 146/154.
‘Very far, across every horrid bush [I have driven my flock]; the further, the less is their worth.’
In some cases the initial of the second adj. is not softened, so that the two do not consti­tute a formal compound; as Da da fu o grud hyd fedd W.Ỻ. 40 ‘very good was she from the cradle to the grave’; Drwg drwg Diar xx 14. Where the adj. begins with a vowel or an immutable consonant, there is, of course, no indi­cation of the con­struction; e.g. isel isel Deut. xxviii 43.
ii. A cpv. is compounded with itself to express progressive increase in the quality denoted by the adj. When the cpv. is a mono­syllable the compound is generally strict, as gwáeth-waeth ‘worse and worse’, lléi-lai ‘less and less’, lléd-led ‘wider and wider’, nés-nes ‘nearer and nearer’, mwy-fwy Phil. i 9 ‘more and more’. In present-day speech the compound is oftener loose, as llái lái. When the cpv. is a poly­syllable, the compound is neces­sarily loose; see the ex. below.
    Ef â afon yn fẃyfwy
    Hyd y môr, ac nid â mwy.—L.G.C. 357.
‘A river goes increasing to the sea, and goes no more.’
    Gŵr a wella’r gwŷr 'wéllwell,
    A gwŷr a wna’r gŵr yn well.—D.N., f. 4, g. 161.
‘A master who betters the men more and more, and men who make the master better.’
A Dafydd oedd yn myned gryfach gryfach, ond tŷ Saul oedd yn myned wannach wannach. 2 Sam. iii 1.
The combination always forms a compound, for the second cpv. has always its soft initial.
mwy na mwy ‘excessive’, understood as ‘more than more’, is doubtless origin­ally ‘more and more’, the n- of na being the final ‑n of the cpv. § 147 iv (3).
Derivative Adjectives.
§ 153. Derivative adjectives are formed from the stems of nouns, adjec­tives and verbs by the addition of the following suffixes:
(1) ‑adwy, ‑ediw, ‑edig, ‑awd verbal adjective suffixes, see § 206.
Ml.W. ‑awdɏr seems to be ‑awd with excrescent ‑r § 113 i (1): ​annẏoẟei­vẏawdɏr Ỻ.A. 53 ‘intol­erable’, teim­lẏawdɏr do. 42 ‘sensitive’, r͑eolawdyr c.m. 14 ‘regular.’
(2) ‑aid, Ml.W. ‑eit: Ir. ‑the participial; as in cannaid D.G. 64, Marc ix 3 ‘bright’; llathraid D.G. 386 ‘shining’; euraid do. 13, 64, 88, 220, 372–3, Ml.W. eureit w.m. 180 ‘golden’; ariannaid, Ml.W. arẏanneit r.m. 83 ‘silvern’; it may represent Brit. *‑at-io‑s, a ‑i̯o- deriv­ative of the parti­cipial ‑ət‑. It is distinct from ‑aidd; euraidd is a late bungle (not in D.D.).
(3) ‑aidd, Ml.W. ‑eiẟ: Ir. ‑de; added to nouns, as teyrneiẟ w.m. 20 ‘kingly’, Mn.W. gwladaidd ‘rustic’, gwasaidd ‘servile’; to the v.n. caru in karueiẟ w.m. 145, Mn.W. carúaidd ‘lovable, loving’; to adjec­tives as peraidd ‘sweet’, puraidd ‘pure’, often modifying the sense, oeraidd ‘coldish’, tlodaidd ‘poorish’; it repre­sents Kelt. *‑adi̯os, a ‑i̯o- deriv­ative of the adj. suffix *‑ado‑s: cf. Lat. ‑idius in proper names beside adj. ‑idus which may be from *‑ado‑s, and cf. Gk. ‑αδ- in μιγάς ‘mixed’, etc.
Also ‑ḯaidd in arglwyddḯaidd D.G. 450 ‘lordly’, ‑onḯaidd in bardd­onḯaidd do. 449 ‘poetic’.
(4) ‑ar < Kelt. *‑aro- < *‑ₑro- in byddar ‘deaf’, Ir. bodar: Skr. badhirá‑ḥ; cynnar ‘early’, diweddar ‘late’; cf. ‑ro- in mawr < *mā-ro‑s, etc.
(5) Ml.W. ‑awc, Mn.W. ‑awg, ‑og: Ir. ‑ach < Kelt. *‑āko‑s; Lat. ‑ācus, Gk. ‑ηκος, ‑ᾱκος, Skr. ‑āka‑ḥ, Lith. ‑ókas; added to nouns, as arvawc r.m. 270, Mn.W. arfog ‘armed’, llidẏawc w.m. 51, Mn.W. llidiog ‘angry’, gw̯lanog ‘woolly’, gw̯resog ‘hot’, pwyllog ‘delib­erate’, etc.; many of these adjec­tives have become nouns: marchog, swyddog, etc. § 143 iv (6), v (4).
The suffix is sometimes added to adjectives, as trugarog: trugar ‘merciful’; duog, Ml.W. duawc r.m. 172: du ‘black’; geuawc: gau ‘false’. The cpv. of the deriv­atives ended in *‑āk’son > ‑ach, which was taken for the cpv. of the simple adj., and spread to all adjs., § 147 iv (3); hence added to ‑og itself, Mn.W. gwerth­fawrocach.
(6) Ml.W. ‑awl, Mn.W. ‑awl, ‑ol < Kelt. *‑ālos: Lat. ‑ālis in līberālis, etc.; an exceeding­ly common suffix; added to nouns, as nefol ‘heavenly’; to adjec­tives, as estronol ‘foreign’; and to verb stems, as symudol ‘movable, moving’, dymunol ‘desirable’.
(7) ‑ẟe; occurring in Ml.W. verse: tanẟe, eurẟe P.M. m.a. i 292b ‘fiery’, ‘golden’. It seems to be the Ir. ‑de (≡ ‑ẟe: W. ‑aiẟ, see (3) above) borrowed daring the 12th cent. bardic revival which drew its inspi­ration from Ireland. It does not seem to occur in prose.
(8) ‑gar < *‑āk-aro‑s < *‑āq-ₑro‑s; thus hawẟ-gar ‘comely’ < Brit. *su̯ā́dakaros < Kelt. *su̯ā́d(u̯)‑āk-aro‑s § 148 i (6); a combi­nation of (5) and (4) above: added to nouns, as epilgar ‘prolific’ (epil ‘offspring’), dialgar ‘revenge­ful’, enillgar ‘gainful, lucrative’ (ennill ‘gain’); added to adjec­tives, as meistrol­gar ‘masterful’, trugar ‘merciful’ (tru ‘miserable’, for meaning cf. Lat. miseri­cordia); added to verb stems, as den-gar ‘alluring’ (denu ‘to allure’), beiddgar ‘daring’.
​The idea that ‑gar means ‘loving’ (caru ‘to love’), which clearly cannot be the case in epilgar, enillgar, dengar, etc., has resulted in the formation in the late period of new adjec­tives in which it bears that meaning; as gwladgar ‘patriotic’, ariangar ‘money-loving’. But many new forma­tions in the dialects preserve the original force of the suffix, as sgilgar ‘skilful’ from E. skill. It need hardly be added that Stokes’s implied expla­nation of trugar as ‘loving the wretched’ Fick⁴ ii 138 is fanciful, as also the popular expla­nation of hawddgar as ‘easy to love’.
(9) ‑ig, Ml.W. ‑ic < Kelt. *‑īkos: Skr. ‑īka‑ḥ, Lat. ‑īc‑, Gk. ‑ῑκ‑; as unig ‘only, lonely’, deheuig ‘dexterous’, lloerig ‘lunatic’, bonheddig ‘gentle‑’, etc.; O.W. cisemic juv. gl. primus.
(10) ‑in < Kelt. *‑īnos: Skr. ‑īna‑ḥ, Gk. ‑ῑνος, Lat. ‑īnus, Lith. ‑ynas (y ≡ ī); it is added to names of materials, as in derwin m.a. i 191 ‘oaken’, lletrin b.t. 9 ‘leathern’, meinin E.P. ps. xviii 29 ‘of stone’, daeerin, heyernin § 75 vi (3); and to adjec­tives as gerwin ‘rough’ (garw ‘rough’), gwer­thefin ‘highest’, cysefin ‘primitive’ § 95 iii (3), cf. O.W. cisemic above.
(11) ‑lawn, Mn.W. ‑lawn, ‑lon ‘‑ful’ = llawn ‘full’, § 63 vii (2); as ffrwyth­lon ‘fruitful’, prydlon ‘punctual’, heddych­lon ‘peaceful’, bodlon § 111 vii (1), etc.
(12) ‑lyd, after n or r ‑llyd, Ml.W. ‑lyt, ‑llyt ‘covered with’ < *(p)l̥t‑, √plethē- § 63 viii (1); as llychlyt r.m. 145 ‘dusty’, dysdlyt chwein­llyt do. 146 ‘dusty flea-infested’, seimlyd ‘greasy’, rhydlyd ‘rusty’, creulyd, gwaedlyd ‘bloody’, tomlyd ‘dungy’, tanllyd ‘fiery’. When added to adjec­tives it is the equiv­alent of lled‑ ‘rather’: Ir. leth ‘half’, which is ulti­mately from the same root (‘*stretch out > *surface > *side > half’); as gwanllyd ‘rather weak’, oerllyd ‘coldish’.
(13) ‑us < Lat. ‑ōsus; originally in Lat. derivatives as dolurus ‘sore’ < Lat. dolōrōsus, llafurus, Ml.W. llafurẏus < Lat. labōri­ōsus; as the nouns dolur, llafur had also been borrowed the adjec­tives seemed to be formed from these by the addition of an adj. suff. ‑us, which was sub­sequently added to W. forms, gweddus ‘seemly’ (gwedd § 63 iv), clodus, clodforus ‘renowned’, grymus ‘strong’, etc.
Note.—melus is a late mis­spelling; melys ‘sweet’ has y, as melis (i ≡ y § 16 ii (2)) b.b. 83, 101, melys b.a. 3, Ỻ.A. 42, 70, r.b.b. 208, melyster Ỻ.A. 129, 149, r.b.b. 44. The error is due to the late levelling of u and ɥ, § 15 i, and the false notion that the word is formed from mêl ‘honey’ by the addition of ‑us. In derived forms the sound is ỿ as melỿsach, as opposed to grymusach, and the v.n. is melỿsu D.W. 112, as opposed to grymuso, see § 202 iii, iv (Pughe’s meluso is a fiction). melys is cognate with Ir. milis, and is clearly a direct deriv­ative of Ar. base *meleit- § 87 ii, and so is many centuries older than any form in ‑us, a suffix borrowed from Lat.
Numerals
§ 154. i. (1) The cardinal numbers are as follows : 1, un.​—2, m. dau, Ml. deu, O. dou; f. dwy.​—3, m. tri; f. tair, Ml. teir.​—4, m. pedwar; f. pedair, Ml. pedeir.​—5, pump, pum, Ml. pump, pymp, O. pimp.​—6, chwech, chwe.​—7, saith, Ml. seith.​—8, wyth.​—9, naw.​—10, deg, dêng, Ml. dec, deng.​—11. un ar ddeg.​—12, deuddeg, deuddeng, Ml. deuẟec, O. doudec.​—13, tri (f. tair) ar ddeg.​—14, pedwar (f. pedair) ar ddeg.​—15, pymtheg, Ml. pymthec.​—16, un ar bymtheg.​—17, dau (f. dwy) ar bymtheg.​—18, deunaw or tri (f. tair) ar bymtheg.​—19, pedwar (f. pedair) ar bymtheg.​—20, ugain, Ml. ugeyn, ugeint.​—21, un ar hugain.​—30, deg ar hugain.​—31, un ar ddeg ar hugain.​—40, deugain.​—41, un a deugain or deugain ac un.​—50, deg a deugain, Early Ml. W. pym(h)wnt.​—60, trigain, Ml. trugein(t).​—80, pedwar ugain.​—100, cant, cann.​—101, cant ac un.​—120, chwech ugain, chweugain.​—140, saith ugain, etc.​—200, deucant or dau cant.​—300, trỿchant, Late W. trichant.​—1000, mil.​—2000, dwyfil.​—3000, teirmil or tair mil.​—10,000, dêng mil, myrdd.​—1,000,000, myrddiwn, miliwn.
tri (or tair) ar bymtheg is used in counting (i.e. repeating the numerals in order); otherwise rarely, r.b.b. 404. The usual form is deunaw c.m. 59, m.a. iii 45, Gen. xiv 14, 2 Cron. xi 21, Ezra viii 9, etc. So in all combi­nations: deunaw ar hugain ‘38’.​—pymwnt b.a. 2, 9 from something like *pempontes for Kelt. *q$^{u̯}$eŋq$^{u̯}$-onta (: Ir. cōica) for Ar. *penq$^{u̯}$ē̆k̑omtə: Gk. πεντή­κοντα. For the history of the other forms consult the Index.
Forms like deuddeg, pymtheg, deunaw, deugain may be called “compound numbers”, forms like un ar ddeg, un ar hugain, “composite numbers”.
(2) Some of the cardinal numbers have pl. forms: deuoedd, deuwedd, dwyoedd ‘twos’, trioedd ‘threes’, chwechau ‘sixes’, degau ‘tens’, ugeiniau ‘scores’, cannoedd ‘hundreds’, miloedd ‘thousands’, mỿrddi̯ỿnau ‘myriads’.
In the spoken lang. un-ar-ddegau, un-ar-bymthegau, etc., are in use for ‘£11 each’, ‘£16 each’, etc.
ii. (1) The ordinal numbers are as follows: 1, cyntaf.​—2, ail, Ml. eil.​—3, trydydd, f. trydedd.​—4, pedwerydd, Ml. pedweryẟ,​—pedwyryẟ; f. pedwaredd, Ml. pedwareẟ, pedwyreẟ, O. petguared.​—5, pumed, Ml. pymhet, O. pimphet.​—6, chweched, Ml. chwechet, ​huechet.​—7, seithfed, Ml. seithvet.​—8, wythfed.​—9, nawfed.​—10, degfed, Ml. decvet.​—11, unfed ar ddeg, Ml. unvet arẟec.​—12, deu­ddegfed, Ml. deuẟecvet.​—13, trydydd (f. trydedd) ar ddeg.​—15, pym­thegfed.​—16, unfed ar bymtheg.​—17, ail (or eilfed) ar bymtheg.​—18, deunawfed.​—20, ugeinfed.​—30, degfed ar hugain.​—40, deu­geinfed.​—41, unfed a deugain.​—100, canfed.​—1000, milfed.
(2) cyntaf § 148 i (3);—ail § 100 iii (3);—trydydd, trydedd § 75 iv (1); pedweryẟ < *q$^{u̯}$etuₑríi̯os; pedwyryẟ (later pedwrydd h.g. 54, § 66 ii (2)) has ‑w̯ỿ- < *‑u̯u- re-formed for u < u̯ₑ § 63 viii (1).
W. pymhet, Ir. cōiced come from a Kelt. *q$^{u̯}$eŋq$^{u̯}$etos, which, like Skr. pan̑catha‑ḥ, implies the addition of the ordinal suffix ‑t(h)o‑s to the full form *penq$^{u̯}$e, thus *penq$^{u̯}$e-to‑s, as opposed to Lat. quīntus, Gk. πέμπτος, O.H.G. finfto, which imply Ar. *penq$^{u̯}$-to‑s. In Pr. Kelt. by the side of *q$^{u̯}$eŋq$^{u̯}$eto‑s there arose *su̯eksetos which gave Ir. sessed, W. chweched; and thus ‑eto‑s came to be regarded as the ordinal suffix. Added to *sektam ( < *septm̥) it gave *sektam-eto‑s, which gave Ir. sechtmad, W. seithfed; added to *dekam it gave *dekameto‑s, which is seen in Gaul.-Lat. petru-decameto (ablative) ‘four­teenth’, and gave Ir. dechmad, W. degfed; similarly *kn̥tom-eto‑s > Ir. cētmad, W. canfed. Then ‑ameto‑s or ‑meto‑s was used to form ordinals for 8, 9, and 20, though the cardinals did not end in ‑m; thus W. nawfed, Ir. nōmad, may come directly from *nou̯ameto‑s; but *oktameto‑s would give W. *oeth-fed, so that wyth-fed was again re-formed from wyth; so ugein-fed.
iii. (1) Multiplicatives are formed by means of gwaith, Ml. gweith f. ‘fois’, preceded by cardinal numbers, the two generally compound­ed, but sometimes accented separate­ly ; as unwaith or un waith ‘once’, Ir. ōenḟecht; dwywaith ‘twice’, teir­gwaith ‘thrice’, pedair gwaith ‘four times’, pum waiih ‘five times’, chwe gwaith, seith­waith Lev. iv 6, 17, saith waith do. viii 11, wythwaith, nawwaith c.c. 227, dengwaith, ugein­waith, canwaith, milwaith.
(2) But before a comparative the m. cardinal only is generally used, the two sometimes compound­ed; pum mwy D.W. 146 ‘five [times] more’ i.e. five times as many, saith mwy Lev. xxvi 18, 21 ‘seven times more’; déuwell r.p. 1271, D.G. 157 ‘twice as good’, dau lanach c.c. 60 ‘twice as fair’; yn gant eglurach s.g. 10 ‘a hundred times as bright’.
    Moes ugeinmil, moes gánmwy,
    A moes, O moes im un mwy.—Anon., m.e. i 140.
‘Give me twenty thousand [kisses], give a hundred times as many, and give, Oh give me one more.’
    Tristach weithian bob cantref;
    Bellach naw nigrifach nef.—G.Gr. (m. D.G.), f.n. 4.
‘Sadder now is every cantred; henceforth nine times happier is heaven.’
(3) A m. cardinal is also used before another cardinal, as tri t(h)rychant b.b. 18 ‘3 × 300’, tri phumcant gre. 166 ‘3 × 500’, dau wythgant ib. ‘2 × 800’, naw deg a saith ib. ‘9 × 10 + 7’.
This method is now commonly used to read out numbers in the arabic notation; thus 376, tri chant, saith deg a chwech.
iv. Distributives are formed by putting bob before a cardinal, the initial of which is softened; thus bob un, bob ẟeu r.m. 132 ‘one by one, two by two’, Ir. cach ōin, cach dā; bob ddau I.G. 180, L.G.C. 381, 436; bob dri L.G.C. 148 ‘three by three’; also bop un ac un c.m. 49 ‘one by one’, bob un a dau f. 26; and bob gannwr L.G.C. 383 ‘in hundreds’, lit. ‘every hundred-man’, cf. Ir. cach cōic-er ‘every five-man’. Similarly bob ail ‘every other’, pob eilwers w.m. 181 ‘alternate­ly’.
In Late Mn. W. yn is inserted after bob; as bob yn ddau​…​bob yn dri 1 Cor. xiv 27; bob yn un ac un Es. xxvii 12, Marc xiv 19; bob yn ddau a dau Marc vi 7; bob yn ail ‘every other’. As pob in other construc­tions is followed by the radical, the yn may have been intro­duced because it was felt that something was required to explain the lenition. But the reason for the lenition is that the original form of bob here was an oblique case ending in a vowel.
v. Fractions: 1/2, hanner; 1/3, traean; 1/4, pedwaran, chwarter; 1/8, wythfed; 1/100, canfed; 2/3 deuparth; 3/4, Mn. tri chwarter; 3/8, tri wythfed.
R͑ann truan: traean r.b. 973 ‘the share of the weakling: one-third’. deuparth​…​trayan w.m. 130.
Compound nouns and adjectives
§ 155. i. Either of the elements of a compound may be a noun (n) or an adjective (a); thus we have four possible types: 1. n-n; 2. a-n; 3. a-a; 4. n-a. The formation of compounds of these types is an ordinary gram­matical construc­tion, and any elements may be combined if they make sense, whether the combi­nation is in general use or not. The relation to one another of the elements ​and the meaning of the resulting compound must be left to be dealt with in the Syntax; here, only the forms of compounds can be consid­ered.
ii. (1) The second element of a compound has its initial softened; thus: n‑n háf-ddydd ‘summer’s day’; a‑n háwdd-fyd ‘pleasure’; a‑a gw̯ýrdd-las ‘greenish blue’; n‑a pén-gam ‘wry-headed’.
The reason is that the first element in Brit, ended in a vowel, as in Brit. Maglo-cunos > W. Mael-gwn; so *samo-díi̯ē(u)s > W. haf-ddydd; *katu-markos > W. cad-farch, etc. In these, as generally in the Ar. languages, the first element is the stem. In Kelt. when the stem ended in a consonant an ‑o- was added to it; thus the stem *kun- ‘dog’ is in compounds *kuno‑, as Brit. Cuno-belinos > W. Cyn-felyn; W. cyn-ddaredd ‘rabies’ < *kuno-daŋg$^{u̯}$ríi̯ā < *‑dhn̥ɡ$^{u̯}$hri-: Lat. febris < *dheɡ$^{u̯}$hri‑s, √dheɡ$^{u̯}$h- § 92 iii, cf. aren § 106 ii (1). This explains the suffix ‑ioni § 143 iii (21); it is a compound of a deriv­ative in ‑i̯on- with *gnīmu‑; now *druki̯on-gnīmu- should give *drygni by the usual loss of stem endings; but *druki̯ono-gnīmu- > *drygion-ᵹnif > drygioni (since nᵹn > n § 110 ii (1)). When the second element began with a vowel, con­traction took place; thus *altro + au̯ō > *altrāuō § 76 v (5), cf. Gk. Dor. στρατᾱγός ‘leader of an army’ < *str̥to + ag̑‑, Brugmann² II i 79.
(2) When the first element ends in n or r, and the second begins radically with ll or rh, the latter is not softened: gwin-llan, per-llan, pen-rhyn see § 111 i (1); so gwen-llys L.G.C. 8, eurllin D.G. 13, etc.; similarly, though less regularly, in loose compounds: hên llew, hên llys, pur llawn § 111 i (1).
When a compound is consciously formed both ll and l are found thus ysgafn-llef D.G. 37 ‘light-voiced’, but eur-len D.G. 109 ‘cloth of gold’, geir-lon do. 110 ‘of merry word’; ir-lwyn do. 504, per-lwyn do. 518.
iii. The following adjectives generally precede their nouns, and so form compounds, mostly loose, with them:
(1) prif ‘chief’, as prif lys w.m. 1, prif-lys r.m. 1 ‘chief court’, prif ẟinas w.m. 179 ‘chief city’, prif gaer ib. ‘chief castle’; y prif ddyn ‘the chief man’. It cannot be used as an ordinary adj.; such a phrase as *dyn prif does not exist.
(2) hên, as hên ŵr or hén-wr ‘old man’; hên ddyn id., also hén-ddyn whence E. quoth Hending; Hén-llan Ỻ.A. 105, Hén-llys etc., hên ŷd Jos. v 11, yr hên ffordd Job xxii 15, yr hên derfyn Diar. ​xxii 28, yr hên bobl Es. xliv 7, etc. In the compara­tively rare cases where hen follows its noun, some anti­thetic emphasis is generally implied, as Ieuan Tew Hên ‘Ieuan Tew the Elder’.
    Er daëd draw, rai llawen,
    Mae gwae rhai am y gŵr hên.—W.Ỻ.
‘However good [they may be] yonder, genial [young] people, the lament of some is for the old master.’
(3) gwir ‘true, genuine’, as gwir grefydd ‘true religion’. As an ordinary adjective it means ‘true to fact’, as hanes gwir ‘a true story’; so as the second element of a compound: géir-wir ‘truthful’. gwir is also a noun ‘truth’; compound­ed, cás-wir ‘un­palatable truth’.
(4) gau ‘false’, the antithesis of gwir, as geu ẟwyeu Ỻ.A. 43 ‘false gods’, gau broffioyd ‘false prophet’. As an ordinary adjective ‘lying’; as a noun ‘falsehood’ W.M. 29.
(5) cam ‘wrong, unjust’; as cam farn ‘false judgement’, cam ran ‘wrongful portion’, i.e. injustice. As an adj. ‘crooked’, as ffon gam ‘a crooked stick’; as a noun ‘injustice’.
    Tasgu bu twysog y byd
    Gam ran i Gymru ennyd.—S.T., c. ii 209.
‘The prince of this world has inflicted wrong on Wales awhile.’
(6) unig ‘only’; yr unig beth ‘the only thing’. As an ordinary adj. it means ‘lonely’, as dyn unig ‘a lonely man’. Cf. Fr. seul.
(7) y naill, rhyw, y rhyw, amryw, cyfryw, unrhyw, holl, cwbl, y sawl, ychydig, ambell, aml, lliaws, etc., §§ 165, 168, 169.
iv. The following words precede adjectives, and are compounded with them:
(1) lled ‘half’ § 153 (12), as lléd-wac b.b. 49 ‘half-empty’, lled-ffer m.a. ii 586 ‘half-wild’, lléd-ffol ‘half-silly’, lled-ffrom ‘half-frowning’.
    Nid mawr well nad meirw i wŷr,
    Lléd féirw̯ pan golled f’éryr;
    Nid byw am enaid y byd,
    Lléd-fyw yngweddill ádfyd.—T.A., a 14874/127.
‘It is not much better that his men are not dead, [they were] half- dead when my eagle was lost; they were not alive for [want of him who was] the soul of the world, [but] half-alive in the dregs of adversity.’
​In the example llḗd féirw is a loose, llĕ́d-fyw a strict, compound. In Late Mn. W., lled usually forms loose compounds and means ‘rather’.
lled is also compounded with nouns, as lléd-ran ‘half-share’, lléd-wyl ‘half-holiday’, lléd-fryd ‘listless­ness’, lléd-i̯aith ‘brogue, foreign accent’, lled ymyl ‘border near edge’.
(2) pur ‘very’, as pur-ẟu, pur-wynn r.m. 151, pur-goch 154; pur-iawn ‘very well’, now púri̯on. It now forms loose compounds mostly, as pur dda ‘very good’. Used after its noun as an ordinary adj. it means ‘pure’.
156. i. The first element of a compound may be a prefix, which was original­ly an adverb or prepo­sition. Some other vocables of adj. or noun origin have become mere prefixes; for conve­nience of reference these are included in the following list. Where the mutation of the initial after the prefix is fairly regular, it is noted in square brackets. Most of the prefixes form verb-compounds also, and some are oftener so used; hence it is conve­nient to include verbal nouns and verbs in the examples.
(1) ad- [soft] < Brit. ate‑: Gaul. ate- < Kelt. *ati‑: Skr. ati ‘over, beyond’; ati- ‘very’; § 222 i (3). Three distinct meanings occur in W.: (a) ‘very’, át-gas § 111 v (1) ‘hateful’; (b) ‘second’, át-gno ‘chewing the cud’, ád-ladd ‘aftermath’, hence ‘bad’ as ád-flas ‘after-taste, ill taste’; (c) ‘over again, re‑’, ád-lam ‘a leap back’, áteb (< *ad-heb) ‘reply’, ád-lais ‘echo’.
(2) aẟ- before a vowel or f (from m) < Brit. *ad‑: Lat. ad; intensive; ádd-oer ‘very cold’, ádd-fwyn, ádd-fain § 93 ii (3). Before a tenuis it is a- followed by the spirant mutation, as áchas § 93 ii (2), áthrist ‘very sad’: trist ‘sad’. Before a media it is a- followed by the radical, ágarw ‘very rough’: garw § 93 ii (3); but before d- it is a- followed by ẟ, as a-ẟef § 93 iii (1), a-ẟail, etc. With initial s- it gives as‑, as in as-gloff ‘lame’ < *ad-skloppos < vulg. Lat. cloppus *sclopus: W. cloff ‘lame’. Before l- or r- followed by ī̆ it gives ei- as in eirif § 104 iv (3); eiẟil ‘feeble’, met. for *eiliẟ § 102 iv (2) < *ed-līd- < *ad-lēd‑, √lēd-: Lat. lassus, Gk. ληδεῖν ‘to be fatigued’ Hes., § 204 i. In aberth, aber § 93 ii (3) it means ‘to’ (or is aber < *n̥-bher‑?; cf. Gael. Inver‑).
(3) all- < Brit. *allo‑: Gaul. allo- ‘other’ § 100 iii (2); áll-fro ‘foreigner’; áll-tud ‘exile’.
(4) am‑, ỿm- [soft] < Brit. ámbe‑, ambí‑: Gaul. Ἀμβί-: Gk. ἀμφί, Lat. amb‑, ambi- § 63 v (2);—(a) ‘around’: ám-gorn ‘ferrule’, ám-gylch ‘circuit’, ám-do ‘shroud’, am-ddiffyn ‘defence’; hence (b) ‘on each side, mutual’, ým-ladd ‘battle’, ým-drech ‘struggle’, ym-gýnnull ‘a gathering together’; hence (c) reflexive, as ym-olchi ​‘to wash oneself’; (d) ‘round’ > ‘different, change­able’ as ám-ryw ‘of various kinds’, ám-yd ‘corn of different kinds mixed’, am-liwiog ‘parti-coloured’, amheu w.m. 186 ‘to doubt’, Mn. ámeu, vb. am-héu-af < *m̥bi-sāg‑, √sāg‑: Gk. ἡγέομαι, Dor. ᾱ̔γ- ‘I think, believe’, Lat. sagax.—am‑c- < *am‑χ- by dissim. of contin­uants, as ám-can ‘design, purpose, guess’ < *am-χan < *ambi-sk̑ə‑n‑, √sk̑hē(i̯)‑: Lat. scio, Skr. chyáti ‘cuts off’; and amkawẟ w.m. 453 ‘replied, said’ < *am-χ‑awẟ § 96 iii (4).
(5) an‑, en‑, etc., neg. prefix < Ar. *n̥- (R-grade of neg. *ne); àmhárod ‘un­prepared’: parod ‘ready’; ámraint ‘breach of privilege’: braint; athrúgar, ànhrugárog § 99 vi (1); àn-nédwyẟ ‘unhappy’: dedwyẟ ‘happy’; àngharédig ‘unkind’: caredig ‘kind’; én-wir ‘untrue, evil’ < *an-u̯īro‑s, re-formed án-wir in Mn. W.; án-fwyn ‘unkind’: mwyn; án-fad: mad § 99 iv (1); óf-les § 86 i (4): lles ‘benefit’; áf-raid ‘needless’ < *am-(p)rat-i̯o- < *n̥-prati̯o‑: rhaid ‘need’ § 149 ii; so áfrad, áfryw;—before orig. l‑, àn-llygrédig;—an + glân should give *alan § 106 ii (1); this is re- formed in two ways, án-lan, áf-lan ‘unclean’;—b often follows the analogy of m, as àn-fonhéddig: bonhéddig ‘gentle­manly’. The prefix when not bearing the principal accent has often a strong secondary accent; this might become a separate accent, as in an allu (≡ án állu) Ỻ.A. 33 ‘want of power’; hence án háwdd § 148 i (6), án áml § 164 i (2).
(6) ar‑, er- [soft] ‘fore‑’ < Brit. *are- (< *ari‑): Gaul. are- (in Ἀρη- the η marks the quality rather than the quantity of the e) < *pₑri‑: Lat. prae, Gk. περί; ar-for (in arfór-dir ‘maritime land’) < *are-mor‑: Gaul. Are-morica; ár-gae ‘dam’: cae (: E. hedge); ár-dreth ‘chief rent’, etc.—Excep­tional mutation: ér-myg ‘admired’ < *are-smi-ko‑, like éd-myg ‘admired’ < *ate-smi-ko‑, √smei- ‘smile’: Lat. admīro, mī-ru‑s (‑ro- suffix), Skr. smáyati ‘smiles’, Gk. μειδάω, E. smile, O. Bulg. směchŭ ‘smile’; cf. dirmyg § (12) below; ar-merth, see dar-merth § (13) below.—Possibly Brit. *ar‑: Lat. per, in ártaith ‘pang’, by dissim. for *ar-thaith < *ar-stik-tā, √steiɡ-: Lat. instīgo, Gk. στίγμα, Skr. tiktá‑ḥ ‘sharp, bitter’; and ár-choll ‘wound’ < *ar-qol’d‑, √qolād- ‘strike’: Lat. clādēs, W. cleddyf ‘sword’, coll ‘destruc­tion, loss’.
(7) can(nh)- [soft] ‘with, after’ < Brit. *kanta- < *kn̥ta: Gk. κατά; cán-lyn v.n. ‘following’; canh-órthwy § 103 ii (1) now spelt cỿnhor­thwy; can-hébrwng ‘funeral’; hebrwng § 99 vi (1); cán-llaw ‘balus­trade; assistant in law-court’.
(8) cyd- [soft] ‘together, common’, is not, as is often assumed, identical with cỿf‑, but is the noun cɥd as in i gɥd ‘to-gether’, also used as an adj. in tir cɥd ‘common land’. A few of the compounds which it forms are strict, as cỿtûn < *cỿd-ẟúun ‘united’, cỿ́d-fod ‘concord’, cỿd-ẃybod ‘con­science’; but the bulk of those in use are loose compounds in which the form of the prefix is cŷd § 45 ii (2); in this form it is still fertile; cɥd ddinesydd ‘fellow-citizen’, cɥd genedl ‘kindred’, etc. The word seems to be a verbal noun *ki-tu- from √k̑ei̯- ‘lie’, cf. Ml. W. kyt gwr Ỻ.A. 136, c.m. 21 ‘co­habitation ​with a man’: Gk. κεῖται ‘lies’, O. E. hǣman ‘lie with, espouse’, O.H.G. hīwo ‘husband’, E. home, W. cu, Lat. cīvis § 110 iii (1).
(9) cỿf- before vowels and i̯, l, r, n; cỿ- before w̯‑, chw̯‑, h‑; with following s‑, cỿs‑; elsewhere cỿ(m)‑, cỿn‑, cy(ng)- [nasal]; < Kelt. *kom‑: Lat. com‑; (a) ‘com‑’, often followed by â ‘with’, cỿ́f-ar ‘co-tillage’; cỿ́f-liw, cỿ́f-urẟ, etc. § 149 ii; cỿ́f-ran ‘share’: rhan ‘part’; cỿ́mod ‘concord’: bod ‘be’; cỿ́n-n(h)wrf ‘commotion’: twrf; cỿngháneẟ ‘harmony’: cân ‘song’; cystal § 148 i (4).—(b) Intensive (‘together’ > ‘fully’); cỿflawn ‘complete’: llawn ‘full’; cyf-lym ‘fleet’: llym ‘keen’. A few irregular forms are found, which are due to false analogy, as cỿ́f-ẟyẟ ‘dawn’, formed after cýf-nos ‘evening’.
The form *ko- (beside *kom‑) goes back to Italo-Kelt. It occurs before u̯- as W. cýwir, Ir. coïr < *ko-u̯īros; before m‑, as W. cof ‘memory’, Ir. cuman < *ko-men‑, √men- ‘mind’ (but later *kom- as in W. cymysg (m ≡ mm)); sometimes before sq‑, sq$^{u̯}$‑, s‑, as W. cy-húddo ‘to accuse’: Icel. skúta, skúti ‘a taunt’, O.Bulg. kuditi ‘to revile’, Gk. κυδάζειν 'to reproach', √(s)qeud‑; see § 96 iii; cy-háfal ‘co-equal’: hafal § 94 i.
cỿfr- [soft] < *kom-(p)ro- § 113 i (2); intensive, as cỿ́fr-goll ‘utter loss, perdition’; cỿ́fr-w̯ɥs (generally mis-pro­nounced cỿ́fr-w͡ys) ‘trained, cunning’: gwɥ̂s ‘known’; cỿ́fr-gain (kywrgein b.b. 10) ‘very fine’.—cỿfr‑r- > cỿfrh- > cyffr as in cyffrédin ‘common’ < *cỿfr-red-in; amgýffred ‘com­prehend’ < *am-gyfr-red: rhedeg ‘run’; the O.W. amcibret may represent the stage amgyfr͑ed.
(10) cyn(nh)- [soft] ‘former, preceding’ < Brit. *kintu- § 148 i (3); cỿnh-áeaf ‘autumn’: gaeaf ‘winter’; cỿ́n-ddail ‘first leaves’, cỿ́n-ddelw̯ ‘prototype’; the t is kept before h § 106 iii (3), as cỿ́ntaid for *cynt-haid ‘first swarm’ (of bees); in the form cɥ̆n it is used to construct new loose compounds as cɥ́n fáer ‘ex-mayor’, etc.
(11) di- [soft] < Kelt. *dī- < *dē‑: Lat. dē. Two meanings: (a) ‘outer, extreme, off’, as dí-ben ‘end, aim’: pen ‘head, end’; dí-dol, Ml. dí-dawl ‘cut off, separated’, see below; di-nóethi v.n. ‘de-nude’; (b) ‘without’, as dí-boen or dí bóen ‘painless’, dí-dduw or dí ddúw ‘godless’, etc. In this sense it is freely used to form new compounds, mostly loose, by being put before any noun or v.n., or even a v.n. phrase, as di alw am dano ‘un-called-for’; but, though loose, the expres­sion is still a compound, thus di gefn wyf c.c. 184 ‘helpless am I’, exactly like gwan wyf ‘weak am I’, as opposed to heb gefn, yr wyf ‘without help am I’, the un-compound­ed phrase heb gefn, requiring yr after it. The compound is an adj. made from a phrase in which the prep. dī governs the noun; the formation is old, and gave rise at an early period to the idea that dī was a negative prefix, which therefore might be compound­ed with adjec­tives; thus dí-og ‘lazy’, O.W. di-auc: *auc ‘quick, active’: Gk. ὠκύς, Lat. ōcior; so dí-brin ‘not scarce’, dí-drist ‘not sad’, dí-wael ‘not mean’, etc.—Lat. dē- seems to have been iden­tified in Brit. with the ​native prefix, and gives W. di‑, as díffyg ‘defect’ < dē-fic‑.—Excep­tional mutation: dí-chell ‘wile’ < *dē-sqel(p)tā, √sqelep‑: W. celfyddyd ‘craft’ etc. § 99 ii (2); dí-chlyn ‘exact, cautious, circum­spect’, as v.n. ‘to choose, discrim­inate’ < *dē-sql̥‑n‑, √sqel- ‘split, separate’; dí-chlais ‘break (of day)’ < *dē-s-qləd-ti- or *dē-kkl- for *dē-kl- § 99 v (4), √qolād- ‘strike, break’: W. clais ‘bruise’, archoll (6) above; díchon, dígon § 196 ii (2); W. dídawl, dídol for *dí-ẟawl (ẟ​…​l > d​…​l § 102 iii (2)): gwá-ẟawl ‘endowment’, Ir. fo-dāli ‘deals out' < *dōl‑: W. ethol < *dol‑, see § 97 ii.
dis- before t- < dē‑s‑, where s is the initial of the second element, often lost in the simple form: dí-stadl § 96 ii (3); distrych ‘foam’ < *dē-str̯k‑, √stereq‑: W. trwyth ‘wash, lye’ § 99 v (3); dí-staw ‘silent’: taw ‘be silent’ < *stuu̯- < *stup‑, √steup/bh‑: Ger. stumm ‘dumb’, Lat. stupeo: E. dumb, √dheubh- (dh/st- alter­nation). Before other conso­nants < *dē-eks‑, as in dísglair § 201 iii (6). Also from Lat. dē‑s- as in disgyn(n) < dē-scend‑.
(12) dir- [soft] ‘vehemently’ Richards, ‘truly’ < *dēru-: dīr ‘true’, Ar. base *dereu̯- ‘hard’ § 137 ii; dír-boen or dī́r bóen ‘great pain’, dír-fawr ‘very great’, dír-gel ‘secret’.—Excep­tional mutation: dír-myg ‘contempt’ < *dēru-smi‑k‑, √smei- ‘smile’; here dir- is not neces­sarily neg. for beside ‘admi­ration’ as in ermyg, edmyg § (6) above, we have ‘mockery’ from the same root, as in W. tre-myg ‘insult’, O.H.G. bi-smer ‘mockery’; nor in dir-west ‘absti­nence’, which is literally ‘hard diet’, cf. E. fast.
(13) dỿ- [soft] ‘to, together’, often merely intensive < Brit. *do‑; dỿ́-fɥn ‘summons’: mỿnnu ‘to will’; dỿ-gỿ́nnull v.n. ‘gather together’, dỿ-gỿfor w.m. 1 ‘muster’; dỿ-wéddi ‘fiancée’. In a few cases it inter­changes with ty-, as Ml. W. dy-wallaw v.n. ‘to pour (into)’: Mn. W. týwallt ‘pour’; dỿ́-ret ‘come!’: tỿ́-red ‘come!’; very rarely tỿ- alone is found, as tỿ-wỿsog ‘prince’. Except. mut.: dỿ‑ch- < *do-sk- or *do-kk- before r, l; as dỿ́-chryn ‘fright’: crynu ‘tremble’, yscrid b.b. 31 ‘trembles’, Bret. skrija ‘to tremble from fear’; dỿ́-chlud: cludo ‘to carry’. Hence dỿch- in dỿch-lámu ‘to leap up’.—In old compounds the o of do- was retained when the vowel of the root was lost § 65 iv (2), and might in that case be affected to e, as dé-dw̯‑ɥẟ § 100 ii (1).
dad- [soft] < *d(o)-áte- see (1) above: (a) intensive; dát-gan v.n. ‘proclaim’: canu ‘sing’; (b) ‘un‑’ (as in ‘un-do’); dàd-lẃytho v.n. ‘to unload’, etc. The unacc. o of *do- was elided before a vowel.
dam- [soft] < *d(o)-ambe‑, see § (4); dám-sang ‘to trample’: sengi ‘to tread’; dám-wain ‘accident’: ar-wain ‘to lead’: √u̯eg̑h‑. Also dỿm‑; Ml. damunet, Mn. dymúniad ‘desire’ for *dym-fun‑: ar-o-fun ‘intend’ § 100 v. The m usually remains unchanged, but seems to have become n by dissimil. in dan-waret § 63 vii (5), unless the prefix here is dan- below.
dan- [soft] < *d(o)-ando‑; dán-fon, see § ii (1) below.
dar- [soft] < *d(o)-are- < *do-pₑri‑; dár-fod ‘to have happened’ § 190 i; dar-óstwng ‘to subdue’: go-stwng ‘to suppress’ < *u̯o(s)- ​‘under’ + *stong-: Goth. stiŋqan ‘to thrust’. The irregular mutation in dármerth ‘provision’ (of food, etc.) is due to -sm- > -mm‑; *do-are-smer‑t‑, √smer‑: Lat. mereo, Gk. μέρος, μερίς. In dárbod, dárpar, the prefix had the form *d(o)-aros‑, see § 196 i (3). This form may also account for the preserva­tion of -st- in dár-stain ‘to resound’, thus *d(o)-aros-stani̯‑: W. sain ‘sound’, √sten‑.
dos- < *d(o)-u̯o(s)- + initial s‑; dósbarth ‘division, arrange­ment, system’: gosparth b.b. 11 ‘rule, govern­ment’, √sper- § 101 iv (2).
dỿr- (also written dry‑) in dyrcháfel ‘to raise’ < *do-(p)ro‑, see § 188 iv; cf. cyfr- (9).
It is now generally held that the original form of the prep. is *to, and that *do- is a pretonic or proclitic form, like W. ti ‘thou’, proclitic dy ‘thy’. But pretonic softening, though it occurs in W. and Ir. cannot be proved to be primitive, and is obviously in most cases compara­tively late. The facts in this case are as follows: (α) In Ir. the prep. is do, du, always with d‑ (as opposed to tar, mostly with t‑); the pref. is to‑, tu‑, at first both accented and pretonic, later pretonic do‑, du‑. (β) In W. pretonic d- for t- as in dy ‘thy’ is not mutated further (i.e. does not become *ẟ‑); but the prep. was *ẟỿ (written di in O.W.) giving Ml. W. ẏ, Mn. W. i; it starts therefore from Brit. *do, and agrees in form with the Ir.; the pref. is dy‑, rarely ty‑.—There is no trace of t- in the prep, proper in W. or Ir.; and the supposed original *to equates with no prep. in the Ar. languages. But in Pr. Kelt. the possibil­ity of t- for d- is proved by W. tafod, Ir. tenge, so that *to‑, which occurs only in compo­sition, may be for *do‑. Pr. Kelt. *do: E. to, Ger. zu, Lat. en-do‑, in-du‑, O. Bulg. do, Av. ‑da ‘to’. Cf. W. ann- ii (1) from *n̥-do‑, which places *do beyond doubt.
(14) dỿ- ‘bad’ < *dus‑: Gk. δυσ‑; dỿ́chan ‘lampoon’ < *dus-kan-: cân ‘song’; reduced to *du- on the analogy of *su‑, (19) below, in dỿ́-bryd ‘shapeless, ugly’, Ir. do-chruth < *du-q$^{u̯}$r̥-tu : W. pryd, Ir. cruth ‘form’.
(15) eb- < *ek-u̯o‑; in épil for *eb-hil § 89 iii, ébrwydd ‘quick’: rhwydd ‘easy’ § 143 iii (22).
e‑, eh‑, ech- < *eks- § 96 iii (6); é-ofn, Ml. W. eh-ofɏn ‘fearless’: Ir. esomun, Gaul. Exobnus; é-ang ‘wide, extensive’: *ang ‘narrow’. ech- developed before vowels, but spread by analogy: éch-nos ‘night before last’, éch-doe ‘day before yesterday’. But the regular form before an explosive is es- (ỿs‑) as in és-tron ‘stranger’ < Lat. extrāneus; éstyn ‘extend’ < ex-tend‑, etc.; és-gor ‘to be delivered’ (of young), √(s)qer- ‘separate, cut’.
(16) go‑, gw̯o‑, gw̯a- [soft] ‘sub-’ < Kelt. *u̯o- < *upo‑: Skr. úpa, Gk. ὑπό, Lat. s‑ub, § 65 v (1); gwo‑br ‘prize’ < *u̯o‑pr‑: prynu ‘to buy’ § 201 i (4); gwá-stad ‘level’ § 63 vi (1); go-fúned, ‘desire’, ar-ó-fun (13) above. In Mn. W. go- freely forms loose compounds with adjec­tives § 220 viii (1).
gos- < *u̯o‑s- + initial s‑; gósgorẟ ‘retinue’, Ml. W. gwoscorẟ b.b. 10 < *u̯o-skor‑d‑, √sqer‑: dósbarth (13) above.
(17) gor‑, gw̯or‑, gw̯ar- ‘super-’ < *u̯or- for *u̯er < *uper: Skr. ​upári, Gk. ὑπέρ, Lat. s‑uper § 65 v (3); gór-ffen(n) ‘finish’: penn ‘end’; gór-fod ‘conquer’: bod ‘be’; gwár-chadw̯ ‘guard’: cadw ‘keep’, etc. etc.
(18) gwrth- [soft] ‘contra-’ § 66 iii (1); gẃrthun, Ml. W. gwrthvun ‘hateful’: dymuniad (13) above; gẃrth-glawẟ 'rampart': clawẟ ‘dyke’, etc.
(19) hỿ- [soft] ‘well, ‑able’ < *su‑: Gaul. su‑, Ir. su‑, so‑: Gk. ὑ- (in ὑ-γιής), Skr. su- (? from the base *eu̯eseu̯- ‘good’ with V-grade of the first two syllables); hỿ́-gar ‘well-beloved, lovable’: caraf ‘I love’; hỿ́-dyn ‘tractable’: tynnaf ‘I draw’; Hý-wel ‘*conspic­uous’: gwelaf ‘I see’; hỿ́-fryd ‘pleasant’: bryd ‘mind’, etc.
(20) rhag- [soft] ‘fore-’ < *prako‑, by § 65 ii (1) < *pro-qo- (i.e. *pro- with suffix ‑qo‑): Lat. reci-procu‑s < *reco-proco‑s; rhág-farn ‘prejudice’: barn ‘judgement’; rhág-fur ‘contra­mure’: mur ‘wall’; rhág-ddor ‘outer door’; rhag-lúniaeth ‘provi­dence’, etc.
(21) rhỿ- [soft] ‘very, too’: Ir. ro‑: Lat. pro‑, Gk. πρό, Skr. prá, Goth, fra‑; rhỿ́-wyr ‘very late’: hŵyr ‘late’, cf. Gk. πρό-κακος ‘very bad’; rhỿ́-gyng, Ml. W. r͑ygig̃ ‘ambling pace’ < *(p)ro-k̑enɡh- § 101 iii (2). In Mn. W. it forms loose compounds with adjec­tives § 65 iv (2), § 220 viii (1).
(22) tra- [spirant] ‘over, very, excessive’ < *tar- < *tₑrós‑, § 214 iii: Ir. tar‑, Skr. tirás‑; trá-chwant ‘lust’; trá-chas ‘very hateful’; trá-serch ‘great love, adoration’; trá-chul ‘very lean’; trắmor ‘oversea’ i.e. trammor for *tarmmor < *tₑrós mari.; trachw̯res b.t. 30: gw̯res § 92 iii. It forms loose compounds by being placed before any adj., § 220 viii (1). The metath­esis could have taken place when the accent was on the ult.; cf. § 214 iii.
traf‑, as in traf-lýncu ‘to gulp’ (: llyncu ‘to swallow) < *tram‑: Ir. trem‑, tairm‑, an m-formation from the same base: cf. Lat. tarmes, trāmes; see § 220 ii (10). There seems to have been some confusion of the two prefixes: tramor above and trắmwy ‘to wander’ < ‑*mou̯i̯- (: Lat. moveo) may have either. This would help to spread tra- for *tar‑. tránnoeth ‘over night’ cannot be from *tram- which would become traf- before n; trénnyẟ ‘over the day’ i.e. ‘next day but one’ is probably re-formed after trannoeth.
traws‑, tros- § 210 x (6); Ml. W. traws-cwyẟ w.m. 83, 85, ‘trans­action’; in Mn. W. leniting, traws-feddiant ‘usurp­ation’, prob. owing to sc > sg etc. § 111 vi (2), as in traws-gwyẟ r.m. 60, 61.
(23) trỿ- [soft] ‘through, thorough’; trỿ́-dwll ‘perfor­ated’; trỿ́-loyw ‘pellucid’; trỿ́-fer ‘javelin’: bêr ‘spear’. It seems to imply Brit. *tri‑, weak form of *trei > trwy ‘through’ § 210 x (5).
ii. Some prefixes occur only in rare or isolated forms, and are not recog­nized as such in the histor­ical periods. The following may be mentioned:
(1) 'a(n)- < *n̥- ‘in’; áchles § 99 vi (1), anmyneẟ § 95 ii (3); ánglaẟ ‘funeral’ < *n̥-qlad- (claddu ‘to bury’) √qolād- § 101 ii (3).
​ann- [soft] < *ando- < *n̥‑do‑: Lat. en-do‑, in-du‑, E. in-to; ánnedd § 63 ii; ánnerch ‘greeting’ < *n̥d(o)‑erk‑, √ereq- ‘speak’ § 63 iii; én-byd ‘dangerous’ (enbyd! ‘beware!’ in Festiniog quarries) < *n̥do-pit‑: pyd ‘danger’ < *qu̯i‑t‑, √qou̯ēi̯- ‘be ware’: Lat. caveo, Grk. κοέω: W. rhý-buẟ ‘warning’ < *pro-qu̯ei‑d‑; án-rheg ‘gift’: rheg ‘gift’ < *prek‑, án-rhaith ‘prize, booty; *bride, dear one’ < *n̥do-prek‑t‑, √pereq- ‘acquire, buy’: Lith. perkù, ‘I buy’, Gk. πιπράσκω (*‑pr̥q-sqō), extension of √per- in Gk. πέρνημι; án-fon < *n̥do-mon- § 100 iv; ani̯an ‘nature’ < *n̥do-g̑ₑn‑: Lat. in-genium.
dann- [soft] < *d(o)-ando‑; dánfon: anfon above; dán-gos ‘to show’ (S. W. dáŋ-gos; in N. W. with late assim. of ‑g‑, dáŋŋos) < *d(o)-ando-kons‑, √k̑ens‑: Lat. censeo, Skr. s̑ąsati ‘recites, praises, reports, shows’.
y‑, e- [nasal] < *en- ‘in’; emhennyẟ m.m. 23 (from r.b.) ‘brain’, cf. m.a. ii 107, 337, emennyẟ r.b.b. 54, s.g. 270 < *en-qu̯enníi̯o‑: Bret. em-penn, Corn. empinion, ympynnyon; mh- persisted in Mn. W., see m.m. 140, o ’mhoen (read o’m hun)/ymhennydd D.G. 501; the usual form yménnydd with abnormal loss of ‑h- before the accent may be due to early contami­nation with a form contain­ing *eni‑; the form in Ir. is in-chinn < *eni-qu̯enn‑.
(2) he- < *sem‑; hebrwng § 99 vi.
(3) han- < *sani‑: Ir. sain ‘separate’, W. gwa-han-u, Lat. sine, E. sun-der, Skr. sanitúr ‘besides, without’; in hán-fod ‘being from, coming from, origin, essence’.
§ 157. i. No compound has more than two elements; but any element may itself be a compound. Thus anhyfryd ‘un­pleasant’ is compound­ed not of an + hy + bryd but of an + hyfryd, though hyfryd itself is a compound of hy + bryd; similarly hardd-deg ymdrech 1 Tim. vi 12 is a loose compound, each of whose elements hardd-deg and ym-drech is itself a compound. All compounds must be so analysed by succes­sive bi­sections.
    Deurúddloyw̯ fis dewisaf,
    Dyred a’r haul daradr haf.—G.Gr., p 51/49.
‘Most exquisite bright-cheeked month, bring the sun of summer ray.' Deurúẟloyw fis is a loose compound; its first element is a compound of deuruẟ and gloyw, deuruẟ itself being compound­ed of dau ‘two’ and gruẟ ‘cheek’.
ii. (1) In compounds of three syllables in which the first element is a compound, as pengrỿ́ch-lon D.G. 74 ‘curly-headed [and] merry’, a strong secondary accent on the first syllable often becomes a separate accent, and the syllable breaks loose, resulting in an illogical division; thus hī́r féin-wyn D.G. 16, for hirféin-wyn, a compound of hír-fain ‘long slender’ and gwyn ‘white’; téw góed-allt do. 328 for tewgóed-allt < téw-goed (do. 157) ‘thick trees’ and (g)allt ‘copse’; gárw̯ flóedd​i̯ast do. 82 < gárw̯-floeẟ ‘rough-voiced’ + gast ‘bitch’ § 103 ii (1); mýdr ddóeth-lef do. 293 < mýdr-ẟoeth + llef ‘of rhyth­mical voice’; mā́n sérliw g. 129 < mán-ser + lliw ‘of the colour of small stars’; pén sáer-wawd do. 297 < pén-saer ‘architect’ + gwawd ‘song’ meaning ‘of masterly song’.
    Y wawr dlós-ferch ry dlýsfain
    Wrm ael a wisg aur a main.—D.G, 110.
‘Dawn-bright maid, too beautifully slender, of the dark brow, that wearest gold and [precious] stones’; gwawr dlosferch < gwáwr-dlos ‘dawn-beautiful’ + merch ‘maid’;—rɥ dlỿsfain is a loose compound of rhy and tlýs-fain, so that its accentu­ation is normal;—gẃrm áel is a loose bahuvrīhi (or posses­sive) compound ‘possess­ing a dark brow’.
(2) The same accentuation occurs when a compound number is compound­ed with a noun, as dáu cánn-oen G.G1. m 146/313 ‘200 lambs’; sáith ugéin-waith L.G.C. 421 ‘seven score times’. The separated syllable has the un-mutated (un-combined) form of its diphthong dau, saith (not deu, seith) § 45 ii (2).
iii. Strict compounds are inflected by inflect­ing the second element, as gwindy pl. gwindei § 117 iii, hwyl-brenni, canhwyll-brenni § 122 ii (2), claer-wỿnnẏon etc. § 145 ii (4), an-wariaid etc. § 145 vi, an-hawsaf § 148 i (6), gloyw-ẟuaf etc. § 150 ii.
But in loose a-n compounds the adj. is often made pl., as nefolẏon wybodeu etc. § 145 ii (3). Indeed these forma­tions are so loose that the second element may be suspended, as in nefolion- a’r daear­olion- a than­ddaear­olion- bethau ibid.
An eqtv. or cpv. adj. before a noun is not compound­ed with it, but the noun has always its rad. initial. A spv. adj. may or may not be compound­ed; see Syntax.
Pronouns
Personal Pronouns.
§ 158. The Welsh personal pronouns are either independent or dependent.
Of these main classes there are several sub-divisions, containing a form for each person sg. and pl., including two, m. and f., for the 3rd sg.
The use of the 2nd pl. for the 2nd sg., so common in modern European languages, appears in W. in the 15th cent. There are numerous examples in T.A. (e.g. § 38 vi), who mixes up sg. and pl. in address­ing the same indi­vidual:
    Meined dy wasg mewn y tant,
    Chwi a ’mdroech i’m dau rychwant.—T.A. a 14866/105.
‘So slender is thy waist in the girdle, you would turn round in my two spans.’
§ 159. The independent personal pronouns are the forms used when the pronoun is not immediate­ly dependent on a noun, a verb or an inflected prepo­sition. They occur (a) at the beginning of a sentence, see § 162 vii (2);—(b) after a conjunc­tion or un­inflected prepo­sition, including fel, megis;—(c) after ys ‘it is’, mae (mai) ‘that it is’, panyw id., pei ‘if it were’, etc., and after the un­inflected heb y ‘said’ (heb y mi § 198 i). Inde­pendent personal pronouns are either simple, redupli­cated or conjunc­tive; thus:
i. Simple: sg. 1. mi, 2. ti, 3. m. ef, f. hi; pl. 1. ni, 2. chw̯i, 3. Ml. wy, wynt, Mn. hŵy, hŵynt (also occa­sional­ly in Late Ml. W.).
The h- of the Mn. 3rd pl. forms comes from the affixed forms; thus gwelant wy ≡ gwelant‑h wy mutated to gwelann‑h wy, see § 106 iv; the ‑h was trans­ferred to the pronoun, cf. § 106 iii (2); and the inde­pendent forms borrowed the h- from the affixed.
ii. Reduplicated: (1) Ml. W., sg. 1. mivi, myvi, myvy, 2. tidi, tydi, 3. [m. efo], f. hihi; pl. 1. nini, 2. chw̯ichw̯i, chwchw̯i, 3. wyntwy, hwyntwy.—Mn. W. sg. 1 mỿfi, 2. tỿdi, 3. [m. efo, fo (later fe, efe see below)], f. hỿhi; pl. 1. nỿni, 2. chw̯ỿchw̯i (often pro­nounced but rarely written chwchw̯i), 3. hwynt-hwy.
mivi, tidi w.m. 4, myfi (see vyvi § 160 iii (1)), chwichwi r.b.b. 67, chwchwi s.g. 164, hwyntwy r.m. 132, wyntwy s.g. 165.
(2) These pronouns are usually accented on the ultima: mỿfī́, tỿdī́, hwynt-hw̄́y, etc.; but they were formerly accented on the penult also, and this accentu­ation survives in certain phrases used in Powys. Examples of penul­timate accentu­ation:
    Du serchog yw’th glog mewn glyn,
    A mỿ́fi sy’n d’ ymófyn.—D.G. 521.
‘Of a lovely black is thy coat in the glen, and it is I who call thee.’—To the blackbird.’
    Nid dídolc onid tỿ́di;
    Nato Duw bod hebot ti.—S.M., Ỻ 133/261.
‘There is none faultless but thee; God forbid [that we should] be without thee.’
​Thus accented they also appear as mýfɥ, týdɥ, etc.:
    Mawr oedd gennyd dy fryd fry,
    Mẃyfwy dy sôn na mỿ́fɥ.—G.Gr., d.g. 246.
‘Greatly didst thou boast thy intention yonder; more and more noisy [art thou] than I.’
(3) The forms mỿfī́, tydī́ sometimes lose their un­accented ỿ after a, na or no, giving a m’fī́, a th’dī́, etc.; as megys yẟ ymy­dawssam ath ti Ỻ.A. 148 ‘as we forsook thee’, cf. 121, l. 6.
    Duw a’th roes, y doeth ryswr;
    A th’di a wnaeth Duw yn ŵr.—W.Ỻ. 8.
‘God gave thee, wise hero; and thee did God make a man.’
(4) In the spoken language efṓ, hỿhī́ became ỿfṓ, ỿhī́; and the others followed, thus ỿfī́, ỿthdī́ (in Gwynedd ỿchdī́ by dissim.) ỿnī́, ỿchī́, ỿnhw̄́(y). These may sometimes be seen written y fo etc. in the late period, e.g. c.c. 273, 340.
(5) Beside efṓ the reduced form fō appears in the 14th cent. The incon­venience of having different vowels in fo and ef was overcome in two ways: in N.W. fō replaced ēf (except in a few stereo­typed phrases, as yntḗ? for onid hēf? ‘is it not so?’, ai ḗ? ‘is it so?’); in S. W. ē(f) remained, and fō was changed to fē. From the S.W. fe Wm.S. made his new efe 2 Thess. ii 16, which, however, he uses very rarely. Dr. M. adopted this form, and used it through­out his Bible for the nom. case, inde­pendent and affixed—a remark­able obser­vance of a self-imposed rule; that the rule was arbitrary is shown by the fact that efe is used where W. idiom expresses ‘he’ by an oblique case, as am fod yn hoff ganddo efe y hi Gen. xxix 20, o herwydd ei farw efe 2 Sam. xiii 39. In Ml. W. the only form is efo, see iv (2), which is rare compared with the simple ef. The bards also use efo, accented éfo and efṓ, see examples; but where it does not rhyme, late copyists often change it to efe; thus in A fo doeth efe a dau g. 144, the ms. actually used by the editor of g. has efo tr. 87.—efe s.g. 53 is ef in the ms., p 11/35b; and eue c.m. 87 is euo (i.e. evo) in the ms., r.b. 474. The form éfo survives in dial. efo ‘with’ for éfo a § 216 ii (3).
    Nid oes offrwm, trwm yw’r tro,
    Oen Duw úfydd, ond éfo.—R.R., f. 7.
‘There is no sacrifice—sad is the case—except Him, the obedient Lamb of God.’
    Iarll Penfro, efṓ rydd fárch.—L.G.C. 355.
‘The Earl of Pembroke, he will give a horse.’
iii. Conjunctive: (1) Ml. W., sg. 1. mynheu, minheu, minneu, 2. titheu, 3. m. ynteu, f. hitheu; pl. 1. nynheu, ninheu, ninneu, 2. chwitheu, 3. wynteu.—Mn. W. sg. 1. minnau, 2. tithau, 3. m. yntau, f. hithau; pl. 1. ninnau, 2. chwithau, 3. hwyntau, hwythau.
(2) A pronoun of this series is always set against a noun or pronoun that goes before (or is implied): Dioer, heb ef.… A unben, heb ynteu w.m. 2 ‘By heaven, said he.... Ah! prince, said the other.’ The series is in common use in Mn. W.; sometimes the added meaning is so subtle as to be un­translat­able: chwi a minnau ‘you and I’, but as a rule minnau signifies ‘I too’, ‘even I’, ‘I for my part’, ‘but I’, ‘while I’, etc. The first term of the antith­esis may be implied: Wel, dyma finnau ’n marw Ceiriog o.b. 110 ‘Well, now even I am dying’ [not somebody else this time; this is not said, but finnau implies it]. A conj. pron. often stands in appo­sition to a noun: Ynteu Pwyll wm. 11, cf. 12, 14 ‘he also, [namely] Pwyll’ i.e. Pwyll also; a gwyr Troea wynteu r.b.b. 20 ‘and the men of Troy on their part '. The 3rd sg. ynteu answers naill in the expres­sion naill ai…ai ynteu ‘on the one hand either……or on the other hand’. From its un­accented use as ‘on the other hand’ it became a con­junction ‘then’: Paham, ynteu Ỻ.A. 13 ‘why, then?’ Pwy, ynteu do. 27 ‘who, then?’ Nyt oes un wreic, ynteu a.l. i 176 ‘there is no woman, then’. In Ml. W. pronouns of other persons are used instead of ynteu after ae, as kymer vedyẟ…ae titheu ymlaẟ c.m. 13 ‘receive baptism…or else fight’; as the subject of an impv. cannot come before it, titheu here replaces ynteu in ae ynteu ymlaẟ ‘or else fight’ under the influence of ymlaẟ ditheu ‘fight then!’
iv. Origin of the independent pronouns: (1) mi, Ir. mē < acc. *mē̆: Skr. mā, Gk. με (the Ir. mē seems to be *me length­ened, as original ē > Kelt. ī);—ti, Ir. tū < *tū: Lat. tū, Av. tū, Gk. τῡ́-νη, O.H.G. dū; ti partly also from Ar. acc. *t(u̯)e;—ef, O.W. em, Corn. ef, nom. ‑e, Ml. Bret, eff, Ir. ē, hē; f. hi, Corn. hy, Bret. hi, Ir. sī. The 3rd sg. pron. in Kelt. as in Germ. seems to have been *es or *is, f. *sī; thus O.H.G. er < *es: Ir. ē or hē < *es (: Umbr. es-to- ‘iste’); the Corn. nom. postfixed e may represent this; but in "W". it has been replaced by ef; W. ef < *emen < *em-em = O.Lat. em-em, redupl. acc. of *es, cf. Skr. im-ám < *im-em. As hi kept its h‑, it is unlikely that ef is for *hef, since the parallel could hardly fail to have been preserved; but in phrases where ef means ‘so’ there are traces of h‑, as in N.W. yntḗ, S.W. ontḗf e ‘is it not so?’ for onid hḗf (ef); here ef may be from *semo‑s ‘same’ = Skr. samáḥ ‘like, same’. W. hi < Ar. *sī: Goth. si, O.H.G. sī, si, Gk. ῑ̔́ (Sophocles); *sī is an ablaut variant of *s(i)i̯ā § 122 iv (1), f. of the pron. *s(i)i̯os, *s(i)i̯ā, *t(i)i̯od (Skr. syáḥ, syā́, tyád) a deriv­ative of *so, *sā, *tod (Skr. sá, sā́, tát, Gk. ὁ, ἡ, τό).—Pl. nī, chwī, Ir. snī, sī < *s‑nēs, *s‑u̯ēs: Lat. nōs, vōs, Skr. naḥ, vaḥ (or, as the ē-grade is not certain elsewhere, < *snī, *su̯ī with nom. pl. ‑ī after o-stems);—w͡y, Ir. ē < *ei nom. pl. of *es; w͡ynt with ‑nt from the 3rd pl. of verbs (so Ml. Ir. īat).
(2) The redupl. forms are the simple forms repeated, original­ly as separate words: mi-vi < Brit. *mī́ mī́, etc. As ef seems itself to be a redupl. form it is natural that it is not found redupli­cated (efe being a figment ii (5)); the emphatic form is efo. In Ml. W. this is chiefly ​an affixed accu­sative § 160 iii (1): llyma efo w.m. 160 ‘see him here’; mostly following other pronouns: gwassa­naetha di evo r.m. 185 ‘serve thou him’, cf. 164, 168, 170, 198, 280; the transi­tion to the indep. use is seen in a thra guẟẏych ti evo, evo a’th guẟ ditheu r.m. 173 ‘and while thou hidest it, it will hide thee’. The form efo is prob. for *efoeẟ § 78 i (1); this implies *émii̯o‑, and may be acc. *em-ei̯om: cf. Lat. gloss im-eum “τὸν αὐτόν” < *im-ei̯om.
(3) The conj. pronouns are re-forma­tions based upon yntau which is for *hynn-teu (loss of h- on the anal. of ef) < Brit. *séndos tou̯os ‘this other, the other’; *tou̯os < *tuu̯os: Skr. tvaḥ, tuaḥ ‘other’, mostly repeated tvaḥ​…​tvaḥ ‘the one​…​the other’; the word is always un­accented in Skr.; this is also the condition to give eu in W. § 76 iii (2). The origin is seen clearly in naill​…​yntau from *sendod álli̯od​…​séndod tou̯od; cf. Skr. tvad​…​tvad ‘at one time​…​at another’ or with tvad after the second member only. When *hynn teu came to mean ‘he too’ a fem. *hih teu was formed giving hitheu; then followed *mim teu > mynheu, minneu; *tīt teu > titheu; and on these are modelled the pl. forms.
§ 160. Dependent personal pronouns are either prefixed, infixed or affixed.
i. Prefixed pronouns, (1) The following stand in the genitive case immediate­ly before a noun or verbal noun; the mutation following each is given after it in square brackets. For the aspi­ration of initial vowels see § ii (5).
Sg. 1. fỿ, f’, ’ỿ, ’, [nasal], 2. dỿ’, d’ [soft], 3. Ml. y, Mn. i, late mis­spelling ei [m. soft, f. spirant]; pl. 1. Ml. an, ỿn, Mn. ỿn, late mis­spelling ein [rad.], 2. Ml. awch, ỿch, late mis­spelling eich [rad.], 3. eu (sometimes Ml. y, Mn. i) [rad.].
These pronouns are always pro­clitics, and are never accented; when emphasis is required an affixed auxiliary pronoun is added to receive it; thus dy ben dī́ ‘thý head’.
Before a vowel fỿ ‘my’, dy ‘thy’ tend to lose their ỿ, and f’, d’ occur frequent­ly in poetry: f’annwyl § 38 vi, f’erchwyn § 38 ix, f’annerch § 136 ii, f’w͡yneb § 38 iv; d’eos § 110 iii (2), d’adwyth D.G. 35, d’adnabod do. 147.
fỿ often becomes ’ỿ, see § 110 iii (2). This occurs only when the initial of the noun is nasalized, i.e. when its radical is an explosive (or m- in f. nouns: ’ỿ mam § 110 iii (2), ’ỿ modryb b.cw. 13 ‘my aunt’), for otherwise ’ỿ could not be distin­guished from the article y; as it is, it cannot be distin­guished from un­accented yn ‘in’ (’ỿ mhénn ‘my head’, ỿmhenn ‘at the end [of]’), except by the context.—When the f- vanishes as above, the ỿ is liable to be lost after a vowel, leaving only the following nasal initial to represent the pronoun:
    Darfu ’r ieuenctid dirfawr;
    O dewr fu ’nydd darfu ’n awr.—D.G. 529.
‘Mighty youth is spent; if brave was my day, it is spent now.’
    Llongwr wyfi yn ddioed;
    Ar ben yr hwylbren mae ’nhroed.—H.D., p 101/259.
‘At once I am a sailor; my foot is on the top of the mast.’ See also yw ’myd § 38 vi, yw 'mron § 146 ii (1).
Ml. y ‘his, her’ > Mn. i § 16 ii (3). Occasionally i is already found in Ml. W., as o achaws i drigiant ef w.m. 12 ‘on account of his residing’. The spelling ei is due to Wm.S., § 5 (4), who also changed yn b.b. 108, ych do. 79 to ein, eich; there is no evidence of the earlier use of these forms; and in the spoken language the words are i, ỿn, ỿch, as in Early Mn. W. It is doubtful whether the correct spelling can now be restored, as the mis­spelling is dis­tinctive, enabling ei ‘his’ to be distin­guished from i ‘to’, and i ‘I’, as in gwelais i dŷ; and ein ‘our’ from yn ‘in’; but the written ei, ein, eich should be read i, ỿn, ỿch.
eu ‘their’ is a Ml. form preserved artificially in lit. W. Already in the 14th cent. y appears for it as ytat Ỻ.A. 117, l. 13 ‘their father’, ypenneu, ytavodeu do. 152 ‘their heads, their tongues’. In Early Mn. MSS. it is generally i, distin­guished from the sg. only by the rad. initial which follows it.
(2) Before hun, hunan ‘self’, § 167 i (3), the following forms occur in Ml. W.: sg. 1. vy, vu, my, mu, 2. dy, du, 3. e; pl. 1. ny, 2. ?, 3. e.
a minneu vy hun w.m. 88 ‘and I myself’; am laẟ o honaf vu hun vy mab do. 35 ‘because I myself slew my son’; namyn my hun do. 88 ‘except myself’; buw mu hunan r.p. 1045 ‘I myself [am] alive’; dy anwybot dy hun w.m. 2 ‘thine own ignorance’; du hun do. 29 ‘thyself’; ae ẟwylaw ehun Ỻ.A. 10 ‘with His own hands’; ehun Ỻ.A. 77 ‘herself’; arnam ny hunein w.m. 29 ‘on ourselves’; ar yn llun ny hun r.p. 1368 ‘on Our own image’; a gewssynt e hun w.m. 59 ‘what they had had them­selves’; yryg̃thunt e hun w.m. 421, y ryngtunt ehunein r.m. 272 ‘between them­selves’.
In Mn. W. the forms do not differ from those of the gen. given in § (1); but ny persisted in the sixteenth cent.; i’n pechod nyhun a.g. 17 ‘to our own sin’; i ni nyhun do. 35 ‘for ourselves’.
Before numerals the forms are Ml.W. pl. 1. an, yn, 2. (awch, ych), 3. yll, ell, Mn. W. 1. ỿn (misspelt ein), ’n, 2. ỿch (misspelt eich), ’ch, 3. ill.
ni an chwech w.m. 29 ‘us six’, yn dwy Ỻ.A. 109 ‘we two’ f., yll pedwar w.m. 65 ‘they four’; arnaẟunt wy yll seith s.g. 33 ‘on the ​seven of them’; ae ẟwylaw yll dwyoeẟ do. 39 ‘with both his hands’; uẟunt ell deu w.m. 182 ‘to them both’. In Mn. W. ni ’n dau ‘we two’, chwi ’ch tri ‘you three’, hwy ill tri ‘they three’, etc.
ii. Infixed pronouns, (1) The following stand in the genitive case before a noun or verbal noun; mutation is noted as before:
Sg. 1. ‑m, now written ’m [rad.]; 2. ‑th, ’th [soft]; 3. Ml. W. ‑e, ‑y, Mn. W. ‑i, now written ’i [m. soft; f. spir.]; pl. 1. ‑n, ’n [rad.]; 2. ‑ch, ’ch [rad.]; 3. Ml. ‑e, ‑y, Mn. ‑i, ’i, late mis­spelling ’u [rad.]. Also 3rd sg. and pl. ‑w, ’w after Ml. y, Mn. i ‘to’; see below.
The Ml. 3rd sg. and pl. ‑e or ‑y repre­sents the second element of a diphthong; thus oe or oy ‘from his’ is simply o y con­tracted. The Mn. sound is ṓi (unacc. oi), and the late spelling o’i rests on the false assump­tion that the full form of the pronoun is ei. This contrac­tion may take place after any word ending in a vowel, see § 33 v, and often occurs after final ‑ai and even ‑au. Similarly ’n, ’ch may occur after any final vowel or diphthong, as Duw ’n Tad, Duw ’n Ceidwad D.G. 486 ‘God our Father, God our Saviour’, since this is only the ordinary loss of un­accented ỿ, see § 44 vii.
But ’m, ’th stand on a totally different basis; these are not for *ym, *yth, which do not exist in the genitive. But a’m, a’th are properly a m’, a th’ for *a my, *a thy with the old spirant mutation after a as in a mam, a thad; hence we find that in Ml. W. they occur only after a ‘and’, a ‘with’ (including gyt a, tu a, etc), na ‘nor’, no ‘than’, all of which cause the spirant mutation, and after ẏ ‘to’, o ‘from’, which caused gemi­nation of the initial of a following unacc. word in Kelt., thus W. i’m, ym ‘to my’ = Ir. domm ‘to my’; see iv (2). In biblical Welsh this tradition is strictly followed. But in D.G. we already find yw ‘is’ added to the above mono­syllables (if the readings are to be trusted), as yw’m serch 498, yw’m Selyf 522, yw’th gân 137, yw’th wên 497. After other words ’m and ’th are rare in D.G., and are possibly mis­readings, as iddi’m traserch 498, yno’th ddwyn 478. After neu ‘or’ and trwy ‘through’, fy and dy are always used: neu dy ladd 264, trwy dy hoywliw 180, Dyro dy ben drwy dy bats 107. So after all ordinary words ending in vowels; the only non-syllabic forms of the pronouns being f’, d’ or the nasal mutation, see § i (1) above; as hwde f’anfodd 114 (not hwde’m anfodd), mae d’ eisiau 19 (not mae’th eisiau), mae d’ wyneb 107 (not mae’th wyneb), colli ’na 303 (not colli ’m da), gwanu ’mron 502 (not gwanu ’m bron). The insertion of ’m, ’th after all vocalic endings is a late misuse of these forms. The converse practice of using fy and dy after a, o, i, na (as o fy for o’m, i dy for i’th etc.) appears first in hymns to fill up the line, and is usual in the dialects; but it is a violation of the literary tradition.
​After the prep. i ‘to, for’ the form w is used for the 3rd sg. and pl. with the mutations proper to the usual forms, as i’w dŷ ‘to his house’, i’w thŷ ‘to her house’, i’w tŷ ‘to their house’. The combi­nation appears in b.ch. as yu, as pan el e brenẏn yu estavell a.l. i 48 ‘when the king goes to his chamber’; later yw voli c.m. 49 lit. ‘for his praising’, yw swper do. 43 ‘for their supper’; it is prob. a metath­esis of *w͡y § 78 iv (1) from *(d)oi, an early contrac­tion of *do ĭ ‘to his’, *do being the orig. form of the prep. § 65 iv (2). A later but still old contrac­tion gives oe, as A ẟoei hi ẏ gyt ac ef oe wlat? Ỻ.A. 125 ‘would she come with him to his country?’ In the 16th cent. oi ‘to his’ was still used in Carnarvon­shire, G.R. [129], But oe, Mn. o’i also means ‘from his’; as this is an obvious meaning (o being ‘from’), oe ‘to his’ became obsolete. A third form of the combi­nation is ẏ, a contrac­tion of ẏ ẏ ‘to his’; this is a re-formation, with the prep. taken from other connex­ions after it had become ẏ; it is the usual form in Ml. mss., as y brenhin a aeth ẏ ystavell c.m. 43 ‘the king went to his chamber’, Ynteu Pwyll…a ẟoeth ẏ gyvoeth ac ẏ wlat w.m. 11 ‘Pwyll too came to his dominions and to his country’. In b.b. we find ẏ eu 66 l. 5 ‘to their’, a rare form. The form ī ‘to his, to her, to their’ survives in Gwyn. dial.; but the usual Mn. form is i’w, which is the least ambiguous, and repre­sents the oldest contrac­tion.
’u is quite a late spelling; it is sounded i̯ in natural speech, and thus has the same form as the 3rd sg., but takes the same mutation as eu. In Ml. W. there is no trace of *au, *ou; rarely we have o eu as in p 6/ii r., and often ac eu, oc eu, e.g. w.m. 89; where these are not employed, the forms met with are ae, oe or ay, oy like the sg.; in Early Mn. W. ai, oi. “Pro ’u pl. post istas parti­culas [a, na, o], & scribitur & pronun­ciatur ’i, vt, a’i carodd, pro a’u carodd, &c.” D. 177. The 1620 Bible always has ’i both gen. and acc.: iachâodd hwynt, ac a’i gwaredodd o’i dinistr Ps. cvii 20.
The forms m and i̯ occur after er in Ml. W. eirmoet ‘during my time’, eirẏoet ‘in his time’, Mn. W. er-m-ṓed, er-i̯-ṓed; the latter became the stereo­typed form for all persons, and is the usual expres­sion for ‘ever’. But ermoed survived in Early Mn. W., see L.G.C. 194.
(2) The following stand in the accusative case before verbs; all take the radical initial of the verb except ’th, which takes the soft.
Sg. 1. ‑m, now written ’m; 2. ‑th, ’th; 3. Ml. W. ‑e ‑y, ‑s, ‑w, Mn. W. ‑i, ’i, ‑s; pl. 1. ‑n, ’n; 2. ‑ch, ’ch; 3. Ml. W. ‑e ‑y, ‑s, ‑w, Mn. W. ‑i, ’i (recent ’u), ‑s.
’m, ’th, ’n, ’ch are used after the relatives a and y, and where y is lost after a vowel, as lle for lle y ‘where’, yno for yno y ‘it is there that’, etc.; after the affir­mative particles neu, a, ef a, e, fo, fe; the negative particles ni, na; the conjunc­tions o ‘if’, oni ‘unless’, y ‘that’, and pe ‘if’, Ml. pei, which is for pei y ‘were it that’; and in Ml. W. the tense particle ry. Thus: ​
    Ni’th wŷl drem i’th wâl dramawr;
    E’th glyw mil, nyth y glaw mawr.—D.G. 133.
‘No eye sees thee in thy vast lair; a thousand hear thee, [in] the nest of the great rain.’—To the Wind.
a’th eura di § 7 ii; lle’th fagwyd D.G. 323 ‘where thou wast reared’; am ssui­nassei-e douit b.b. 24 ‘the Lord created me’; ef a’m llas G.Gl. § 175 iv (6) ‘I was killed’; o’m lleddi D.G. 59 ‘if thou killest me’; o’th gaf do. 524 ‘if I may have thee’; oni’th gaf do. 29 ‘if I have thee not’; beith leẟit r.p. 1255 ‘if thou wert killed’; rym gelwir b.t. 36 ‘I am called’; see § 171 iii (2).
The 3rd sg. and pl. ‑e or ‑y, Mn. ‑i, ’i (’u) is used after the relative a and the affir­mative particles a, ef a, e, fo, fe; as pawb ay dyly w.m. 8 ‘everybody owes it’; e’i gwelir D.G. 524 ‘it will be seen’. It also follows the relative y, and is con­tracted with it to y (= y y ‘that​…​it’); as llyma yr weẟ y keffy r.m. 2 ‘this is the way that (= in which) thou shalt have it’; sef val y gwnaf w.m. 3 ‘this is how I will do it’; val y herchis c.m. 89 ‘as he commanded them’ (val is followed by y ‘that’). In Early Mn. W. this is written i, later ei or eu; recently it has been written y’i and y’u in order to show the con­struction; but there is no authority for this, and the tradi­tional sound appears to be i (not ỿi̯).
The 3rd sg. and pl. ‑s is used after ni, na, oni ‘unless’ and o ‘if’; as Ae eiẟaw nys arvo­llassant Ỻ.A. 161 ‘and his own received him not’; onis cwplaa oe weith­retoeẟ c.m. 15 ‘unless he fulfils it in his works’; os myn L.G.C. 187 ‘if he desires it’. It often serves to save the repe­tition of the object in the second of two negative sentences: ny mynneis inheu un gwr​…​ac nys mynnaf r.m. 11 ‘I did not want a husband, and do not want one’; nyd enwaf neb ac ny’s gwra­dwyddaf J.D.R. [xvii] ‘I name no one, and disgrace him not’; and often refers to a noun or pronoun placed absolute­ly at the head of a sentence, as ond ef nis gwelsant Luc xxiv 24 ‘but [as for] him, they saw him not’; Safnau’r môr nis ofnir mwy D.W. 271 ‘the mouths of the sea—one no longer fears them’. The form ‑s is also used after pe, thus Mn. W. pes for pei y‑s ‘were it that​…​it’, as pei ys gwypwn w.m. 42; in Ml. W. generally written pei as, as pei as mynhut w.m. 142 ‘if thou wishedst it’. Similarly gwedy as gwelych c.m. 83 ‘after thou hast seen it’. After affir­mative neu, as neus r͑oẟes w.m. 20 ‘he has given it’; rarely after affir­mative a, as As attebwys dofyẟ b.t. 24 ‘the Lord answered him’.—In Late Mn. W. nis is sometimes treated as if the s meant nothing; such a misuse is rare in Ml. W. and, where it occurs, is probably a scribal error, as Nys gwelas llygat eiroet y sawl ẟynẏon Ỻ.A. 117 with nys repeated from the previous line. On os for o ‘if’ see § 222 v (1).
In Early Ml. verse we sometimes find nuy (≡ nw͡y) in relative sentences cor­respond­ing to nis in direct state­ments (nwy from an old contrac­tion of *no i̯, cf. *wy (1) above, *no being the orig. form of the neg. rel., see § 162 vi (3)); as nis guibit ar nuy g(u)elho b.b. 7 ‘he ​will not know it who has not seen it’; cf. do. 8 ll. 1, 13. Later by metath­esis this appears as nyw, as nyt kerẟawr nyw molwy r.p. 1400 ‘there is no minstrel who does not praise him’; nyw deiryt do. 1273 ‘which do not belong to him’. Later nyw is used in direct state­ments, as ac nyw kelaf r.p. 1244 ‘and I will not conceal it’. In b.ch. occurs enyu (≡ ỿnɥw) teno tranoeth 14 (mis­printed eny in a.l. i 32) ‘until he removes it the following day’, formed analogi­cally. We also find rwy rel., as rwy digonsei b.t. 24 ‘who had made him’.
(3) After pan ‘when’ and Ml. kyt ‘since’ syllabic accus. forms are used: ym, yth, y, yn, ych, y. In Late Mn. W. these are written y’m, y’th, ei, y’n, y’ch, eu; the apos­trophe is incorrect, see iv (2). But even in Ml. W. after pan and other conjunc­tions ending in conso­nants, an affixed ace. pron. after the verb is preferred to the infixed; see iii (1).
yr pan yth weleis gyntaf w.m. 156–7 ‘since I saw thee first’; pan i’m clywai clust Job xxix 11; kid im guneit b.b. 23 (≡ cɥd ym gw̯nëɥẟ) ‘since thou makest me’. In the early period also after nid ‘there​…​not’, as nid ann-vyẟ b.b. 90 ‘there will not be to us’ (ann dat. see below).
(4) In Ml. and Early Mn. verse the forms in (2) and (3) are also used in the dative.
Dolur gormo8 am doẟyw r.g. 1127 ‘too much grief has come to me’; car a’m oedd, ny’m oes G. m.a. i 201 ‘a friend there was to me, there is not to me’ (i.e. I had but have not); Am bo forth b.b. 34 ‘may there be a way for me’; pan im roted par do. 23 (t ≡ ẟ) ‘when existence was given to me’; E’m rhoddes liw tes lw teg D.G. 136 ‘[she of] the hue of summer gave me a fair pledge’; Cerdd eos a’m dangosai ’Y mun bert do. 499 ‘the nightin­gale’s song would show me my comely maid’.
(5) Initial vowels are aspirated after the following prefixed and infixed pronouns: all the forms of the gen. 3rd sg. fem., and gen. 3rd pl.; all the infixed forms of the acc. 3rd sg. m. and f. and 3rd pl., except s.
oeẟ liw ẏ hwynneb Ỻ.A. 81 ‘was the colour of her face’; oc eu hamsser do. 119 ‘of their time’; mi a’i hadwaen ef Gen. xviii 19.
After ’m, ’n and yn gen. and ace. both aspirated and un­aspirated initials are found.
om hanvoẟ r.m. 11, w.m. 18, om anvoẟ r.m. 30, w.m. 43 ‘against my will’; yn harglwyẟ ni Ỻ.A. 165, yn arẟer­chogrwyẟ ni do. 168 ‘our majesty’. So in Early Mn. W.: A’m annwyl D.G. 219, a’m edwyn ibid. ‘knows me’, o’m hanfodd D.E. g. 113, i’m oes S.T. f. 29, ​i’m hoed D.G. 498. In Late Mn. W. the h- is always used, and often written super­fluous­ly after eich, ’ch.
iii. Affixed pronouns are substantive and auxiliary.
(1) Substantive affixed pronouns are used in the accusative after verbs as sole objects; they are identical with the independent pronouns simple, redu­plicated and conjunc­tive, with the initials of the 1st and 2nd sg. softened.
They occur where there is no preverb to support an infixed pronoun, as when the vb. is impv.; where the preverb ends in a consonant, as pan, etc.; and in some other cases where there is no infixed pronoun; for the details see Syntax.
dygwch vi oẟyma w.m. 8 ‘bear me hence’; hualwyd fi D.G. 47 ‘I have been shackled’; clyw fyfy do. 100 ‘hear me’; pann welsant ef Ỻ.A. 114 ‘when they saw him’; ny roẟassit hi do. 122 ‘she had not been given’. They often follow auxiliary affixed pronouns, as Pan geissych di vyvi r.m. 224 ‘when thou seekest me’.
They are also used in the dative after interjections, as gwae fi! ‘vae mihi!’
(2) Auxiliary affixed pronouns serve as extensions of other pronom­inal elements; they are appended to words which already have either personal endings, or prefixed or infixed pronouns. The form of the 1st sg. is i, in Early Ml. W. ‑e (≡ ɥ); in Late Mn. W. it is written fi after ‑f, but this is an error, though sometimes found in Ml. W.; the 2nd sg. is di, after ‑t ti, Early Ml. ‑de; 3rd sg. m. ef, efo, f. hi; pl. 1. ni, Early Ml. ‑ne, 2. chwi, 3. wy, wynt, later hwy, hwynt. There are also conjun­ctive forms, innau, dithau, etc.
Supple­ment­ing (a) the personal form of a verb: gueleis-e b.b. 71 ‘I saw’, arẟuireav-e do. 36 ‘I extol’; pan roddais i serch D.G. 134 ‘when I set [my] affection’, andau-de b.b. 61 ‘listen thou’, Beth a glywaist ti? D.G. 335 ‘what didst thou hear?’ y dêl hi § 136 iii, etc.
(b) the personal ending of a prepo­sition: irof-e b.b. 23 ‘for me’, arnat ti D.G. 136 ‘on thee’, iẟaw ef w.m. 5 ‘to him’, etc.
(c) a prefixed or infixed pronoun, gen., acc. or dat.: wi-llav-e b.b. 50 (≡ vỿ-llaw-ɥ) ‘my hand’, f’enaid i D.G. 148 ‘my soul’; am creuys-e b.b. 82 ‘who created me’; nym daw-e do. 62 ‘there comes not to me’; dyn ni ’m cred i D.G. 173 ‘a woman who does not believe me’.
    Ni cheisiwn nef na’i threvi
    Be gwypwn nas kai hwnn hi.—H.S., p 54/i/257 r.
‘I would not seek heaven and its abodes if I knew that he would not attain it.’
​iv. Origin of dependent pronouns: (1) Prefixed.—fy < Ar. *mene § 113 ii; dỿ ‘thy’ < Brit. *to(u) proclitic form of *tou̯e < Ar. *teu̯e;—ỿ ‘his’ < Ar. *esi̯ó: Skr. asyá; y ‘her’ < Ar. *esi̯ās: Skr. asyā́ḥ, § 75 vii (2);—an ‘our’, Bret. hon, hor, all for *anr, which (like Ir. ar n- for *anr n‑) repre­sents regularly (§ 95 ii (3)) Kelt. *n̥sron < *n̥s-rōm: Goth. unsara, with suff. ‑(e)ro‑: cf. Lat. nostrum with suff. ‑t(e)ro‑;—ny before hun < *nes or *nos: Skr. naḥ acc., gen., dat.;—awch ‘your’, formed from chwi on the analogy of an: ni;—eu ‘their’, O.W. ou, Bret. ho, is probably for *w͡y un­accented, and so from *eison < Ar. *eisṓm: Skr. eṣā́m ‘their’ < *eisṓm, Osc. eisun‑k; for the weakening of un­accented w͡y to eu see § 78 iii;—yn, ych before numerals < *esnes, *esu̯es: Goth. izwis ‘you’ acc. < *esues;—yll is a form of an l-demon­strative § 165 vi, perhaps < acc. pl. *ollōs < *óli̯o- or *olno‑: Lat. ollus.
(2) Infixed.—Gen.— ‑m, ‑th see § ii (1); Brit. *men caused the rad. of tenues, the nas. of mediae § 107 iv, and as the latter was general­ized for fy, the former was for ’m;— ‑e or ‑y is merely the prefixed y contract­ed with the preceding vowel;— ‑n, ‑ch are the prefixed forms with the vowel elided;— ‑e or ‑y ‘their’, original­ly only after o ‘from’ and *do ‘to’; thus oe or oy ‘from their’ < o *w͡y contract­ed; similarly the rarer oe ‘to their’; ay ‘and their, with their’ is formed on the analogy of oy, instead of the orig. ac eu which also survived, as oc eu ‘from their’ was formed on the analogy of the latter, instead of orig. oy (o ‘from’ had no ‑c);—i’w ‘to his’, etc., Ml. W. yw met. for *w͡y < *do ĭ ‘to his’ contract­ed after *esi̥ó ‘his’ had become *i̯, but early enough for *oi to become *w͡y, see § ii (1); the metath­esis is actually attested in nuy (≡ nw͡y) > nyw, see below.
Acc. (dat.).— ‑m, ‑th < *mm‑, *tt‑ from acc. *me, *te, dat. *moi, *toi, original­ly used after the neg. ny, the tense part. ry, etc., which caused gemi­nation of the initial; in Ir. also the forms after nī, ro, no, do, etc., are ‑mm‑, ‑t- (≡ tt); see § 217 iv (1); after the rel. a which causes lenition, ‑m, ‑th must be ana­logical; the rad. initial after ‑m is due to the analogy of ‑m gen.;— ‑n (Ir. ‑nn‑) < *nes, see § (1); ‑ch by analogy; the syllabic forms prob. developed thus: *pann m cl- > *pann m̥ cl- > pan ym clywai; so n > n̥ > ỿn; ỿth, ỿch by anal.; cf. heb ỿr § 198 iii; on the whole this is more probable than that ỿ- repre­sents the vocalic ending of pann lost elsewhere, which is the expla­nation of the cor­respond­ing Ir. forms generally assumed (Thurney­sen Gr. 246, Pedersen Gr. ii 145); in any case the y- is not the rel. y, which is not used after pan § 222 xi (2), so that the form pan y’m is mis­leading and wrong;— ‑e, ‑y, in ae, ay ‘who​…​him’, for ai *ĭ contract­ed; syllabic y < *ĭ; *ĭ < *en < *em ‘him’; the nasal ending caused the rad. of tenues, which was general­ized; ‑s from the fem. acc. *sīm ‘her’, *si̯ās ‘them’, with the initial doubled as in *mm‑, *tt‑, so that it gives ‑s (not *h‑); in Ir. ‑s- is f. sg. only; in Corn. it is f. sg. and pl.; in W. extended to the m. because the m. *ĭ was lost after ni; thus *ni caf ef became nis caf ef on the anal. of nis caf hi; so ae ‘who​…​her’ ​instead of as on the anal. of ae ‘who…him’;—rel. nyw < nuy (≡ nw͡y) < *no ĭ, see ii (2).
(3) Affixed.—The substantive forms are the same as the inde­pendent forms. Auxiliary: i, b.b. ‑e (≡ ɥ) < *iᵹ < *egō: Lat. ego, Gk. ἔγω, etc.; original­ly used as subject after a verb, it came to supple­ment a 1st sg. pron. in other cases;—di, b.b. ‑de < *tu;—ni, b.b. ‑ne < *nes or *nos (which may have become nom. like nōs in Lat.).
¶ For pronouns suffixed to prepositions see §§ 208–212.
Possessive Adjectives.
§ 161. i. A possessive adjective was placed after its noun, which was usually preceded by the article, as y tŷ tau D.G. 18 ‘thy house’, sometimes by a pref. or inf. pron., as ẏ’th wyndut teu r.p. 1202 ‘to thy paradise’; rarely it was added to an in­definite noun, as
    Ac i wneuthur mesurau
    O benillion mwynion mau.—D.G. 289.
‘And to make measures out of sweet verses of mine.’
The above adnominal use is common as a poetical construc­tion; in prose it survived only in one or two phrases like y rei eiẟaw Ỻ.A. 20 “suos”. Ordi­narily the posses­sive adjective stands as the comple­ment of the verbs ‘to be’, ‘to become’, etc., as malpei teu vei r.m. 127 ‘as if it were thine’; or is used sub­stantial­ly preceded by the article, as arnaf i ac ar y meu s.g. 268 ‘on me and on mine’.
ii. (1) The forms of the possessive adjectives in use in Ml. W. are the following-:
| Sg. | 1. meu | Pl. | 1. einym |
| | 2. teu | | 2. einwch |
| | 3. m. eiẟaw, f. eiẟi | | 3. eiẟunt |
In Mn. W. the first three forms became mau, tau, eiddo, by the regular change of final syllables; and new forms of the 1st and 2nd persons arose; see iii.
See Ml.W. einym r.m. 132, eiẟunt do. 26, eiẟi w.m. 476; einwch etc. see below. The form eiẟẏaw Ỻ.A. 129 shows i̯ after ei § 35 ii; but the present N.W. sound is euddo with no trace of ‑i̯- before ‑o, and the intrusion is only sporadic in Ml. W.
(2) The above forms are sometimes extended by the addition of auxiliary affixed pronouns; thus meu i or meu inneu, teu di or ​teu ditheu, eiẟaw ef or eiẟaw efo, etc. In Mn. W. the 1st sg. takes the form mau fi or mau finnau.
Pa ẟarpar yw yr einwch chwi? r.m. 292 ‘what preparation is yours?’ By ryw neges yw yr eiẟaw ef? w.m. 40 ‘what business is his?’ ẏ’r meu i s.g. 34 ‘to mine’, y teu di w.m. 84 ‘thine’, y meu inneu s.g. 251; A’r cwyn tau di​…​yw’r cwyn mau finnau I.G. 392 ‘and thy plaint is my plaint’; the f- is attested by the cyng­hanedd in I.G. 318 q.v.
iii. In the 15th century new forms of the 1st and 2nd sg. and pl. sprang up. Siôn Cent has A’i natur​…​ysy eiddom ẏ’n soddi c 7/86 ‘and its [the earth’s] nature is ours to sink us’. T.A. has eiddoch a31102/121. We also find eiddod:
    Gwŷr glân a gai air o glod;
    Gorau oedd y gair eiddod.—G.I.Ỻ.F., c 7/110.
‘Fine men got a word of praise; the best was the word [spoken] of thee.’
H.R. uses the curious 2nd sg. einwyd D. 185. G.R. (1567) gives einofor eiddof, eiddot,einom p. [123]; einom in A.G. 52. J.D.R. gives eiddof, eiddol, eiddom, eiddoch 69. These are the forms used in Late W., though mau and fan persisted in poetry.
Wm.S. used mau and tau in his N.T., which were mostly changed into eiddof and eiddot by the trans­lators of the Bible, see e.g. Ioan xvii 6, 9, 10.
The forms of the 3rd sg. and pl. remain unchanged, except that eiddunt is misspelt eiddynt in Late W.
iv. (1) It is generally assumed that meu is a new formation after teu, and that the latter comes from the Ar. gen. *teu̯e: Skr. táva. But Ir. mui shows that the formation is not very new; it goes back at least to Pr. Kelt. The Ir. mui occurs as a gloss, but *tui is not found, and neither form occurs in construc­tion. It is probable therefore that the predic­ative and substan­tival construc­tions so common in W. are secondary; for if original they might be expected to survive in Ir. on account of their con­venience. Hence we may conclude that meu and teu were original­ly postfixes, a construc­tion which dis­appeared in Ir. and only survived in poetry in W. They may therefore be derived directly from the Ar. enclitic genitives *moi, *toi: Gk. μοι, τοι (σοι), Skr. me, te (e < *ai < *oi), Lat. mī (< *moi), see § 75 viii (2).
(2) The Ar. 3rd sg. cor­respond­ing to *moi, *toi was *soi: Gk. οἱ, Av. hē, šē; this gives W. *(h)eu. Beside y meu and y teu, there must have been yr *heu, which gives rheueẟ ‘property, wealth’ (r͑eueẟ m.a. i 244a); and yr *(h)eu ‘his property’ became ‘the ​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.
Nom.: gyrru yr erchwys a laẟyssei y carw eymdeith w.m. 2 ‘to send the pack that had killed the stag away’; Gwyn ei fyd y dyn a wnelo hyn Es. lvi 2 ‘Blessed is the man that doeth this’.—Acc.: o ymgael a’r gwr a ẟywedy di w.m. 4 ‘to find the man whom thou ​mention­est’; Ai dyma’r ympryd a ddewisais? Es. lviii 5 ‘Is this the fast that I have chosen?’—Adv.: o’r lle yẟ oeẟ w.m. 39 ‘from the place where he was’; e korn eẟ euo e brenhẏn a.l. i 76 ‘the horn from which the king drinks’.—Nom. and adv.:
    Af a mawl a fo melys
    O’r tud yr wyf i’r tad Rys.—G.S. p 55/31.
‘I will go with praise that is sweet from the land where I am to Father Rhys.’
The gen. rel. is supple­ment­ed by a prefixed personal pronoun to point out the case: Mab…a ẟylivas Iẟas ẏ leith b.b. 87 ‘the Son whose death Judas plotted’; Ol…a ẟucpwyd moch ẏ dat w.m. 469 ‘Ol, whose father’s pigs were stolen’; brawt ẏ’r gwr y buost neithwyr yn ẏ lys do. 130 ‘brother of the man in whose court thou wast last night’; y neb y maddeuwyd ei drosedd Ps. xxxii 1 ‘he whose trans­gression is forgiven’.—Similarly a prepo­sition takes a personal ending to show the gender and number of the relative: ẏ’r neb a welei newyn a sychet arnaw Ỻ.A. 126 lit. ‘to the one whom he saw hunger and thirst on him’; nyt amgen no’r prenn y dibynnawẟ yr arglwyẟ arnnaw do. 61 ‘no other than the tree on which the Lord was crucified’.—Dat. y followed by i with suff.: y rhai y rhoddwyd iddynt Matt. xix 11 ‘they to whom it is given’; also without the prep.:
    Ieuan deg a’i onwayw dur
    Y perthyn campau Arthur.—G.Gl., p 83/58.
‘Fair Ieuan with his spear of ash and steel to whom belong the qualities of Arthur.’ Rhywia’ dyn y rhoed enaid T.A. a 14967/29 ‘the most generous man to whom a soul was [ever] given’.
The form ae in E betev ae gulich y glav b.b. 63 ‘The graves which the rain wets’ may be an echo of O.W. ai with the rad. after the acc., see vi (1).
By the elision of unaccented syllables a is often lost in Mn. W. verse, as Y ddraig coch ’ ddyry cychwyn D.I.D. g. 177 ‘[it is] the red dragon that gives a leap’. Y gŵr llên ’ gâr holl Wynedd Gut.O. g. 204 ‘the learned man whom all Gwynedd loves’. The soft initial remains to represent it. In Ml. W. it may be lost before initial a‑. The frequent dropping of the rel. a is a character­istic of much of the slipshod writing of the present day.
ii. (1) The usual adverbial form before a vowel in Ml. W. is yẟ; but yr, though rare, appears in the 14th cent., as yno yr adeilawẟ Beuno eglwys Ỻ.A. 123 ‘[it was] there that Beuno built a church’; hyt y seneẟ yr oeẟit yn ẏ aros do. 114 ‘as far as the synod where he was awaited’. In Mn. W. yr became the usual form, but yẟ remained as a poetical form, the bards using both in­different­ly according to the demands of the cyng­hanedd, as ​
    O erw i gant yr â gwr:
    O ddwy i un ydd â anwr.—I.D., tr. 150.
‘[It is] from an acre to a hundred that a man goes, [and] a churl from two to one.’
(2) Between vowels yẟ or yr may become ’ẟ or ’r, e.g. wedi ’dd êl L.G.C. 394 ‘after [the time] when it goes’; but before a consonant it is always y; unlike the article, it cannot appear as ’r after a vowel if a consonant follows. On the sound of the y in the word see § 82 ii (1).
iii. In Early Ml. W. the adverbial rel. often appears as yd (≡ yd, not yẟ), later written yt; this occurs not only before vowels but before conso­nants also, the latter usually under­going the soft mutation.
Tec yd gan ir adaren b.b. 107 ‘[it is] sweetly that the bird sings’; myn yd vo truin yd vit trev do. 83 ‘[it is] there where a nose is that a sneeze will be’; yn Aber Cuawc yt ganant gogeu r.p. 1034 ‘[it is] at Aber Cuawg that cuckoos sing’.
In the b.b. the soft occurs after yd twelve times; the rad. occurs four times (id p- 41, 53, id k- 85, 95), and in each case may be due to provec­tion. Before t‑, d‑, g‑, ff‑, s‑, m- n‑, only y [rad.] occurs; before k‑, gw‑, b‑, ll‑, both y [rad.] and yd [soft] appear; before p‑, r- only yd‑; before a vowel, yẟ, rarely yd.
iv. (1) The pres. ind. of the verb ‘to be’ has a relatival form sydd, sy, Ml. W. yssyẟ, yssy, in the b.b. often issi (i ≡ y). The full form ysydd is also used in Mn. W., and is generally wrongly divided y sydd, because the accent is on the second syllable. The suffixed rel. is the subject of the verb, which always means ‘who is’, ‘who am’, etc.
Although originally 3rd sg., the rel. may have a noun or pron. of any number or person as ante­cedent; thus Diau mat chwychwi sy bobl Job xii 2 ‘Doubtless it is you who are people’.
(2) In the verb pieu the interrogative element pi came to be used as a relative; see § 192 ii (2), (3).
(3) pan, originally interrogative, is mostly relative in Ml. and Mn. W. It is used for ‘when’, chiefly where no ante­cedent is expressed; see § 222 vi (1).—In questions and answers it expresses ‘whence’, as o py wlat​…​pan henwyt c.m. 33 ‘from what country [is it] that (= whence) thou art sprung?’ Ae o bysgotta pan deuy di do. 53 ‘is it from fishing that thou comest?’ In these cases yẟ may be used, and yr supplants pan in Mn. W. On pan in answers see § 163 i (6).
​v. (1) The negative relative is nom. acc. ni, nid, Ml. W. ny, nyt; this form is also used in the gen., in the loc. after lle, and in cases governed by prepo­sitions; but the adverbial form generally (e.g. after pryd, modd, fel, megis, paham, pa fodd, etc., and adverbs like braidd, odid, etc.) is na, nad, Ml. W. na, nat. In Late W. there is a tendency to use the a form every­where.
Nom.: Nyt oes yndi neb ny’th adnapo r.m. 3 ‘there is in it no one who will not know thee’. Gwyn ei fyd y gŵr ni rodia Ps. i 1.—Acc.: yr hynn ny welsynt Ỻ.A. 12 ‘that which they had not seen’; cenedl nid adweini Es. lv 5; also with a redundant ‑s: llyna beth ny‑s gwrthodaf-i c.m. 42 ‘that is a thing which I will not refuse (it)’.—Gen.: y drws ny ẟylywn ny ẏ agori b.m. 41 ‘the door which we ought not to open’, lit. ‘whose its opening we ought not’.—Loc.: lle ny wyper Ỻ.A. 26 ‘[in] the place where it is not known’. After a prep.: ny roẟei hi…iẟaw r.m. 33 ‘to whom she did not give’. Adv.: pryt na Ỻ.A. 26, w.m. 183, r.m. 85, pryd na Jer. xxiii 7, D.G. 29, g. 297; mal na c.m. 20; braidd na D.G. 50.
(2) The perfective particle ry may introduce a rel. clause; see § 219 v.
vi. (1) The relative pron. a probably comes from the Ar. relative *i̯os, *i̯ā, *i̯od: Skr. yá‑ḥ, yā́, yád, Gk. ὅς, ἥ, ὅ. It was a proclitic in Brit., and pretonic *i̯o might become *i̯a § 65 vi (2); this was metathesized to ai the oldest attested form, as in hai-oid b.s.ch. 2 ‘which was’, ai torro hac ay dimanuo y bryeint hunn l.l. 121 ‘who breaks and who dis­honours this privilege’, hai bid cp. ‘which will be’; and ai was reduced to a, a trace of ae occurring in Ml. W., see i.—To explain the soft mutation after it we have to assume that in Kelt. the nom. sg. m. was *i̯o like that of *so, *sā, *tod: Gk. ὁ, ἡ, τό (forms without ‑s are older, and *i̯o might be a survival).—The verb syẟ, yssyẟ repre­sents regularly *estíi̯o = *estí i̯o; it differs from yssit ‘there is’, which sometimes precedes it, as yssit rin yssyẟ vwy b.t. 28 ‘there is a secret which is greater’, § 189 iii (3). The acc. a (< *i̯om) prob. had a radical initial after it at first, cf. ae gulich i above, and a gulich…‘which…moistens’ four times in b.b. 46.
(2) In Ar. adverbs were formed from pronominal and other stems by adding various suffixes, many of which began with a dental: thus, denoting place, *‑dhi (Gk. πό-θι ‘where?’ ὅ-θι ‘where’), *‑dhe, *‑dha (Skr. i-há ‘here’, Gk. ἰθα-γενής), *‑ta (Gk. κατά, W. gan < *km̥-ta); whither, *‑te (Gk. πό-σε? < ‑τε, Goth, hvaþ ‘whither?’); whence, *‑dhem (Gk. ‑θεν), *‑tos (Skr. yá-taḥ ‘whence’, Lat. in-tus, W. hwn‑t ‘hence’); manner, *‑ti (Skr. í-ti ‘thus’, Lat. iti-dem), *‑thā (Skr. ka-thā́ ‘how’, yá-thā ‘as’, Lat. ita < *i-tā); time, *‑dā (Skr. ya-dā ‘when’), *‑te (Gk. ὅ-τε ‘when’); Brugmann² II ii 728–734. To these may be added the adj. of number formed with *‑ti (Skr. ká-ti ‘how many?’ W. pe‑t id., Lat. quo‑t, Skr. yá-ti ‘as many’).
​The W. adverbial forms of the rel. prob. represent several of these deriv­atives of the rel. *i̯o‑; accented o would remain, and, becoming unacc. later, would give y § 65 iv (2). Distinc­tions of meaning were lost, and the forms were adapted to the initials which followed them.—yẟ before a vowel may represent *i̯ó-dhi ‘where’ or *i̯ó-dhem ‘whence’; possibly in id thrice before aeth in b.b. 3, 97 (marg. bis) an old distinc­tion is reflected: id < *i̯ó-te ‘whither’.—yd [soft] denoting manner as kelvit id gan b.b. 15 ‘[it is] skilfully that he sings’ < *i̯ó-ti or *i̯ó-thā; denoting number, as pop cant id cuitin do. 95 ‘[it was] by the hundred that they fell’ < *ió̯-ti, cf. Ml. W. pet ‘how many?’—y [rad.] prob. has two sources: 1. yd [soft] before t- gives *yd d- which becomes y t‑, i. e. y [rad.], after­wards extended to other initials; 2. yẟ must have been orig. used before conso­nants as well as vowels, and might take the rad. (yẟ ‘whence’ < *i̯ó-dhem); the ‑ẟ would be lost before the consonant § 110 iv (3).—As yr is not known to occur before the 14th cent. it is im­probable that it repre­sents an old r-deriva­tive. It is most probably for Late Ml. yr as in val yr lygryssit​…​ẏ grofdeu w.m. 75 ‘the way that his crofts had been ruined’, from y ry, as pob gwlat o’r y ry fuum do. 144 ‘every country of those where I have been’. (Earlier, ry is used without y as Huchof re traydhas­sam a.l. i 58.) The analogy of the art. y: yr might help to spread yr rel. before a vowel.
(3) The neg. rel. ny may be < *no < *ni̯o < *ne i̯o. It caused lenition because orig. un­accented, see § 217 iv; later the mutation after it was assimi­lated to that following ordinary ny ‘not’; probably nyt rel. is also ana­logical. na is probably the same as indirect na, see ib.
vii. (1) The relative in all cases comes immediate­ly before the verb of the rel. clause (only an infixed pron. can intervene); and is often preceded by the demon­stratives yr hwn, yr hon, yr hyn, ar as well as y sawl, y neb, yr un, y rhai. In trans­lations these, which are properly ante­cedents or stand in appo­sition to the ante­cedent, are often attracted into the relative sentence, producing a confused con­struction; see Syntax. Before the adverbial forms there occur similarly y lle ‘[in] the place’ (the rel. meaning ‘where’), modd, mal, megis ‘[in] the manner’ (the rel. meaning ‘in which’), pryd ‘the time’ (the rel. meaning ‘when’), etc.
(2) In sentences beginning with a noun or adverb followed by a rel., the noun or adv. is the predicate and the rel. clause the subject. Thus Dafydd a welais i means ‘[it is] David whom I saw’ or ‘[the man] whom I saw [is] David’; yma y ganed Dafydd means ‘[it is] here that D. was born’. In the spoken language the noun or adv. is always emphatic and predic­ative, and the literal meaning is not ​departed from. But in lit. W. sentences of the above form are used rhetor­ically where the noun or adv. is not emphatic; hence some scholars have doubted that a and yẟ are relatives. It seems clear however that the sense preserved in the spoken language is the literal one. This is confirmed by the use of the rel. verbs sydd, pieu, see iv (1), § 192 ii (3); cf. § 163 v.
Interrogative Pronouns, Adjectives and Adverbs.
§ 163. i. The interrogative pronouns, adjectives and adverbs are the following (the form of the inter­rogative is the same whether the question be direct or indirect):
(1) Ml. and Mn. W. pwy ‘who?’
Puy guant cath paluc b.b. 96 ‘who wounded P.’s cat?’ Ac ny wnn i pwy wyt ti w.m. 3 ‘and I know not who thou art’; ẏ bwy y r͑oẟit w.m. 402 ‘to whom it should be given’; Pwy a osododd ei mesurau hi, os ywyddost? neu pwy a estynnodd linyn ami hi? Job xxxviii 5. Bwy W.Ỻ. 44, 59.
In Ml. W. pwy is also used for ‘what is?’ as dayar, pwy ẏ llet neu pwy ẏ thewhet b.t. 20 ‘the earth, what is its breadth or what is its thickness?’ pwy enw y teir kaer do. 35 ‘what is the name of the three forts?’ Cf. r.p. 1054. It is also found later with enw, as Pwy dy henw D.G. 365 ‘what is thy name?’ This may be for py *wy where *wy is an older form of yw ‘is’ § 78 iv (1); if so, in pwy yw dy enw Ỻ.A. 128 the yw is redundant.
The use of pwy before a noun is rare: Pwy ystyr yw gennyt ti kelu&8203;…​w.m. 454 ‘what reason hast thou to conceal…?’ Probably the yw here is redundant as above, and the construc­tion was original­ly that in Pwy ystyr nas agory ti do. 456 ‘what is the reason that thou wilt not open it?’ This type of phrase might give rise to the adjec­tival use of pwy, which occurs more frequent­ly later, and is common in the dialects: pwy wr Ỻ 30/103, pwy ryw fyd do. 480, cf. pwy un § ii (1) below.
(2) Ml. W. pa, py, ba, by, Mn. W. pa, ba (rarely pỿ) ‘what…?’ adjec­tival. It causes the soft mutation (b.b. pa gur ≡ pa ᵹwr).
Pa gur yv y porthaur b.b. 94 ‘what man is the porter?’ Pa gyvarwydd a vyẟ ẏmi w.m. 4 ‘what indi­cation will there be to me?’ ẏ edrych pa veẟwl yw yr eiẟunt do. 39 ‘to see what thought is theirs’; ym mha ddinas­oedd y maent yn preswylio Num. xiii 19.—Py ẟrwc yw hynny r.m. 178 ‘what evil is that?’ i.e. what does that matter? py le pan ẟeuei w.m. 132, r.m. 204 ‘whence he came’.—Ba beth ​see (3), by ẟyn bynnac r.p. 1256. Forms with b- are common in Early Mn. verse.
In Early Ml. W. pa, py is also used for ‘what?’ substantival, as pa roteiste oth olud b.b. 20 ‘what didst thou give of thy wealth?’ Pa ẟarvu w.m. 58, r.m. 41 ‘what happened?’ Pa wnaf r.p. 1045 ‘what shall I do?’ Py gynheil magwyr dayar yn bresswyl b.t. 28 ‘what supports the wall of the earth permanent­ly?’—It is also used for ‘why?’ as Py liuy (≡ livy or liwy) di w.m. 454 ‘why dost thou colour?’ Duw reen py bereist lyvwr r.p. 1032 ‘Lord God, why hast thou made a coward?’
(3) Ml. W. peth ‘what?’ substantival, usually beth, also pa beth, ba beth: Mn. W. beth, pa beth.
A wẟost ti peth wyt b.t. 27 ‘dost thou know what thou art?’ Na wn, heb ynteu, peth yw marchawc w.m. 118 ‘I do not know, said he, what a knight is’; Peth bynnac see iv.
beth yw dy arch di w.m. 20 ‘what is thy request?’ beth yw hynny do. 28, 42 ‘what is that?’ beth yssyẟ yn y boly hwnn do. 54 ‘what is in this bag?’ beth yssyẟ yma ib. ‘what is here?’ Beth a ẟarvu yn y diweẟ iẟaw ef Ỻ.A. 16 ‘what happened in the end to him?’ beth am y r͑ei bychein do. 41 ‘what about the little ones?’ Beth…pei ‘what if’ 12 times in Ỻ.A. 67–8. Beth a gawn g. 228 ‘what shall we have?’ Beth a wnawn i’n chwaer? Can. viii 8.
Papeþ bi juv. gl. quid; papedpinnac m.c. gl. quoduis; ba beth oreu rac eneid b.b. 84 ‘what [is] best for the soul’; Pa beth a wnnant wy Ỻ.A. 66 ‘what do they do?’ Pa beth yw dŷn i ti i’w gofio? Ps. viii 4.
(4) Early Ml. W. pet [soft] ‘how many…?’ (In Late Ml. W. and Mn. W. this gave place to pa sawl ii (4).)
pet wynt, pet ffreu, pet avon b.t. 20 ‘How many winds, how many streams, how many rivers’; Gogwn…pet ẟyẟ ym blwyẟyn, pet paladɏr yg̃ kat, pet ẟos yg̃ kawat do. 21–2 ‘I know how many days [there are] in a year, how many spears in an army, how many drops in a shower’.
(5) Early Ml. W. pyr ‘why?’
pir deuthoste b.b. 23 ‘why hast thou come?’ pyr na’m dywedyẟ b.t. 27 ‘why dost thou not tell me?’ pyr na thr(a)ethwch traethawt do. 19 ‘why do you not make a statement?’ pyr y kyverchy di w.m. 486 (in r.b. 126 Py rac…) ‘why dost thou accost [me]?’ A form pyt occurs once, and may be an error for pyr:—pyt echenis drwc b.t. 27 ‘why did evil arise?’
(6) Ml. W. pan ‘whence?’ also ban b.b. 102. It is generally repeated before the verb in the answer.
pan ẟoy di, yr yscolheic? Pan ẟoaf, arglwyẟ, o Loygɏr w.m. 76 ‘Whence comest thou, clerk? I come, lord, from England.’ In the answer pan has become a relative, so that the original meaning would be ‘whence I come, lord, [is] from England’. pan is similarly used in the answer when it occurs as a relative (for yẟ) in the question; o ba le pan ẟeuy di? Pan ẟeuaf, heb ynteu, o’r dinas r.m. 275 ‘from what place [is it] that thou comest? I come, said he, from the city’. On pan rel., see § 162 iv (3).
(7) Early Ml. W. cw, cwd (cwt), cwẟ ‘where?’ ‘whence?’ ‘whither?’
mor, cv threia cud echwit​…​Redecauc duwɏr​…​cvd a​…​cv treigil, cv threwna(?), pa hid a, nev cud vit b.b. 88 ‘The sea, whither it ebbs, whither it subsides​…​Running water, whither it goes, whither it rolls, where it settles (?), how far it goes, or where it will be’. kwt ynt plant y gwr w.m. 453 ‘where are the children of the man?’ (in the r.m. 101 ble mae for kwt ynt). Neu nos cwt ẟyuyẟ, kwẟ ẟirgel r͑ac dyẟ b.t. 41 ‘or night, whence it comes, whither it recedes before day’; cwẟ vyẟ nos yn arhos dyẟ do. 28 ‘where the night is, awaiting the day’. Ny wtant cwt (t ≡ ẟ) ant P.M. m.a. i 284 ‘they know not where they go’.
(8) pi-eu ‘to whom belongs?’ See § 192.
ii. Many interrogative expressions are formed by combining pa, py with nouns and adjec­tives; thus
(1) pa un, pl. pa rai ‘which?’ (followed by o ‘of’), pwy un is also found.
Am ba un o’r gweithredoedd hynny yr ydych yn fy llabyddio i? Ioan x 32. gwraig i bwy un o honynt yw hi? Luc xx 33. Pa rei vu y r͑ei hynny Ỻ.A. 17 ‘which were those?’
pa un is also used sometimes for ‘who?’ as dywet titheu​..​pa un wyt ti s.g. 57 ‘and do thou say who thou art’.
pa un and pwy un are sometimes contracted to p’un and pwy’n; thus pun wyt r.m. 222 ‘who thou art’ (for w.m. 154 pwy wyt); Brig kŵyr, pwy ni ŵyr pwy’n yw S.Ph. c 19/274 ‘(Maid of) the waxen hair, who knows not who she is?’
(2) pa le, ple, ble ‘where?’ ‘whither?’ o ba le, o ble ‘whence?’ i ba le, i ble ‘whither?’ pa du ‘where?’ ‘whither?’ (These forms sup­planted cw, cwd, cwẟ in Late Ml. and Mn. W.)
Pa le y bu Babel Ỻ.A. 44 ‘where was Babel?’ ble mae plant y gwr r.m. 101, see i (7) above; Pa le yẟ aeth Aẟaf yna Ỻ.A. 13 “quo ivit tunc Adam?” Ble’dd ân’ rhaig blaidd o Wynedd T.A. a 14966/57 ​‘whither will they go from the wolf of Gwynedd?’ O ba le y daw breuẟ­wydon Ỻ.A. 57 ‘whence come dreams?’ I ble y tyn heb weled tir T.A. a 14979/143 (D.G. 296) ‘whither will it (the ship) make for without seeing land?’ Pa du Ỻ.A. 19 ‘whither?’ py tu w.m. 484 ‘where’.
(3) pa ẟelw, pa weẟ, pa ffurɏf, pa voẟ, late pa sut ‘how?’
Pa ẟelw y daw yr arglwyẟ ẏ’r vrawt Ỻ.A. 61 “qualiter veniet Dominus ad judicium?” Pa weẟ do. 15 “quali modo?” Pa ffurɏf do. 4; pa voẟ do. 21.
pa bryd ‘when?’ pa awr (pa hawr § 112 i (2)), pa ẟyẟ, etc., ‘what hour?’ ‘what day?’
(4) pa faint ‘how much? how many?’ followed by o ‘of, pa hyd ‘how long?’ pa sawl [rad.] ‘how many?’
ny ẟiẟory pa veint o wyrda Ffreinc a ẟivaer c.m. 78 ‘thou carest not how many of the nobles of France are destroyed’. Pa faint o gamweddau…? Job xiii 23. Pa hyd arglwydd y’m anghofi? Ps. xiii 1. Bysawl nef ysyẟ Ỻ.A. 128 ‘how many heavens are there?’ Pysawl pechawt a oruc Aẟaf do. 131 ‘how many sins did Adam commit?’ Pa sawl llyfr, pa sawl bedd…a welsoch b.cw. 70 ‘How many books, how many graves have you seen?’
maint and hyd are equative nouns § 148 i (12), (8). pa may also be put before any equative adj. with cyn; as py gybellet oẟyma yw y cruc w.m. 154 ‘how far from here is the mound?’ It is also used in Mn. W. with mor and a pos. adj. pa mor ẟa, etc.
(5) pa gyfryw [soft] ‘what manner of…?'’ Mn. W. pa ryw fath [soft], pa fath [soft] id.
Py gyfryw wr yw awch tat chwi pan allo lleassu pawb velly w.m. 152 ‘what manner of man is your father when he can kill everybody so?’ Pa ryw fath rai a.g. 36.—cyfryw is the equiv­alent of an equative § 149 ii (1).
(6) pa ryw [soft] ‘what…?’ adjectival.
Sometimes pa ryw means ‘what kind of?’ as Pa ryw lun yssyẟ ar yr engylẏon Ỻ.A. 9 “qualem formam habent angeli?” But generally it means ‘what partic­ular (thing, etc.)?’ or ‘what class of (things etc.)?’ preserv­ing the older meaning of ryw § 165 vi; as pa ryw lu sy’n poeri i lawr D.G. 409 ‘what host is spitting down [the snow]?’ ynteu a ofynnwys pa ryw ẟynẏon oeẟ y r͑ei hynny c.m. 14 ‘and he asked what class of men those were.’
pa ryw became pa rỿ (cf. amrỿ- § 165 iv (9)) wrongly written pa ’r y, as pa ’r y ddyfnder M.Ỻ. i 212 ‘what depth?’ This is again reduced to pa r’ (wrongly written pa ’r), as pa r’ ofid waeth T.A. a 14866/201 ‘what sorrow [could be] worse?’ Perygl i wŷr, pa ’r ​glwy waeth L.M. d.t. 145 ‘dangerous to men, what disease [is] worse?’ a pha ’r gledi sydd arno ’rŵan b.cw. 73 ‘and what hardship does he suffer now?’—pa ryw un ‘which (partic­ular) one?’ becomes pa r’un M.Ỻ. i 182, which is very common in Gwynedd, and is sometimes further reduced to p’r’un.
iii. pa or py might have a postfixed preposition, § 47 iv. Of the expres­sions so formed only pahám ‘why?’ survives; often contract­ed to pam which is at least as early as w.b. Others in use in Ml. W. are pa-har and pa rac or py rac; for refer­ences see § 47 iv.
Pam y kymerwn inheu hynny gan y tayogeu lladron w.m. 68, cf. 73 ‘why should we take that from the thievish villains?’
Ml. W. paẟiw, pyẟiw ‘to whom?’ seems to belong to this class, but its formation is obscure; see vi.
O.W. padiu ox. ‘for what?’ glossing quid in “Quid tibi Pasiphae pretiosas sumere vestes?” issit padiu itau gulat juv. lit. ‘there-is to-whom-it-is that-comes lordship’ (?) glossing est cui regia in “Cunctis genitoris gloria vestri laudetur celsi thronus est cui regia caeli”.—Ml. W. geẏr eu ẏ eẏr [ef] paẟẏu ẏ r͑oẟes [pyẟiw nys r͑oẟes] a.l.ms. a. [ms. d.] i 108 ‘his (the donor’s) word is word (i.e. decides) to whom it is that he gave it, to whom it is that he did not give it’. gwynn ẏ vyt pyẟiw y r͑oẟir kerennyẟ Duw r.p. 1056 ‘Blessed is he to whom is given the grace of God’. Later with a redundant ẏ ‘to’: ẏ byẟiw y bo gorẟerch dec iẟaw c.m. 32 ‘[we shall know] to whom it is that there will be a fair leman’.
iv. The forms pwy bynnag, peth bynnag, beth bynnag, pa beth bynnag, pa..bynnag, etc., have lost their inter­rogative meaning, and are used as “universal” relatives, meaning ‘whosoever’, ‘what­so­ever’, ‘what … soever’.
Pwybynnac a vynnho Ỻ.A. 138 “Quicunque vult”. Peth bynnac o garueiẟ­rwyẟ a vei yrung­thunt w.m. 6 ‘what­so­ever of blandish­ment there was between them.’ A Duw a vyẟ ẏ gyt a thi beth­bynnac a wnelych Ỻ.A. 105–6 ‘And God will be with thee whatever thou doest’. By ẟyn bynnac vych, by gerẟ a vettrych r.p. 1256 ‘what man soever thou art, what craft [soever] thou art skilled in’. pa ddaioni bynnag a wnelo pob un Eph. vi 8.
In S.W. dialects bynnag loses its final ‑g, and in late S.W. mss. it sometimes appears as bynna or benna. We also find in Late Mn. W. bynnag put before pa, peth, as Bynnag beth sydd mewn creadur Wms. 294 ‘what­so­ever is in a creature’; bynnag pa ’r fodd m.l. i 82, 97 ‘however’; though used here by W.M., it does not seem to be a N.W. construc­tion. A dialectal form in S.W. of bynnag is gynnag, ​and gynnag pwy, gynnag beth are found in some lesser writings of the late period; more recently they appear in the corrupt and curiously meaning­less forms gan nad pwy, gan nad beth.
v. As the interrogative is always predicative it is followed regularly in Ml. and Mn. W. by the relative on the analogy of affirm­ative sentences; thus pwy a ŵyr ‘who [is it] that knows?’ on the analogy of Duw a ŵyr ‘[it is] God that knows’, § 162 vii (2). But this appears to be an inno­vation in the case of the inter­rogative, as the oldest examples omit the relative, as puy guant i (1), pa roteiste i (2), pir deuthoste i (5).
vi. The stems of the interrogative in Ar. were *q$^{u̯}$o‑, *q$^{u̯}$e‑, f. q$^{u̯}$ā‑, also *q$^{u̯}$i‑, *q$^{u̯}$u- the last in adverbs only (Brugmann² II ii 348).—W. pwy < nom. sg. mas. *q$^{u̯}$o‑i: Lat. quī < *q$^{u̯}$o‑i.—W. pa, pỿ adj. < stem *q$^{u̯}$o- compound­ed with its noun and so causing lenition; o after the labial becomes a, or remains and becomes ỿ, cf. § 65 iv (2).—W. pa, pỿ subst. < nom., ace. sg. neut. *q$^{u̯}$o‑d, *q$^{u̯}$i‑d: Lat. quod, quid; lenition is perhaps due to the analogy of the adj. pa, py.—W. peth < *q$^{u̯}$id-dm̥ § 91 ii; already in Brit. the word had become indef., meaning ‘something, thing’, hence pa beth ‘what thing?’ beth is not necessari­ly a shorten­ing of this, as pa is not omitted in such phrases in Ml. W.; but beth is for peth (= Ml. Bret. pez ‘quid?’) which occurs in Ml. W., see i (3), with b- as in ba, by i (2), ban b.b. 55, 56.—Ml. W. pet ‘how many?’ Bret. pet < *q$^{u̯}$e-ti § 162 vi (2).—Ml. W. pyr ‘why?’ < *q$^{u̯}$o‑r: Goth., O.E. hwar ‘where?’ < *q$^{u̯}$o‑r, Lat. cūr < *q$^{u̯}$ō‑r.—W. pan < *q$^{u̯}$an-de < *q$^{u̯}$ām-de: cf. O. Lat. quamde, Umbr. ponne § 147 iv (4) p. 245.—Ml. W. cw, cwd, cwẟ represent different forma­tions of *q$^{u̯}$u- (q$^{u̯}$ > k before u § 89 ii (3)) by the addition of more than one of the suffixes named in § 162 vi (2); the different forms have been confused, and can no longer be dis­entangled; similar forma­tions are Skr. kú-ha (h < dh), Gathav. ku-dā ‘where?’ Lat. ubi < *q$^{u̯}$u‑dh‑, O. Bulg. kŭ-de ‘where?’
W. pam, pahám < *pa(ẟ)am < *q$^{u̯}$od m̥bhi ‘what about?’ paẟiw or pyẟiw is obscure; no dative form seems possible; an ana­logical *pod-do might give *pyẟ (as d‑d > d § 93 iii (1)) and iw may be yw ‘is’ § 77 v; so ‘to whom it is’ or ‘for what it is’.
W. bynnag, Bret. bennak, bennag, seems to be from some such form as *q$^{u̯}$om-de ‘when’ + ac ‘and’, so that in meaning it is the literal equiv­alent of Lat. cum-que, and is, like it, separable (Lat. quī cumque lit. ‘who and when’).
Demonstrative Pronouns and Adjectives.
§ 164. i. (1) The demonstratives hwn ‘this’, hwnnw ‘that’ are peculiar in having a neuter form in the singular. Both are sub­stantival and adjec­tival. The adjec­tival demon­strative is placed after its noun, which is preceded by the article; thus y gŵr ​hwn ‘this man’. The different forms are—sg. mas. hwn, hwnnw, fem., hon, honno, neut. hyn, hynny, pl. m. and f. hyn, hynny.
The following forms occur in O.W.: hinn m.c., juv., cp. ‘hyn’; hunnoid ox., hunnuid m.c. ‘hwnnw’; hinnoid ox. ‘hynny’; hirunn juv. ‘yr hwn’, ir hinn m.c. ‘the one’, m., see iv (1); hunnuith cp. f. hinnuith ib. m., hinnith ib. neut. and pl.
(2) hwnnw means ‘that’ person or thing out of sight, ‘that’ in our minds. To indicate objects in sight, adverbs are added to hwn; thus hwn yna ‘that (which you see) there, that near you’, hwn acw, Ml. W. hwnn racko ‘that yonder’. So hwn yma ‘this here’. But yma and yna are also used figur­ative­ly; hwn yma ‘this’ which I am speaking of, hwn yna ‘that’ which I have just mentioned. Hence we can have the abstract hyn before these; but not before acw which is always used literally of place.
Vy arglwyẟes i yw honn racko r.m. 175 ‘that (lady) yonder is my mistress’. Guttun Ywain a ysgri­vennodd hwnnyma Gut.O. auto. Ỻ 28/33 r. ‘Guttun Owain wrote this’.
    An-áml yw i hwn yma
    Nag ystôr nag eisiau da.—I.D., tr. 149.
‘It is rare for this one to store or to want wealth.’
These expressions are sometimes used adjectivally as y wreic weẟw honn yman Ỻ.A. 114 ‘this widow’; o’r byt hwnn yma do. 117 ‘from this world’; y vorwyn honn yma s.g. 143 ‘this maiden’. But for this purpose the adverb alone is generally used: yn y byt yma Ỻ.A. 102, 155 ‘in this world’; o’r esgobawt yma r.p. 1272 ‘from this diocese’; y vyẟin burwenn racco r.m. 151 ‘the white army yonder’. Any other adverb of place may be similarly employed: y fan draw, y tu hwnt, etc.
In the spoken language hwn ýna, hon ýna, hɥn ýna are commonly contract­ed to hẃ|na, hó|na, hɥ́|na (not hwnna, etc.); and these forms occur in recent writings.
(3) The neut. sg. hyn, hynny always denotes an abstraction; it means ‘this’ or ‘that’ circum­stance, matter, thought, statement, precept, question, reason, etc.; or ‘this’ or ‘that’ number or quantity of anything; or ‘this’ or ‘that’ period or point of time.
Hynny, hep ef, ansyberwyt oeẟ w.m. 2 ‘that, said he, was un­gentleman­liness’ (meaning ‘that’ conduct); Pater noster​…​sef yw pwyll hynny yn tat ni Ỻ.A. 147 ‘Pater noster​…​the meaning of that is our Father’. A wnelo hyn nid ysgogir yn dragywydd Ps. xv 5; wedi hyn ‘after this’.
    Nid wylais gyda’r delyn
    Am ’y nhad gymain a hynn.—I.D. tr. 151.
‘I have not wept with the harp for my [own] father as much as this.’
ii. (1) The neut. hyn or hynny is substan­tival, not adjec­tival. In Mn. W. it is sometimes used adjec­tival­ly after certain nouns; but as the construc­tion is unusual in Ml. W., it must be a neologism: yn y kyfrwg̃ hynny r.b.b. 11 for yg̃ kyfrwg̃ hynny do. 319, 320, 321. The examples show that it is added to nouns express­ing ideas for which substan­tival hyn stands.
o’r chwedl hir hyn H.A. Ỻ 133/164 ‘of this long story’; A’r peth hyn S.Ph. e.p. 275 ‘and this thing’ [which thou knowest]; y peth hyn Dan. iii 16 ‘this matter’; ein neges hyn Jos. ii 14, 20 ‘this our business’; y pryd hynny 1 Sam. xiv 18; ai’r pryd hyn Act. i 6.—This use of hyn, hynny never became common, but seems to have been more or less local. In Gwent hyn adj. has spread, and is now used with all nouns.—O.W. hinnith after ir loc guac in cp. 6 seems to be an error for hinnuith as in 9, 11, 14, 15, a form of hwnnw, with ỿ for w in the penult, cf. § 66 ii (1).
(2) The pl. hyn or hynny is both adjectival and substantival. The former use is extremely common. The latter is compar­ative­ly rare; examples are—
ny thebygaf i ẏ un o hyn vynet w.m. 35 ‘I do not imagine any of these will go’, a hene (≡ hỿnnɥ) a elguyr goskorth e brenyn a.l. i 8 ‘and those are called the king’s guard’. Ni phalla un o hyn Es. xxxiv 16 ‘No one of these shall be missing’.
The reason that this use is rare is that hyn or hynny pl. was liable to be confused with hyn or hynny neut. sg.; thus hyn ‘these’ might be taken for hyn ‘this (number)’. To avoid the ambiguity ‘these’ and ‘those’ substan­tival were expressed by y rhai hyn and y rhai hynny, literally ‘these ones’ and ‘those ones’. Though still commonly written in full, these expres­sions were contract­ed, early in the Mn. period, to y rhain G.G1. c. i 198 and y rheiny do. do. 194, or y rheini T.A. a 24980/85.
    Angeu Duw fu ’Nghedewain
    O’i trysor hwy ’n treisiaw ’r rhain.—L.G.C. 175.
‘The death [angel] of God has been at Cedewain, robbing these [i.e. the people there] of their treasure.’
    Mae’r henwyr? Ai meirw ’r rheini?
    Hynaf oll heno wyf i.—G.Gl., p. 100/411.
‘Where are the elders? Are those dead? Eldest of all to-night am I.’
iii. Adjectival hwn and hon form improper compounds with nouns of time; thus yr awr hon > yr áwron (§ 48 iv), yr áwran; y waith hon > Ml. W. e weẏthẏon a.l. i 242 (ms. b) usually wéithon, Mn. wéithi̯on, wéithi̯an (§ 35 ii (1)); y pryd hwn > y prýtwn w.m. 102; y wers hon > y wérshon w.m. 128; all the above mean ‘now’. So y nos hon > y nóson ‘that night’, and y dydd hwn > y dýthwn, y dẃthwn § 66 ii (1) 'that day'. The form dỿthwn was still in use in the 17th cent.; see Silvan Evans, s.v. dwthwn.
    Arwydd ydyw yr awron
    Wreiddiaw Rhys o’r ddaear hon.—L.G.C. 206.
‘It is a sign now that Rhys is sprung from this land.’
    Ar bob allawr yr awran
    Y gwneir cost o’r gwin a’r cann.—D.N., g. 149.
‘On every altar now provision is made of wine and white [bread].’
    Bardd weithian i Ieuan wyf.—L.G.C. 275.
‘I am now a bard to Ieuan.’
By dissimilation yr awran (pron. yr owran § 81 iii (2)) became yr owan, and is now sounded in N.W. yrŵan. The loss of the r goes back to the 15th cent.: :O bu draw ’r bywyd ar ran,
    Mae’r Eos yma ’r owan.—G.I.H. p 77/384.
‘If his life has been spent partly away, the Nightingale is here now.’
As ‘this day’ and ‘this night’ were expressed by heẟiw and heno, the forms y dỿthwn and y noson were used for ‘this day’ or ‘this night’ of which we are speaking, i.e. ‘that day’ or ‘that night’. When the compo­sition of the words was forgotten hwnnw and honno were added for clearness’ sake; thus in a.l. i 142, where ms. a. has ni ẟele y dithun kafail ateb ‘he is not to have an answer that [same] day’, the later ms. e. has y dythwn hunnw. This is the Biblical construc­tion; see y dwthwn hwnnw Jos. iv 14, vi 15, viii 25, ix 27, etc.; y noson honno Dan. v 30, vi 18. Later, noson and dwthwn were wrested from this context, and taken to mean simply ‘night’ and ‘day’; e.g. a dreuliodd y dwthwn yn sanctaidd rh.b.s. 215 translat­ing “who has spent his day holily”.
iv. (1) The forms yr hwn, yr hon and yr hyn (but not *yr hwnnw etc.) are used before the relative, meaning, with the latter, ‘the one who’ or ‘he who’, ‘she who’, and ‘that which’; in the pl. ​y rhai ‘the ones’ is used, which is more strictly the pl. of yr un ‘the one’; the latter is similarly employed, as are also y neb, y sawl and definite nouns like y gŵr Ps. i 1, etc.
O. W. ir hinn issid m.c. ‘he who is’ gl. ille; ir hinn issid Christ juv. ‘he who is Christ’; hirunn juv. gl. quem. The first two glosses show that ir hinn might be mas. in O. W.
(2) The above forms may be qualified by superlatives: o’r hynn odidockaf a wypych r.m. 163 ‘of the rarest that thou knowest’; o’r hyn goreu a gaffer w.m. 428 ‘of the best that is to be had’. When so qualified a rel. clause need not follow: o’r hyn lleiaf Act. v 15 ‘at least’; taled o’r hyn goreu yn eifaes ei hun etc. Ex. xxii 5. So with adverbial expres­sions: yr hwnn y tu a Chernyw w.m. 59 ‘the one towards Cornwall’.
(3) In the 16th cent. yr was often omitted before hwn in this construc­tion: hwn a fedd fawredd W.Ỻ. g. 292 ‘he who possesses greatness’; Hwn a wnaeth nef E.P. ps. cxxi 2 ‘He who made heaven’; i hwn a’th wahoddodd Luc xiv 9; i hyn a weddiller Act. xv 17. In Gwyn. dial. yr hwn has been replaced by hwnnw.
v. Before relatives we also have in Ml. W. the form ar, which is sg. and pl.
Iolune ar a beir b.b. 88 ‘let us praise Him who creates'; yno kyrcheist ar a gereist o rei goreu G.M.D. r.p. 1202 ‘there thou brought­est those whom thou lovedst of the best’; ar ny ẟel yn uvyẟ kymmeller o nerth cleẟyveu w.m. 8 ‘let him who will not come obedient­ly be compelled by force of arms’; ac a vynnwys bedyẟ o’r Sarascinẏeit a adwys Charlys yn vyw, ac ar nys mynnwys a laẟawẟ c.m. 3 ‘and [those] who would be baptized of the Saracens Charles left alive, and those who would not he slew.’
It is chiefly found in the form ’r after o ‘of’.
Ac o’r a welsei efo helgwn y byt, ny welsei cwn un lliw ac wynt w.m. 1 ‘and of those that he had seen of the hounds of the world he had not seen dogs of the same colour as these’; o’r a ẟelei ẏ’r llys w.m. 34 ‘of those who came to the court’; pob creadur o’r a wnaeth­pwyt Ỻ.A. 4 ‘every creature of those that have been created’; bob awr o’r ẏ hoetter c.m. 86 ‘every hour of those during which it is delayed’.
In Mn. W. this construction survives with o replaced by a § 213 iii (1)
na dim a’r sydd eiddo dy gymydog Ex. xx 17. Pob peth byw a’r sydd gyda thi Gen. viii 17, see ix 16. ym mhob dim a’r y galwom arno Deut. iv 7. dim a’r a wnaeth­pwyd Ioan i 3.
vi. hwn and hon come in the first instance from Brit. *sundos, *sundā; the neut. hyn from *sindod, and the pl. hyn from either ​*sundī or *sindī. The ‑u- and ‑i- are undoubted­ly for ‑o- and ‑e- before ‑nd- § 65 iii (1); we arrive, therefore, at *sondos, *sondā for hwn, hon, *sendod for hyn neut., and *sondī or *sendī for hyn pl. (In the Coligny Calendar sonno and sonna occur, Rhys CG. 6, but the context is obscure or lost.)
The most probable explanation of the above forms seems to be that they are adjec­tives formed from adverbs of place, which were made by adding a ‑d(h)- suffix, § 162 vi (2), to *sem‑, *som‑: Skr. samá‑ḥ ‘same’, Gk. ὁμός, Ir. som ‘ipse’. The form of the adverb would be similar to that of Skr. sa-há ‘in the same place together’ < *sm̥-dhe; but the Kelt. forma­tions have the full grades *sem‑, *som- (instead of the R‑grade *sm̥‑) and the demon­strative meaning (‘in this place, here’). For the formation of an adj. *sendos from an adv. *sende cf. Lat. supernus: superne, and cf. the trans­ference of the flexion to the particle ‑te in Lat. is-te, etc.
It is probable that coming after its noun the form of the adj. was m. *sondos, f. *sondā, neut. *sondod, pl. m. *sondī giving W. m. and neut. hwn, f. hon, pl. hyn. This agrees with the fact that neut. adj. hyn after a noun is an inno­vation ii (1).—Before a noun the form would be *sendos etc., whence the Ir. article (s)ind. This survives in only a few phrases in W.—The substan­tival form would also be m. *sendos, f. *sendā, neut. *sendod, pl. m. *sendī which would give W. m. hyn, f. *hen, neut. hyn, pl. hyn. We have seen above, iv (1), that ir hinn was m. in O.W., but was already beginning to be ousted by hirunn (for *ir hunn), as *henn had perhaps been already replaced by honn, for in Corn. the forms are m. hen (= W. hynn), f. hon (= W. honn). The result is that hyn remains as the neut. subst.; but the m. and f. substan­tives hynn, *henn were changed to hwnn, honn on the analogy of the adjec­tives.
The form hwnnw comes from a derivative in ´‑ii̯o- of the adj. *sondos; thus *sóndii̯os > hunnoiẟ § 75 iv (2) > hunnuiẟ > hwnnw § 78 i (1), (2). The fern. *sóndii̯ā would also give the same form, which actually occurs as f.: ir bloidin hunnuith cp. ‘that year’; honno is therefore a re-formate on the analogy of hon; so the last syll. of hynny § 78 i (1).
ar is prob. formed in a similar manner from an adv. with the suffix ‑r which was mostly locative, Brugmann² II ii 735. The stem might be *an‑ § 220 ii (11); thus *an-ro‑s > *arr > ar.
Pronominalia.
§ 165. i. Pronominalia expressing alternatives are substantival and adjec­tival, definite and indef­inite.
Subst. def.: y naill … y llall ‘the one … the other’; pl. y naill … y lleill ‘these … the others’. In Ml. W. the first term is y neill or y lleill, thus y lleill … y llall ‘the one … ​the other’. With an adj. or rel. clause, and in negative sentences, the first term is yr un ‘the one’, pl. y rhai, Ml. y r͑ei ‘the ones’.
Subst. indef.: un … arall ‘one … another’; pl. rhai … eraill, Ml. r͑ei … ereill ‘some … others’.
In the following list of adjectival forms gŵr, gwŷr, gwraig show the position and initial mutation of the noun:
Adj. def.: y naill ŵr … y gŵr arall ‘the one man … the other man’; y naill wraig … y wraig arall; y naill wŷr … y gwŷr eraill. For y naill Ml. W. has y neill or y lleill, and for eraill, ereill, also used in Mn. W.
Adj. indef.: rhyw ŵr … gŵr arall ‘a certain man … another man’; un gŵr … gŵr arall ‘one man … another man’; rhyw wraig … gwraig arall; un wraig … gwraig arall; rhyw wŷr … gwŷr eraill; Mn. W. rhai gwŷr … gwŷr eraill. Ml. W. ereill, also used in Mn. W. § 81 iii (1).
y naill (and Ml. y lleill) adj. ‘the one’ and rhyw form compounds with their nouns, which are lenited § 155 ii (1), iii (7). The compound is often a strict one as y néillffordd, rhýwbeth. As ‑ll causes provec­tion of mediae, an initial tenuis after neill, lleill generally appears unmutated in Ml. W., as y neillparth for y neillbarth, etc., § 111 vi (2); but analogy generally restores the mutation in Mn. W., especial­ly when the compound is loose, as y naill beth a’r llall ‘the one thing and the other’; but neilltu, see ib.
Subst.: yn gyflytn y llaẟawẟ y neill o’r gweisson, ac yn y lle y llaẟawẟ y llall r.m. 191 ‘he quickly slew one of the youths, and forthwith slew the other'; yny orffei y lleill ar y llall r.m. 262, w.m. 408 ‘until the one overcame the other’; a’r un y byẟei borth ef iẟi a gollei y gware, a’r llall a ẟodei awr w.m. 174–5 ‘and the one that he supported lost the game, and the other gave a shout’.—r͑ei ohonunt yn wylaw, ereill yn udaw, ereill yn cwynaw Ỻ.A. 152 ‘some of them weeping, others moaning, others crying’; i un, … ac i arall … ac i arall … etc. 1 Cor. xii 8–10; the second term may of course be repeated when indef.
Adj.: o’r lleill ḅ parth … ac o’r parth arall w.m. 421–2 ‘on the one hand … and on the other hand’ (b beginning barth deleted by underdot); am nat oeẟ kyn ẟiogelet y neillfforẟ a’r llall s.g. 29 ‘because the one way was not as safe as the other’.—Or bwytey mywn un amser yn y dyẟ, a symut hynny ẏ amser arall m.m. 33 (from r.b.) ‘if thou eatest at one time in the day, and changest that to another time’; ryw ẟyn cynbhi­gennus … undyn arall J.D.R. [xxii] ‘a jealous man … any other man’; Mn. W. rhai dynion … eraill rh. b.s. 87 “some men … others”; the use of rhai before a noun seems to be late, but neb r͑ei occurs so in Ml. W., iv (3).
​ii. (1) The first alter­native may be a noun or personal or demon­strative pronoun, as ti ac arall ‘thou and another’ (i.e. such as thou), hyn a’r llall ‘this and that’.
    Câr yn cyhuddo arall!
    Hawdd i’r llaw gyhuddo’r llall.—T.A., c. ii 78.
‘A kinsman accusing another!’ [It is] easy for the hand to accuse the other.’—kanys yr hynn a vynnei hwnn nys mynnei y llall s.g. 49 ‘for that which this [one] desired the other desired not’. In these cases the second term subst. pl. may be (y) rhai eraill ‘(the) others’: mwy … oeẟ honno no’r rei ereill oll w.m. 180 ‘that [ship] was larger than all the others’; llog̃ a oeẟ vwy noc un o’r rei ereill do. 185; cf. Ỻ.A. 102.
(2) The first alternative may be implied, as in other languages; as y dydd arall M.Ỻ. i 178 ‘the other day’; y nos arall r.p. 1362, D.G. 25 ‘the other night’; Gad i eraill gadw arian T.A. f. 6 ‘let others hoard money’.
iii. All the forms of the first term except y naill subst. may be used without a sequel as ordinary pronom­inalia meaning ‘one, some’; thus
(1) Adj. y naill ‘one’ in y naill hanner ‘one half’ (now generally ‘about a half’), y naill du or y neilltu ‘one side’ (hence neilltuo ‘to retire’ etc.); neill-law see example.
Eisteẟ a oruc Peredur ar neill law yr amherodres w.m. 164 (neill-law r.m. 231) ‘Peredur sat beside the empress’, lit. ‘on one side of the e.’ ond pan êl o’r neilltu Diar. xx 14; see Gen. xxx 40; Barn. vii 5; 2 Sam. iii 27; etc.
(2) Subst. un ‘one’, pl. rhai, Ml. r͑ei ‘some’; often with qualify­ing adjec­tives un da ‘a good one’, rhai drwg ‘bad ones’. Also yr un ‘the one’, pl. y rhai, Ml. y r͑ei ‘the ones’; these are chiefly used with adjec­tives as yr un drwg ‘the evil one’, or with a relative clause § 164 iv (1); and yr un instead of the indef. un in negative sentences, as—
Pa obeith yssyẟ ẏ’r gler? Nyt oes yr un Ỻ.A. 40 ‘What hope is there for the bards? There is none.’ Cf. s.g. 17, l. 10.
Adj. yr un [m. rad., f. soft] ‘the same’, followed, if necessary, by ac (ag), a ‘as’. Also un [soft], forming compounds strict or loose with nouns; the compound is an adj. meaning ‘of the same…’, § 149 ii (3).
​(3) Adj. rhyw ‘a (certain), some’. The noun with which rhyw is compound­ed, see i, may be singular or plural.
r͑yv duted edmic b.b. 43 ‘an admirable covering’. r͑yw ẟavatenneu m.m. 6 (from r.b.) ‘some warts’. Yr oedd gan ryw ŵr ddau fab Luc xv 11 “ἄνθρωπός τις”. rhyw ddynion 1 Tim. v 24 ‘some men’; rhyw bethau 2 Petr. iii 16 ‘some things’; mywn rhyw bhanneu (bh ≡ v) J.D.R. [xvii] ‘in some places’.
iv. Subst. un, pl. rhai and adj. rhyw, preceded by pronouns, numerals or prefixes, form composite or compound pro­nominalia, thus:
(1) Pa un, pl. pa rai ‘which?’ § 163 ii (1); pa ryw un § 163 ii (6).
(2) pob un ‘every one’, pl. pob rhai.
A fob un o honunt w.m. 7 ‘and each one of them’. pop r͑ey o(’r) r͑eẏ henne a.l. i 8 ‘all of those’. Gofyn a oruc ẏ Chyarlys ansawẟ pob r͑ei o naẟunt c.m. 14 ‘he inquired of Charles the condition of all (i.e. each group) of them’.
(3) neb un or nebun subst. ‘some one, any one’, adj. ‘a certain’, pl. neb rhai, generally in positive sentences.
Subst. Nid mor ddihareb nebun § 151 ii (3); neb r͑ei o ovynnei [read ‑eu] bychein Ỻ.A. 2 “quasdam quaesti­unculas”; nep r͑ei drwc do. 30 ‘certain bad ones’.—Adj. neb un vrenhin­dref yni Ỻ.A. 166 ‘a certain province of ours’; nebun genedɏl r.b.b. 280 ‘a certain tribe’; neb r͑ei r͑inweẟeu Ỻ.A. 102 ‘certain miracles’.
(4) rhyw un, rhýwun ‘some one’, pl. rhyw rai, rhýwrai, Ml. r͑yw rei.
rhyw un 1 Cor. xv 35 “τις”; O achaws mileindra r͑yw rei … kanys y mae r͑yw rei a’m llaẟei i s.g. 320 ‘On account of the brutality of some people; for there are some who would kill me’.
(5) dau ryw, tri rhyw, etc. ‘two (three, etc.) different, two (three, etc.) kinds of’.
Seithryw pechawt (read bechawt) marwawl ysyẟ Ỻ.A. 147 ‘there are seven different deadly sins’. Tri r͑yw gywyẟ yssyẟ … Deu ryw gywyẟ deu eir yssyẟ r.g. 1134 ‘there are three kinds of cywyddau, … there are two kinds of cywyddau deuair’.
(6) pa ryw § 163 ii (6).
(7) pob rhyw ‘every, all manner of’.
Pob r͑yw ẟa o’r a orchymynnei yr yscrythur lan Ỻ.A. 126 ‘Every good that holy scripture commanded’. a phob r͑yw vlas yssyẟ ar y ​dwfɏr hwnnw do. 167 ‘and that water has every kind of taste’. a phob r͑yw unpeth r.p. 1214 ‘and every single thing’. i bob rhyw aderyn Ezec. xxxix 4; o bob rhyw beth Matt. xiii 47.
(8) neb rhyw ‘any, any kind of’, in negative sentences.
canyt oes nep r͑yw greadur a allo ẏ drossi ef Ỻ.A. 33 ‘for there is not any creature that can turn Him’, nyt argyweẟa neb r͑yw wenwyn do. 166 ‘no poison hurts’.
neb rhyw ddim, see § 170 iv (2).
(9) amryw ‘various, several’. In Ml. W. it was generally used with a sg. noun; in Late Mn. W. a pl. noun is generally used. In the Bible the noun is sometimes sg., but often pl.
Yssit yn y holy hwnn amryw vlawt w.m. 54 ‘There are in this bag various kinds of flour’; amryw duted (t ≡ ẟ) m.a. i 220, ‘various coverings’; amryw wleẟeu Ỻ.A. 70 ‘various feasts’; amryw bwys, … amryw fesur Deut. xxv 13, 14; amryw had … amryw ddefnydd Deut. xxii 9, 11; amryw Galan Gr.O. 40 ‘many a New Year’s Day’; amryw bwysau ac amryw fesurau Diar. xx 10; amryw glefydau Matt. iv 24; amryw ddoniau … amryw weinido­gaethau … amryw weithre­diadau … amryw dafodau 1 Cor. xii 4, 5, 6, 10.
amryw, like rhyw, forms the first element of a compound; in some cases the compound is strict, and amryw then appears as amrỿ‑; thus amrỿ́-liw ‘parti-coloured’; amrỿ́son ‘wrangle’ (sôn ‘talk’); amrỿ́fus ‘erring’ (‑fus <*mois- < *moit‑t‑: Lat. mūto, E. miss, W. meth).
The recent amrai is a fiction; see Silvan Evans, s. v.
(10) cyfryw ‘such’, usually with the article, y cyfryw; followed, if necessary, by ac (ag), a ‘as’, which may be omitted before a demon­strative pron. or a relative clause (the rel. itself is ‘as’ in this case, cf. Eng. the same who; and the demonst. prob. repre­sents an old obl. case of compar­ison).
y kyfryw vwyt ac a oeẟ ganthaw s.g. 200 ‘such food as he had’ (lit. ‘as what was with-him’); yn y kyfryw le a hwnn w.m. 10 ‘in such a place as this’; y kyfryw ẟyn a hwn w.m. 123 ‘such a man as this’. Without ac ‘as’: y kyfryw varchawc yẟ oeẟ ef yn ẏ ol w.m. 138 ‘such a knight as he was after’; y kyfryw ẟyn hwnn r.m. 198 ‘such a man [as] this’; ẏ’r kyfryw wr hwnnw r.b.b. 65 ‘to such a man [as] that’.—Without the art.: a galw kyfryw ẟyn a hwn w.m. 123 l. 30 (beside y kyfryw l. 16 quoted above) ‘and to call such a man as this’; cf. s.g. 316, Jer. v 9, Matt. ix 8.
On the analogy of y meint etc., y rhyw is used instead of y cyfryw in the above construc­tions.
Ny bu eirẏoet y r͑yw lewenyẟ ac a wnaethpwyt s.g. 144 ‘there never was such a welcome as was prepared’; y r͑yw bryf a hwnnw w.m. 77 ‘such a reptile as that’. Without ac ‘as’: y r͑yw genedɏl a elwir y pagannẏeit Ỻ.A. 166 ‘such a tribe as is called the pagans’; y r͑yw bryf hwnnw r.m. 54 ‘such a reptile [as] that’; y r͑yw gatwent honno r.b.b. 58 ‘such a fight [as] that’.
y cyfryw is also substantival.
lawer o’r kyfVryw Ỻ.A. 49 ‘many such’. Yn erbyn y cyfryw nid oes ddeddf Gal. v 23.
pa gyfryw § 163 ii (5); pob cyfryw ‘all’ emphatic § 168 i (2); neb cyfryw ‘any such’ § 170 iv (3).
(11) unrhyw, generally yr unrhyw ‘the same’, followed, if necessary, by ac (ag), a ‘as’.
a’r unr͑yw ymadrawẟ gantunt ac a ẟothoeẟ gan y marchawc cyntaf r.m. 200 ‘and [bringing] the same tale with them as came with the first knight’. Nid yw pob cnawd un rhyw gnawd 1 Cor. xv 39. Note.—unrhyw came in the 19th cent. to be commonly used as a trans­lation of the English ‘any’; thus ni welais unrhyw ddyn for ni welais un dyn. Pughe in his Dic. does not give the word this meaning. (In D.G. 519 l. 46 unrhyw seems to be a mistake for yn rhyw.) The phrase o un rhyw ‘of any kind’ is older.
un rhyw or unrhyw ‘same’ is also substantival. Ponyt un r͑yw a gymerth Iudas a Phedɏr Ỻ.A. 25 “Nonne Judas idem accepit quod Petrus?”
v. rhyw is also used as a noun m. ‘kind’; and as an ordinary adj. in the phrase rhyw i ‘[it is] natural to…’. From rhyw ‘kind’ come rhywiog ‘kindly, of a good kind’, rhyw­ogaeth ‘species’, afryw, afrywiog ‘unnatural, harsh’.
Y rhyw hwn Marc ix 29.—mor oeẟ ryw ym llew llywẏaw G.D.A. r.p. 1226 ‘how natural it was to my lion to rule!’ Rhyw iddi roi rhodd yr ŵyl T.A. a 9817/179 ‘It is natural to her to give a gift at the feast’. Nid rhyw iddaw ond rhoddi G.G1. p 152/102 ‘It is only natural to him to give’.
vi. y naill (Ml. y neill) ‘the one’ is for *ynn eill in which *ynn = hynn ‘this’, Ir. ind ‘the’ < *sendos § 164 vi; *eill < *ál’li̯os < *álali̯os, redupl. of *ali̯os: Lat. alius, Gk. ἄλλος; owing to the wrong division the y is treated as the art. and becomes ’r after a vowel.—Ml. W. y lleill ‘the one’ may be similarly for *yll eill, in which *yll is an l-demon­strative, like Lat. ille etc., ultimate­ly allied to *ali̯os itself, Brugmann² II ii 340.—y llall similarly for *yll all; all < *áli̯os; pl. y lleill with *eill < *áli̯ī.—arall < *aráli̯os (: Ir. araile) ​by dissim. for *aláli̯os § 102 iii (2); pl. ereill < *aráli̯ī; see § 100 iii (2), (3).—Note the contrast­ed accentu­ation *ál(a)li̯os > *eill ‘one’: *aláli̯os > arall ‘other’.—un ‘one’ § 75 ii (1).—rhyw < *rii̯ó‑; rhai < *rii̯ī́ § 75 v; *rii̯o- < *pri‑o- = ‑prio- in Lat. proprius: Lat. prīvus, Umbr. prever ‘singulis’, preve ‘singil­lariter’. Osc. preivatud ‘privato. reo’ (the ‑v- in these is a suff.); the orig. meaning is ‘proper, partic­ular’; rhyw ẟyn ‘a partic­ular man’; rhyw i ‘proper to…, natural to…’; rhyw ‘a partic­ular kind’; etc.; *pri‑o- may be an adj. derived from the prep. *pri (: *prei, *prai) ‘before’ (‘prominent’ > ‘character­istic’), spv. Lat. prīmus.
§ 166. i. ‘Each other’ is expressed by pawb i gilydd or pob un i gilydd, literally ‘each his fellow’ or ‘each one his fellow’.
ac y tag̃noveẟwyd pawb o naẟunt ae giliẟ w.m. 451 ‘and each of them was recon­ciled to the other’. Llawen vu pob un wrth ẏ giliẟ o honunt do. 9 ‘Each of them welcomed the other’. (For the form giliẟ see § 77 iii; it is of course the spoken sound at the present day.)
    Yn iach weithian dan y dydd
    Y gwelom bawb i gilydd.—S.T., c.c. 186.
‘Farewell now until the day when we shall see each other,’ lit. ‘each his fellow’.
In the 15th century pawb or pob un came to be omitted, and i gilydd alone thus came to mean ‘each other’.
    Ni a gawn drwy flaenau’r gwŷdd
    Roi golwg ar i gilydd.—Gut.O., a 14997/15.
‘We shall see each other through the branches of the trees.’ Ni a ddylem garu i gilydd a.g. 25 ‘we ought to love one another’.
In the familiar Salesburian orthography i gilydd is of course ei gilydd ‘his fellow’. As the ante­cedent is generally pl., the i was mistaken in the spoken lang. for i ‘their’ (written eu); and after the 1st and 2nd pl. ỿn and ỿch are sub­stituted for it on the analogy of the construc­tion of hun ‘self’; thus in the recent period ein, eich, eu are written before gilydd, which owes its g- to the fact that the pron. before it was the 3rd sg. m. i ‘his’.
Wm.S. and Dr. M. sometimes misspell the pron. as eu (Salesbury often confuses his own invention ei with eu; the spoken form of both was i then as now). In the 1620 Bible the 3rd sg. m. pron. is correctly written in the orthog­raphy adopted in it: ar garu o honoch ei gilydd Ioan xiii 34; os bydd gennych gariad i’w gilydd do. 35; Byddwch yn vn-fryd â’i gilydd Rhuf. xii 16; Anher­chwch ei gilydd 1 Petr v 14; Anwylyd carwn ei gilydd 1 Ioan iv 7, see 11, 12. In ​all these cases the 3rd sg. pron. was changed by R.M. (1746) to eich, ’ch, ein.
ii. (1) After yr un in negative sentences i gilydd often takes the place of y llall.
Ac nyt attebei yr un mwy noe gilyẟ r.m. 211–2 ‘and neither answered more than the other’.—ny ẟigawn yr un ohonunt vot ẏ wrth ẏ gilyẟ Ỻ.A. 128 ‘Neither of them can be away from the other’.
(2) It takes the place of arall after neu ‘or’; as ryw ddydd ne’i gilydd D.G. 337 [ne’i (for neu’i) mis­printed noi] ‘some day or other’.
(3) It is used instead of arall or y llall after a noun, § 165 ii (1), in such phrases as the following :
O ẟrwc ẏ [= ẏ ẏ] gilyẟ r.m. 141 ‘From one evil to another’; o’r pryt ẏ [= ẏ ẏ] gilyẟ do. 62 ‘from one time to the other’ (? the same on the following day); o’r ysgraff pwy gilyẟ s.g. 125 ‘from one barge to the other’; o’r mor pw y [gilyẟ] w.m. 180, o’r mor py [= py ẏ] gilyẟ r.m. 83, o’r mor bwy gilyẟ r.p. 1263 ‘from sea to sea’.
    Da iawn y gŵyr dan y gwŷdd
    Droi gwïelyn drwy [i] gilydd.—D.N. c.c. 265.
‘Right well she knows under the trees [how] to plait an osier with another.’
The noun would originally be mas., as it is in the above examples. Breton has a form é-ben to be used instead of é-gile after a fem. noun; this is more likely to be original than the Corn. use of y-ben after both genders. (The idea that this is pen ‘head’ is refuted by Henry, Lex. 109.)
iii. Irish cāch a chēle, the exact equivalent of pawb i gilydd, is used in the same way. The Breton expres­sion is ann eil égilé (Legonidec 227) which in W. would be *y naill i gilydd.
The word cilydd is used as an ordinary noun in the older Welsh poetry; as r͑ac Davyt awch kilyt kilẏwch P.M., m.a. i 280 ‘before David your comrade stand aside’. Duw ẏ Cheli vu ẏ chilyẟ B.D. r.p. 1251 ‘God her Lord was her companion’. Also in the proverb Ch(w)echach bwyt kilyẟ r.b. 966 ‘A neighbour’s food is sweeter’.
For the etymology of the word see § 106 ii (1).
§ 167. i. (1) ‘Self’ is expressed by sg. and pl. hun or sg. hunan, pl. Mn. hunain, Ml. hunein with prefixed pronouns; for the forms see § 160 i (2).
(2) fy hun means both ‘myself’ and ‘alone’; thus mi af yno fy hun ‘I will go there myself’ or ‘I will go there alone’. After gen. ​prefixed or infixed pronouns it means ‘own’, as fy llyfr fy hun ‘my own book’.
(3) fy hun, dy hun, etc. always stand in an adverbial case, meaning literally ‘by myself’, etc.; they do not replace a pronoun or pronom­inal element, but supple­ment it. Thus euthum fy hun ‘I went by myself’ (not *aeth fy hun ‘myself went’); fy nhŷ fy hun ‘my own house’ (not *tŷ fy hun ‘the house of myself’); amcanodd ei ladd ei hun Act. xvi 27; cf. 1 Ioan i 8; Iago 122; 2 Tim. ii 13; efe a’i dibris­iodd ei hun Phil. ii 7; similarly arnat dy hun 1 Tim. iv 16 (not *ar dy hun); ynddo ei hun Es. xix 17 (not *yn ei hun); drostun e‑hunein Ỻ.A. 37 (not *dros e hunein), etc. The reflexive ym‑ counts as a pronoun: ymroẟi e‑hun Ỻ.A. 120, cf. 89 and a.l. i 176. (In collo­quial Welsh i hun is used alone as the object of a verb or v.n., as wedi lladd i hun instead of wedi i ladd i hun, and this neologism occurs in recent writings; but in other con­nexions the old construc­tion survives, thus mi af fy hun, arnat dy hun etc.) But after a conjunc­tion joining it to another clause the pronoun which it supple­ments is not necessari­ly expressed; thus nyt archaf inheu ẏ neb govyn vy iawn namyn my hun r.m. 64 ‘I will bid no one demand my indemnity but myself; nad oes o’r tu yma ’r un ond fy hunan b.cw. 68 ‘that there is on this side none but myself; yn uch no my‑hun Ỻ.A. 67 ‘higher than myself’.—When put at the head of the sentence fy hun etc. are followed by the adverbial rel. y (yẟ, yr), as vy hun yr af I.D. 35 lit. ‘[it is] myself that I will go’; canys ei hunan y gelwais ef, ac y bendith­iais, ac yr amlheais ef Es. li 2.
ii. un ‘one’ has a derivative *un-an lost in W. but surviving in Corn. onon, onan, Bret. unan; this and the fact that hun, hunan express ‘alone’ make it probable that the ‑un in these is the numeral. But Corn. ow honan, Ml. Bret. ma hunan show that the h‑ in W. fy h‑unan is not merely accentual. Before u it may represent either *s‑ or *su̯‑; thus hun may be from *su̯’oinom < *su̯e oinom (limiting accu­sative); the reflexive *su̯e might stand for any person at first (Brugmann² II ii 397), but personal pronouns were after­wards prefixed, thus *me su̯’oinom > my hun. The u in Ml. mu etc. is due to assim. to the u of hun.
168. i. (1) Subst. pawb ‘everybody’. Though sometimes treated as pl., e.g. pawb a debygynt w.m. 463 ‘everybody thought’, pawb a’m gadawsant 2 Tim. iv 16, pawb is, like Eng. everybody, properly sg., and is mas. in construc­tion:
Pawb ry-gavas ẏ gyvarws w.m. 470 ‘everybody has received his boon’. So in a large number of proverb­ial sayings: Pawb a’i chwedl gantho ‘everybody with his story’; Rhydd i bawb i farn ‘free to everybody [is] his opinion’; Pawb drosto ’i hun ‘each for himself’.
(2) Adj. pob [rad.] ‘every’. It sometimes forms improper compounds with its noun; as popeth (≡ poppeth for pobpeth) ​beside pob peth ‘every­thing’; pobman beside pob man ‘every place’; poparth g. 234 beside pob parth ‘every part’; o boptu besides o bob tu ‘on each side’.
The mutated form bob, by dissimi­lation of the conso­nants appears, though very rarely, as bod, in late Ml. orthog­raphy bot: as ẏ bot un ohonunt Ỻ.A. 3 ‘to each one of them’. N.W. dial. bṓd ỿg ū́n ‘each and all’, lit. ‘and one’; earlier bod ag un Ỻ.M. 9, T. i 346.
'pob un, pob rhyw § 165 iv, pob cyfryw ‘every such’, as pob cyfryw orfoledd Iago iv 16 ‘all such rejoicing’. But ordinari­ly pob cyfryw means ‘every’ emphatic, ‘all manner of’, the cyf- having the intensive meaning § 156 i (9) (b). It is followed by o ‘of’ after pob (not by ag- ‘as’ after cyf‑, so that the cyf- is not compar­ative).
pob kyfryw ẟyn eithɏr Awt r.p. 1245 ‘every single person but Awd’. Yr r͑ei hynn oeẟ gyfrwys … ym pob kyvryw arveu c.m. 10 ‘these were skilful in all manner of arms’. Pa le i mae Christ? Ymhob cyfriw le c.c. 319 ‘Where is Christ? In every single place’. Pob cyfriw beth coll. ‘every single thing’.—o bop kyfryw vwydeu o’r a rybuchei ehun s.g. 10 ‘of all viands which (lit. of those which) he himself desired’. Cf. r.m. 8, r.b.b. 50.
(3) pawb, Ir. cāch, gen. cāich < Kelt. *q$^{u̯}$āq$^{u̯}$os; the second element is probably the interr. and indef. *q$^{u̯}$os and the first, *q$^{u̯}$ā‑, an adverbial form of the same (Thur­neysen Gr. 293).
pob, Ir. cach is the same, with the vowel shortened before the accent, which fell on the noun. The shorten­ing is in­dependent in W. and Ir.; the W. o (like aw) implies Brit, ‑ā‑, § 71 i (2). Similarly Bret. pep < *peup with *eu < ‑ā‑. The Ir. cech is an ana­logical formation; see Thur­neysen ibid.
ii. (1) Adj. yr holl [soft] ‘all the’, fy holl [soft], etc., ‘all my’. Before a definite noun the article or its equi­valent is omitted: holl Gymry r.b.b. 340 ‘all Wales’; holl lyssoeẟ y ẟayar w.m. 6 ‘all the courts of the earth’ (lyssoeẟ being made definite by the dependent gen.).
A wybyb yr holl seint a wnneuthum i yma Ỻ.A. 71 ‘Will all the saints know what I have done here?’ a’r holl bethau hyn Matt. vi 33 ‘and all these things’; dy holl ffyrdd Ps. xci 11.
A compound of holl of the form hollre Ỻ.A. 166, holre do. 165, y rolre (= yr olre) b.b. 71 is used much in the same way, but is rare.
The derivative hollol ‘entire’ is an ordinary adj. following its noun, but is used chiefly with yn as an adverb: a hynny yn hollawl Ỻ.A. 162 ‘and that wholly’; cf. Ps. cxix 8; Gen. xviii 21, etc.
​(2) oll. This is always used in an adverbial case (of measure), and generally follows the word or phrase which it limits, though in poetry it may precede it.
Kemry oll a.l. i 2 ‘all Wales’, lit. ‘Wales wholly’; y byd oll g. 294 ‘the whole world’, lit. ‘the world wholly’; gwadu oll y dadɏl a.l. i 396 ‘to deny wholly the plea’; Nyni oll Es. liii 6.
It cannot be used in the nom. or acc. case, but is always adverbial, limiting the pro­nominal element which is subj. or obj., and which must be expressed; thus aethant oll ‘they went wholly’ (not *aeth oll ‘all went’); arnaẟunt oll r.m. 113 ‘on them al­together’, Mn. W. arnunt oll (not *ar oll), etc.; cf. fy hun § 167 i (3).
Note.—In Recent written Welsh a neologism yr oll has arisen to express ‘the whole’, instead of y cwbl which is the form used in the natural spoken language, yr oll is even sub­stituted for oll in late editions of earlier works; thus Ti sy ’n trefnu oll dy hun Wms. 555 appears in recent hymn-books as Ti sy ’n trefnu ’r oll dy hun. (Of course yr + oll gives yr holl the adjec­tival phrase, see below.)
(3) W. oll < Kelt. *oli̯od (limiting accus.); Ir. uile < Kelt. *olii̯os; probably cognate with Eng. all, Germ. all, Goth. alls < *ol-no‑s.
The h- of holl is caused by the ‑r of the article before the accented vowel § 112 i (2), and was trans­ferred to cases where the article was not used. But the adverbial oll remained, since the article never occurred before this.
hollre seems to be compounded of holl and gre < *greg‑: Lat. greg‑; as in camre § 127.
iii. (1) Subst. cwbl ‘the whole’, followed by o ‘of’.
Ef a ẟoy am dy benn cwbɏl o’r govut w.m. 80 ‘all the retri­bution would have come upon thy head’; cwbɏl a geveis i o’m hamherod­raeth do. 190 ‘I have recovered the whole of my empire’; kaeawẟ kwbɏl o ẟrysseu … y neuaẟ s.g. 5 ‘closed all the doors of the hall’; kwbɏl o’r wirioneẟ do. 161 ‘the whole of the truth’; yn ôl cwbl o gyfraith Moses 2 Bren. xxiii 25; cf. Nah. i 5.
In Late Mn. W. the article came to be put before cwbl; this appears already in the Bible : Gen. xiv 20 (1620); in late edns. in Ex. xxiii 22, 2 Chron. xxxii 31.
(2) Adj. cwbl [soft] ‘complete’.
cwbɏl waradwyẟ a geveis w.m. 42 ‘[it is] a thorough insult that 1 have had’; cwbɏl weithret, cwbɏl sarhaet a.l. i 526 ‘the complete act, the full fine’; cwbl ddiwyd­rwydd 2 Pedr i 5.
It is also used after its noun: kanny bu weithret cwbɏl a.l. i 526 ‘since there was not a complete act’; cymod­lonedd cwbl m.a. i 348 ‘complete reconci­liation’.
Adv. yn gwbl, o gwbl ‘wholly’: ac ereẏll en kubɏl a ẟẏleassant ​a.l. i 2 ‘and others they entirely abrogated’; y byẟei eur o gwbɏl r.m. 62 [where iron should be] ‘there was gold through­out’, cf. r.b.b. 280. In neg. sentences o gwbl ‘at all’ is in common use in spoken W. (pron. ṓ gẃbwl).
(3) W. cwbl, Corn. cowl, cowal probably represent *cwvl § 111 vii (4) < *kom-(p)lu‑(s): Gk. πολύς, W. llawer § 169 ii (3), the prefix having its intensive meaning, as in com-plete, etc., § 156 i (9) (b).
§ 169. i. (1) Subst. y sawl sg. ‘such’, pl. ‘as many’, used only before relative clauses, the rel. express­ing ‘as’, § 165 iv (10).
Y sawl ae gwelei kyflawn vyẟei oe serch r.m. 117 ‘such as saw her was filled with her love’; gwelet y sawl a welei o velineu w.m. 161 ‘to see as many as he saw of mills’. Y sawl a’m car ant i a garaf inneu Diar. viii 17.
Rarely sawl with a dependent genitive: a r͑wy o sawl y r͑ei yssyẟ r.p. 1252 ‘and more of the like of those that ar’.
(2) Adj. y sawl [soft] ‘as many’, usually with a pl. noun and without ac; but the noun may be sg. and ac expressed; cf. § 165 iv (10).
Ac ny ellit dwyn bwyt ý’r sawl vilẏoeẟ yssyẟ yma, ac o achaws hynny y mae y sawl velineu (hynn) w.m. 162 (E.M. 229) 'and food could not be brought to as many thousands as are here, and [it is] for that reason that there are so many mills ([as] these); y sawl vorynyon racko s.g. 33 ‘as many maidens [as those] yonder’. y sawl ryveẟawt ac yssyẟ yn y wlat honn s.g. 18 ‘as many a wonder as there is [lit. as which is] in this land’.
(3) The original meaning seems to be ‘such’; hence probably sawl < *s‑tāl‑: Lat. tālis, with Kelt. prefixing of s- § 101 ii (1).
ii. (1) Subst. llawer sg. ‘much’, pl. ‘many’, followed, if need be, by o ‘of’. Also pl. llawer­oedd ‘multi­tudes’.
A guedy byrẏer llawer yndi w.m. 21 ‘and when much has been thrown into it’, i.e. much food; llauer nys guir ae gowin B.B. 68 ‘many who do not know ask it’; a llawer o vein gwerth­vawr ereill Ỻ.A. 166 ‘and many other precious stones’; llawer a ddichon taerweddi y cyfiawn Iago v 16; fy ngwas cyfiawn a gyfiawnhâ lawer Es. liii 11.
In an adverbial case (of measure) llawer [rad.] before a cpv. and lawer after a cpv. signify ‘much’ adv.: llawer gwell ‘much better’; llawer iawn gwell Phil. i 23 ‘very much better’; mwy lawer Ỻ.A. 68 ‘much greater’; a muy Wydẏon noc ynteu lawer w.m. 106 ‘and Gwydion [regretted] more than he, much’; mwy oeẟ ef lawer no hynny do. 229 ‘he was bigger much than that’. But o lawer is perhaps more common after the cpv., as in the last two passages in r.m. 77, 166.
​(2) Adj. llawer [rad.] ‘many a’ followed by a sg. noun.
a llawer damwein a ẟigawn bot w.m. 28 ‘and many an accident may happen’.
    Llawer merch weddw o’i pherchen,
    Llawer gŵr mewn llurig wen.—D.Ỻ., tr. 249.
‘Many a woman widowed of her lord, many a man in a white corselet.’
(3) W. llawer < *(p)luu̯eros formed by adding the cpv. suffix ‑ero- to *plu‑, *p(a)lu- < *pₑlu‑ Gk. πολύς < *pₑlu‑.
iii. (1) Subst. llḯaws ‘many, a multitude’; lluosydd id.
llẏaus b.b. 5 (ẏ ≡ i); yn llvyr ẏ guyr lluossit b.b. 66 (‑it ≡ ‑yẟ) ‘thorough­ly does a multitude know it’. Na ddilyn liaws i wneuthur drwg Ex. xxiii 2; lliaws o flynydd­oedd Job xxxii 7. With a dependent genitive: lliaws dy dostur­iaethau Ps. li 1.
(2) Adj. llḯaws [soft] ‘many a, much’, with a sg. or a pl. noun; this is the noun llḯaws compound­ed with another noun. The adj., used as a com­plement, is Ml. W. lluossawc, Mn. W. lluosog.
Lliaws gurẏaw r.p. 1216 ‘much suffering’; Ceveis i liaws awr eur a phali M. m.a. i 192 ‘I had many a time gold and silk’; o lïaws eirchẏeid m.a. i 259 ‘of many sup­pliants’; i lios lu § 71 ii (1); Mor lluosog yw dy weithred­oedd Ps. civ 24.
(3) llḯaws < *plēiōs-tā(t)s. The longer forms have u as lluossauc r.p. 1043, lluossog­rwyẟ w.m. 34, r.m. 22, lluosog in 1620 Bible. These are not formed from llïaws but from an old adj. *plēiŏsto‑s) see § 74 i (2), § 75 iii (3) and § 76 ix (2).
iv. (1) Subst. peth ‘some, a certain quantity’.
Dywedadwy yw rac llaw o beth o vucheẟ Veuno Ỻ.A. 118 ‘[the story] is to be told in what follows of some of the life of Beuno’; ac wrth hau, peth a syrthiodd ar ymyl y fford … a pheth arall, etc. Luc viii 5–8.
In an adverbial case, beth ‘to some extent, for some time’:
    Dir yw in dario ennyd,
    Ac aros beth gwrs y byd.—D.Ỻ., Ỻ 120/258 r.
‘We must tarry a little, and await awhile the course of events.’
(2) peth is the inter­rogative pronoun § 163 i (3) used in­definite­ly (cf. Gk. τις); from ‘some, something’ it came to mean ‘thing’, and thus became an ordinary noun, pl. pethau; see § 163 vi.
v. (1) Subst. bychydic, ychydig ‘a little, a few’.
bychydic a dal vy nghyngor i ẏ ti s.g. 43 lit. ‘[it is] little that ​my advice avails to thee’ i.e. my a. is worth little. Pa obeith yssyẟ ẏ’r porthmyn? Ychydic Ỻ.A. 40 ‘what hope is there for the merchants? A little’. ychydig o nifer Ezec. v 3; ychydig o honaw Job iv 12.
(2) Adj. ychydig [soft] sg. ‘a little’, pl. ‘a few’.
ychydig gysgu, ychydig hepian, etc. Diar. vi 10; ychydig win 1 Tim. v 23.—ychydig bechodau T.A. c 16/13 ‘a few sins’; ychydig ddyddiau Gen. xxix 20; ychydig bethau Dat. ii 14.
(3) ychydig is for fychydig mut. of bychydic: W. bychod ‘small quantity’, bychodedd ‘scarcity, poverty’; Corn. boches ‘a little’, bochesog, bochodoc ‘poor’, Ir. bocht ‘poor’: *buk-so‑t‑, *buk-to‑: with Kelt, b- for *p- to Lat. paucus? § 101 iii (2).
(4) Subst. odid ‘a rarity’.
odit a vo molediw r.p. 1041 ‘a rarity [is he] who is worthy of praise’; ac odit o’r r͑ei hynny ysyẟ yn gristonog­yon Ỻ.A. 165 “quarum paucae [lit. paucitas] sunt Christi­anae”; odid elw heb antur prov. ‘a rarity [is] (i.e. there is rarely) profit without enter­prise’.
ond odid ‘probably’, literally ‘excepting a rarity’.
(5) odid: Lat. paucus, E. few § 76 ii (3).
vi. (1) Adj. aml [soft] sg. ‘many a’, pl. ‘many’; ambell [soft] ‘an occa­sional’.
    Aml iawn waedd am Elin wen,
    Ami eisiau am elusen.—T.A., c. ii 83.
‘Full many a cry for fair Elin, many a need for charity.’
    Ond o hirbell ymgellwair
    (O bai well ym) ymbell air.—I.D. 23.
‘But from afar bantering (if it were better for me) an occasional word.’
y mae rhai a graffant ar ymbell air M.K. [vii] ‘there are some who will look at an occa­sional word’. Aml ddrygau Ps. xxxiv 19, dy aml druga­reddau di Dan. ix 18; ambell dro ‘occa­sional­ly’.
The dialectal i sometimes heard before the noun is a recent intrusion (? corrup­tion of iawn as in the first example).
Both these words are used as ordinary adjec­tives, and are compared; see Silvan Evans s.vv.
(2) aml < Brit *amb’lu‑s for *ambilus < *m̥bhi-(p)lu‑, with *plu- for *pₑlu‑: W. llawer ‘many’, Gk. πολύς, see ii (3) above.
ambell < *ambi-pell- ‘mutually far’; for the prefix see § 156 i (4) (b); for the stem § 89 i.
§ 170. i. Subst. neb ‘any one’, dim ‘anything’, are used chiefly with negatives; as ni welais neb ‘I did not see anybody’; ​heb Dduw, heb ddim ‘without God, without anything’. Also in con­ditional sentences, as o phecha neb 1 Ioan ii 1 ‘if any man sin’; in questions; in com­parisons; etc.
A derivative nebawd occurs: nebaud b.b. 21, 43 ‘any one’, ny gwybyẟ nebawt b.t. 19 ‘no one will know’.
ii. Owing to constant association with negatives neb and dim came to be used in certain phrases for ‘nobody’ and ‘nothing’.
As a rule it is the verb that requires the negation; thus ‘he gave me nothing’ is logically ‘he did not give me anything’ ni roes ef imi ddim, since there was no giving. But the verbal idea may be positive, as in ‘it is given for nothing’; this has to be expressed by fe’i rhoddir am ddim, where dim has to stand for ‘nothing’. dim is thus used as early as the 14th cent.; see Ỻ.A. 60, 89. But there seem to be no Ml. examples of neb ‘nobody’.
iii. dim and neb are positive in positive sentences in the phrases—
(1) pob dim ‘everything’:
Pob dim kywrein … goruc Kelvyẟ B.D., r.p. 1251 ‘every cunning thing the Artist made’. Duw, madden bob dim iddaw I.F. m 148/329 ‘God forgive him every­thing’. Cf. 1 Cor. xiii 7; Deut. iv. 7, xxviii 47, 48; Col. i 16.
(2) y neb ‘the one, he’ before a relative § 162 vii (1):
twyllwr yw y neb a aẟefvo kyfvrinach arglwyẟ ẏ’r nep a wypo ẏ vot yn elyn iẟaw Ỻ.A. 26 ‘he who betrays a lord’s secret to him whom he knows to be his enemy is a traitor’. Cf. Ỻ.A. 28, 32, 33, 34, etc. Y neb a atalio ei yd, y bobl a’i mell­dithia Diar. xi 26.
(3) neb un § 165 iv (3).
iv. (1) neb is used adjectivally, thus neb [rad.] ‘any’: ni bu yma neb amarch f. 14 ‘there has been no dis­respect here’. It is rarely adjec­tival except in the following phrases:
(2) neb un above; neb rhyw § 165 iv (8); neb r͑yw ẟim ‘anything at all’, w.m. 64, 65, r.m. 46, 47; neb dyn ‘any man’ Ỻ.A. 126.
(3) neb cyfryw [soft] ‘any at all’, cf. § 168 i (2).
Kanyt oes neb kyfryw rym … y gallem ni vynet r.b.b. 178 ‘for there is no power by which we might go’.
(4) nĕ́mawr, nĕ́mor (for *neb mawr), with a negative ‘not much, not many, but little’.
ny weleiste eto nemawr o boeneu uffernn Ỻ.A. 154 ‘so far thou hast seen but little of the pains of hell’.
Adjectival, with neg., nemor ddim ‘hardly anything’, nemor un ‘hardly any one’.
yn emawr s.g. 27, yn ymor c.m. 55, with prosthetic ỿ § 21 iii.
(5) nĕ́pell (for *neb pell), with a neg. ‘not far’.
er nad yw efe yn ddiau neppell oddiwrth bob un o honom Act. xvii 27; yn epell s.g. 219.
v. (1) dim is probably never an adj.; a noun following it is a dependent genitive, as—
heb ẟim llywenyẟ Ỻ.A. 147 ‘without anything of joy’ i.e. without any joy; heb allel gwneuthur dim lles s.g. 37 ‘without being able to do any good’; na wna ynddo ddim gwaith Ex. xx 10; cf. Ps. xxxiv 10.
(2) But before a definite noun or pron. o ‘of’ is used after dim:
ny wyẟant ẟim ohonunt Ỻ.A. 8 ‘they know nothing of them’; ac nyt oeẟ dim ohonaw yno r.m. 18 ‘and there was nothing of him there’ i.e. he was not there; ny waran­dawei ẟim o’r attep w.m. 53 ‘he would not listen to anything of the reply’ i.e. to the reply.
ẟim o was of very frequent occurrence, and was reduced to mo in the spoken lang. (chiefly N.W.) as early as the 14th cent, if D.G. 496 is authentic. Cf. E.P. 271, Diar. xxii 22, 28, Job xxxvii 23, b.cw. 18 l. 1.
    Odid i Dduw, doed a ddêl,
    Fyth ddewis mo vath Howel.—W.Ỻ. 45.
‘Scarcely will God, come what may, ever choose such a one as Howel.’
(3) Used in an adverbial case ẟim signifies ‘at all’, etc. Nac ef ẟim. Ỻ.A. 48 ‘not at all’; cf. 1 Cor. xv 29, 1 Thes. v 3.
This adverbial ddim is nearly as frequent in the spoken lang. as pas after a neg. in French.
vi. (1) W. neb, Ir. nech ‘any one’ (gen. neich) < Kelt. *neq$^{u̯}$os: Lith. nekàs ‘something’, nekùrs ‘quidam’. It is believed that the *ne- is the neg. particle, so that the meaning was original­ly neg., and became positive by the use of another neg. in the sentence (cf. Fr. nul). But it is possible that this *ne- is positive, and is a form of the n-demon­strative: Lat. ego-ne, see Walde² 255 (where Lith. ne-kùrs is so explained, though different­ly in 510).
(2) W. dim: Ir. dim ‘something’, as in ni di nacca dim, acht is du dim ‘it is not from no thing, but is from something’.—The W. dim is written with i in Ml. mss. which distin­guish i and ɥ; and dim in “proest” with grym m.a. i 374 shows that its vowel was not ɥ in the ​early 13th cent. The v.n. diddymu is a late 16th cent. word formed from diddim on the false assump­tion that it stands for diddym as dibin does for dibyn § 77 iii, whence dibynnu; a more correct, and prob. older, form is diddimio M.K. [40]. In the laws dyn diẟim means ‘a man without assets’, see a.l. ii 36. Hence we may suppose W. dim < *dī-smen ‘share, part, fraction’, √dāi- ‘divide’, R$_{1a}$ *dai‑, R$_2$ *di‑, R$_3$ dī- § 63 vii (5): Gk. δαίομαι, δαίς, Skr. dáyate ‘divides, allots, possesses’, dítiḥ ‘distri­bution’ (E. time < Pr. Germ. *tīman- ‘period’ < *dī‑); heb ddim lit. ‘without a fraction’. A dimin. (or obi. case) dimyn occurs in kymeint timmyn r.p. 582 ‘every jot’ (cf. kymein hun § 106 iii (2)); whence perhaps Mn. bob tipyn (by dissim. mm > bb, which gives pp).
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* ↑ ms. awr.
* ↑ Wrongly attributed in the ms. to D.G.; see a 14967/no. 222, and the cover of Greal no. 6—Mae rhyw amwynt.
* ↑ This is more probable as a derivation of druid than that it comes from the word for oak. There is however a distant connexion, since derw ‘oak’, Gk. δρῦς, etc., are probably derived from the same Aryan base *dereu- ‘fast, hard’.
* ↑ Yr aeg is of course parallel to the ‘ologies’ in Eng., except that in Eng. no one imagines ology to be a real word. It is strange that the false division was not extended to ‑es; though a Welshwoman is Cymraes, no one has written Gwyddelaes for Gwyddeles, or called his wife yr aes.
* ↑ Both survived for hēn ‘old’, but the pl. only as a noun; thus hŷn ‘older’ < *seni̯ōs, hŷn ‘ancestors’ < *senī.
* ↑ One or two apparent examples (as yth effeirẏat c.m. 57) seem to be scribal errors.
* ↑ Cf. Θεμιστοκλῆς φεύγει ἐς Κέρκυραν, ὢν αὐτῶν εὐεργέτης, Thuc. i 136. “Massiliam pervenit, atque ab iis receptus urbi prae­ficitur,” Caes. B.C. i 36.—Paul-Strong 163.
* ↑ The metre called proest has instead of rhyme a corres­pondence of final conso­nants with varying vowels. The stanza referred to is by G.Gw. c. 1200 a.d.
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