An Introduction to Early Welsh - Arthur Pendragon of Wales

3.] SOUNDS AND SOUND-CHANGES.
Liquids. Voiceless:
11, rh; voiced: 1, r.
Semivowels :
y, w.
C,"K.'l^,4- . r%
Sibilant : s.
Breath : h.
NOTE. The following are the more important orthographical
variations :
. W. c = k, both c and k found in Mid. W., c particularly at the
end of a word ; e.g. O.W. cimadas fitting, Mid.W. kyvadas and cyvadas.
In Mid.W. sc, sp became sg, sb, e.g. kysgu by kyscu to sleep, ysbryd
from Lat. spiritus.
(b) With regard to the graphic representation of the mediae the
following may be noted. In Ola British the symbols c, t, p were taken
over from Latin with their Latin values. In the course of time, before the
loss of final syllables, c, t, p, when they stood between vowels, or after a
vowel and before certain consonants, became in sound mediae g, d, b, but
continued in O. W. to be usually written c, t, p, e.g. trucarauc compassionate
= Mid.W. trugarawc, Mod.W. trugarog, dacr tear= Mid.W. dagyr, atar
birds = Mid.W. adar, datl gl. foro- Mid.W. dadyl, etn bird= Mid.W. edyn,
cepistyr halter (from Lat. capistrum) = Mid.W. kebystyr. In Mid.W. g,
d, b are regularly written in the interior of a word (except that c, t, p may
appear in composition, e.g. rac-ynys fore-island, kyt-varchpgyon fellowhorsemen,
hep-cor to dispense with, or in inflexion and derivation under the
influence of the simple word, e.g. gwlatoed, by gwladoed countries: gwlat,
gwaet-lyt bloody
:
gwaet). But final g is regularly expressed by c, and final
d by t (except in certain MSS. such as BB. which express d regularly by d
and use t to express the spirant d). Final p for b is not so universal; there
are found, e.g. pawp, pop, everyone, every by pawb, pob, and mab son,
heb said.
rtcy The spirant f is in O.W. written f,
and this survives in
orthography
Mid.\Y., but the usual Mid.W. symbol
is ff or ph. In O.W. the tenuis is
sometimes traditionally written for the spirant, e.g. cilcet gl. tapiseta
(from Lat. = culcita) Mod.W. cylched.
ft d) With regard to the graphic representation of the voiced spirants the
following may be noted, g, d, b, m were taken from Latin with their
Latin values. In time, between vowels and before and after certain
consonants, they became spirants 3> d, v, but continued to be written g,
d, b, m, e.g. scamnhegint gl. levant = later ysgavnheynt, colginn gl.
aristam = Mod.W. colyn stiny, cimadas fitting
- Mod. W. cyfaddas, abal
apple = later aval. In O.W. the spirant g had already been lost in part, e.g.
nertheint gl. armant by scamnhegint, tru wretched = Ir. truag wretched.
In Mid.W. the spirant g has disappeared. The spirant d, which in
Mod.W. is written dd, is in Mid.W. usually expressed by d, = e.g. rodi to
ffive Mod.W. rhoddi, except in certain MSS. such as BB. which use the
symbol t, e.g. roti = rhoddi. The spirant v in Mid. W". is written u, uu, v,
fu, f, the last particularly at the end of a word, (e.g. cyuadas, cyvadas,
cyfuadas, cyfadasjtt/in^=O.W. cimadas, Mod.W. cyfaddas), in Mod.W.
f ;
in certain MSS., however, such as BB. it is expressed by w, e.g. calaw
reeds = calaf. In O.W. final v has been already lost in part, e.g. lau hand
= Ir..lam, and in the course of time it tends more and more to disappear,
.e.g. in Mid.W. the superlative ending -af appears also as -a.