An Introduction to Early Welsh - Arthur Pendragon of Wales

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SOUNDS AND SOUND-CHANGES. 5
CHANGES OF VOWELS.
Changes due to a vowel which follows or which
originally followed.
The 5. quality of a vowel is liable to be influenced by the vowel
of the following syllable. Sometimes the infecting vowel remains,
e.g. Ceredic from Old British Coroticus, eyt = goes O.W. egit
Sometimes
by O.W. agit, menegi to show by managaf / show.
the infecting vowel has been lost, e.g. trom f.
by trwm m. heavy
from *trumma, *trummos (where
it will be seen that the short
vowel of the masculine exerted no influence, while the long vowel
of the feminine did), brein ravens (by bran raven) from *bram,
earlier *branoi, Cyrn horns (by corn horn) from *cornl, earlier
*cornoi, dreic dragon (by pi. dragon) from *draci, from *dracu
from Lat. draco, ceint I sing (by cant he sang) from *cantl, from
*cantu, from * canto, Meir from Lat. Maria, yspeil spoil
from Lat. spolium. The infection may extend back more than one
syllable e.g. menegi: managaf, deveit sheep: davat a sheep.
The following are the changes of the kind which are important
inflection :
A. CHANGES DUE TO AN / VOWEL PRESERVED.
for
6. a > e, e.g. ederyn a bird-, adar birds, peri to cause: paraf
/ cause, edewis he promised adaw to promise, cerit was loved : :
caru to love, llewenyd, O.W. leguenid/tfy: llawen/w/.$-.
ae > ei, e.g. meini stones : maen stone, seiri artisans \ saer.
7. (a)
B. CHANGES DUE TO A LOST VOWEL.
The lost vowel is a.
y > e, e.g. berr f. :
byrr m. short. The variation in brith,
f. braith variegated is of the same kind ; brith comes from
*mrictos, braith from *mrecta, *mricta.
w > o, e.g. trom f. : trwm m. heavy.
(b) The lost vowel is I (of various origin).
a > ei, e.g. meib sons : mab son, meneich monks \ manach