An Introduction to Early Welsh - Arthur Pendragon of Wales

12.] SOUNDS AND SOUND-CHANGES. 9
credu to believe, bwyta to eat from *bwyd-ha :
most like
bwyt (phonetically bwyd) food-, cyvelyppaf from *cyvelyb-haf cyvelyp : (phonetically cyvelyb)
like, attepo from *ad-heb-ho he may answer :
attebu,
digaplo he may cease to calumniate from *digabl-ho
'.
digablu, llwyprawt from *llwybr-hawt
llwybraw
to course.
will course-.
((3) d becomes th, e.g. diwethaf last from *diwed-haf:
diwed end, rotho he may give from *rod-ho : rodi
to give, rythau to set free from *ryd-hau ; ryd free.
(y) v becomes f, e.g. tyffo he may grow from *tyv-ho : tyvu
to grow, dyffo he may come : dyvod to come, coffau to
remember from *COV-hail ;
cof memory.
NOTE 2. Instances of ff from v-h are not numerous, they have commonly
been replaced by analogical forms, e.g. araf-hau to make gentle, digrif-af
most entertaining. So th from d + h becomes rarer and rarer in Mid.W.,
where e.g. rotho is replaced by rodho and rodo ;
the old forms are most
persistent in the case of the tenues c, t, p. (cf. no)
(f) th + d>th, e.g. athiffero who may defend
thee from
ath-differo. But here commonly the d is written etymologically.
(g) d + d became apparently d, e.g. adyn wretch from ad-dyn
(ad- = lr. aith-, with sense of Lat. re-).
SOUND-CHANGES WITHIN THE SENTENCE.
12. Within the sentence closely connected word groups are liable
to changes similar to those that take place within individual words.
As within the word vowel-flanked consonants were reduced, e.g.
CCgin kitchen from Lat. coquina, niver number from Lat. numerus,
so in a word group, e.g. *t6ta mara great people became tud
vawr. As within the word nc became ngh, nt became nh,
mp became mh ( II), nd became nn, e.g. crwnn round by
Ir.
cruind, mb became mm, e.g. camm crooked from Old British
cambos, so in word groups, e.g. vyn cynghor my
vy ghynghor, vyn penn my head became vym penn, vy
mhenn, vyn dyvot my coming became vyn nyvot, yn bwyt
into food became ym mwyt, y mwyt. But, on the one hand, a
counsel became