An Introduction to Early Welsh - Arthur Pendragon of Wales

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52.] THE PRONOUN. 37
developed from cases where the nominative stands at the head of the
sentence introducing it ( 26), e.g. amheu yr hynn a dywedwch chwi ny-s
gwnaf i lit. doubting of what you say I ivill not do it. A meaningless -s-,
however, is found when the verb is non-relative, e.g. nys gohiryassant
they did not delay RB. II. 48.
(h) Certain :
conjunctions tra-e llathei while he slew them BB.
48% yny-m byrywyt i till I was thrown RB. 169, o-S lledy if
thou
slayest him Hg. I. 368. Some conjunctions are followed by the
infixing a, see above (c).
51. The infixed pronoun commonly expresses
the accusative
relation. With the verb ' to be,' however, it regularly expresses its
dative relation, e.g., am bo may there be to me, may I have^ vn tat
ae bu one father they had; it may further express the dative relation
with other verbs, e.g. y perffeith garyat hwnnw an rodho yr yspryt
glan may the Holy Spirit give us that perfect love LA. 103, an
gunel iechid may He work salvation for us BB. 2ob .
PRONOUN WITH PREPOSITION.
52. In Welsh as in Irish the pronoun is regularly fused together
with the preposition. After ac with and gwedy after, however,
the pronoun follows separately, e.g. a mi with thee, gwedy ni after
us ;
the explanation seems to be that the usage of these words as
prepositions is secondary. With respect to the formation, the
following points may be noted.
(a) In the first and second persons (except after y to) there is an
intervening vowel a, O (aw), or y (and in 2 pi. also w), so that in
these persons there are the following series :
1.
Sing.
Plur.
-af, -of, -yf -am, -om, -ym
2. -at, -ot, -yt -awch, -och, -wch, -ych
(b) In the 3 sg. masc. the ending is -aw, in the 3 sg.
fern, -i
(infecting a preceding vowel) and -ei, e.g. oheni and ohonei ;
sometimes the infected vowel spreads analogically, e.g. 3 pi.
ohenynt. In the 3 pi. the oldest ending was -u, whence
developed later -ud (i.e. -ud), -unt, -ynt. In the third persons
-aw, -u, etc., are commonly preceded by a dental.