Revue celtique - National Library of Scotland

Etymological Scraps. 19?
ambiguity of the orthography of old and mid. Welsh, which used g for
ng as well as for g. With lleng contrast lleon = legionum in Caerlleon =
Cairlegion == Castra Legionum, Urbs Legionum, as Chesîer used to be
called. Hère familiarity with the word prevented an accident of spelling
from affecting the pronunciation.
5. Rogedou glosses orgiis in the Lux. FoHo, and is to be treated as ron-
gedou, there being other instances of this orthography in that Ms. This
renders the identity of roged- with the modem rhewydd, « lascivia, »
which had been suggested, beyond ail reasonable doubt.
6. Yslywen or slowen, which are the prévalent forms for what is written
'lysw'cn or llysywen, a pronunciation seldom heard compared with slowen :
' In
:hese ail mean « an eel, » and are probably only modifications of the
>ame word. I would give the préférence to yslyw-en over llysw-ën, as
t seems more probable that the former should be changed into the latter
'orm than vice versa, and that it is of a common origin with 0. H. Ger.
ûango, Mod. H. Ger, schlange, « a snake. »
V
not a few Welsh words ag becomes au or eu : when i foUows the
iiphthong it remain ew, to avoid a vowel combination such as we hâve
n French words like lui, puis.
1. Brau, « fragile, » hreu-an, « a hand-mill, » from the same origin
is English hreak and Lat. frango, fragilis.
2. Breuant, 0. W. trouant, « the wind-pipe, » 0. Irish brdgat.
3. Hau, « to sow » [heu-odd, « sévit ») has its most exact équivalent
n Lat. seg-es.
4. Borau, « morning, » stands for 'borag ifor "morag] with which may
oe compared Ir. mdrach, probably {oT*mdragh: compare Goth.maurgins;
jcr. morgen. On the other hand y jory, « to-morrow, )> possibly implies
•m oblique case *morig for "morag-i.
5. Eu-og, « guilty, « contains an eu which unmistakably points to
>kr. âgas, Greek à,cç, « guilt, sin; » whereas
6. Eulon, « stercus caprinum, » points for the explanation of its en to
.GA whence Skr. aja, Greek ai';, a-vic, « a goat, » while ewig, « a hind, »
s formally équivalent to Skr. ajikâ, « a young goat. » Other representa-
ives of Indo-European ag might he pointed out in Welsh under this
orm.
VI
In a few words ve seems to hâve successively become vo, wo, as will
)€ seen from the following instances :