- Dyn marw̯ a allai f’árw̯ain
- Weithian drwy eithin a drain.—D.I.D., g. 182.
‘A dead man might lead me now through furze and thorns.’
- F’enaid hoen geirw̯ afonydd,
- Fy nghaniad dy 'fárw̯nad fɥ̄́dd.—Ỻ.G., f.n. 30.
‘My beloved of the hue of the foam of rivers, my song thy dirge shall be.’ Cf. i fárw̯nad efṓ D.I.D., g. 184.
- Marw̯nad ym yw awr yn d’ôl.—T.A., a 14894/35.
‘It is a lament to me [to live] an hour after thee.’
- Pwy a’th eilw̯ pe â’th wayw onn?—T.A., a 14975/102.
‘Who will challenge thee if with thy ashen spear?’
The last example shows that eilw̯ could still be a pure monosyllable at the end of the 15th cent., for the present disyllabic pronunciation mars the cynghanedd. Even stronger evidence is afforded by the accentuation déu-darw̯ / dódi B.Ph.B., Stowe 959/98b. Although final w̯ was non-syllabic, yn or yr following it was generally reduced to ’n or ’r, being combined with the w̯ to form w̯n or w̯r, § 26 iii.
- A’ch gwaed, rhyw ywch gadw̯’r hëol.—T.A., a 14965/46.
‘With your blood it is natural to you to guard the road.’
- Murnio da, marw̯’n y diwedd.—D.Ỻ., f. 31.
‘Stowing away wealth, [and] dying in the end.’
In a compound like marw̯nad the w̯ was not difficult, for w̯n (rounded n) is common in Welsh, § 26 iii. But the colloquial pronunciation is now maw̯rnad, with metathesis of w̯. In 16th and 17th cent. mss. we also find marnad and barnad. The combination is more difficult in such compounds as dérw̯goed ‘oak-trees’, márw̯ddwr ‘stagnant water’, chw̯érw̯-der ‘bitterness’; and though the etymological spelling persisted in these, the pronunciation dér-goed, már-ddwr, chw̯ér-der is doubtless old.
- Lle dírgel gerllaw dérw̯goed.—D.G. 321.
‘A secret place near oak-trees.’ Cf. dérw̯gist, T.A., g. 232.
- Tro fy chwer’der yn felysdra.—Wms. 657.
‘Turn my bitterness into sweetness.’
- Gyr chwérw̯der o garchárdai;
- Newyn y lleidr a wna’n llai.—D.W. 112.
‘[Charity] drives bitterness from prisons; it makes less the hunger of the thief.’
