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§ 103
THE SOFT MUTATION
163

< tigirn‑; also finally, as da ‘good’ < *dag- § 63 v (2);—ty ‘house’ < tigos § 65 ii (3);—bro < *mrog- § 99 ii (1);—bre (prob. f.) ‘hill’, Corn. bre f. < *brigā, Gaul. ‑briga < *bhr̥ɡh‑: Germ. Berg;—bore ‘morning’, O. W. more in b.a. 17 l. 20, Bret. beure < acc. *mārig-an (< *‑m̥): Ir. imbārach, Mn. Ir. mārach < *mārig‑: Kelt. *mārig- < *mōriɡh- L°R₂ of √merē(i)q/ɡh‑: Skr. márīciḥ ‘ray of light’, Goth. maurgins, E. morn.—Already in O. W. we find nertheint (< ‑eᵹint), beside scamnhegint (g).

ig gives y, affected to e, as above; it is often assimilated to the following vowel, as in dylḗd < Ml. W. dylyet < *dliget- § 82 ii (3); Ml. W. breenhin ‘king’ < *brigant-īn‑: Skr. acc. br̥hánt-am, gen. br̥hat-áḥ ‘high, great’ < *bhr̥ɡh-ént‑, ‑n̥t‑. Before ei it was lost, as in braint ‘privilege’, Ml. W. breint < O. W. bryeint l.l. 120 < *briganti̯‑; Ml. W. Seint < *Sigonti̯on ‘Segontium’.—w͡y comes not from ig, but from eig, as in mod-rwy ‘ring’ < F-grade *reig‑, as in rhwym § 95 ii (2); mor-dwy ‘sea-voyage’ < *teig‑, Ir. tīagu ‘I go’: Gk. στείχω; so canhorthwy ‘assistance’ < *kanta-u̯er-teig-, lit. ‘*go over with’.—āg gave eu, au, § 71 iii.

Initially disappeared completely; but as the initial of the second element of a compound it often became ᵹ̑ > after a dental (d, , n, l, r), as Llwyd-i̯arth < *leito-garto- § 95 iv (3); Pen-i̯arth < *penno-garto‑, mil-i̯ast D.G. 278 beside mil-ast ‘greyhound bitch’; arw-floedd-i̯ast § 157 ii (1); Mor-i̯en, O.W. Mor-gen *‘sea-born’; Ur-i̯en, O. W. Urb-gen § 100 v.

For before and after sonants see § 104 ii, § 105 ii, § 110 ii.

(2) The soft mutation of m was originally the nasalized spirant . The nasalization generally remains medially in Bret., but disappeared in W. towards the end of the O. W. period. As f was thereafter the soft mutation of both b and m, there has always been the possibility of its being referred to the wrong radical. This probably accounts for the substitution in some cases of one for the other, as in bawd ‘thumb’, O. W. maut f. (y fawd ‘the thumb’), still with m- in mod-rwy orig. ‘thumb-ring’. In a few cases m- and b- interchange, as bath and math (y fath ‘the kind of’), baeddu and maeddu ‘to dirty’.

Nid adwaen, iawn yw dwedyd,
Weithian i bath yn y byd.—G.I.H.

‘I know not, it is right to say it, her like now in the world.’

m 2