by Ml. W. nac ef, Mn. W. nag e (often written nage) 'not so', as Ai tydi a*i gwnaeth ? Nag e ' Is it thou that didst it ? No.' More rarely thus : Ae guell . . . ? Na well W.M. 85.
iii. A negative part, is frequently supplemented by bim ' at all ' ; see 170 v (3).
iv. (1) Ml. W. ny < Kelt. *ne < Ar. *ne. Ar. *ne was ordinarily accented, and the verb unacc. 179 i. In Kelt, the initial of the unacc. word seems to have been doubled after the accented vowel ; in Jr. gemination occurs after ni ' not ' and the preverbs ro, no. Thus Brit. *ne kkarame gives Ml. W. ny charaf. Hence the spir. of tenues after m. So *bb->b-, *mm->m-, *ll->ll-. The soft 8- may be due to late simplification of double d 93 iii (i) ; lenition of g- may have spread from gw-<*u-, which even if doubled would prob. give w- after a vowel. From these and the relatival form, lenition spread to b-, m-, tt-, rh-. The neg. rel. lenited because it was orig. unacc., and the verh accented, so that the regular softening took place after the vowel, 162 vi (3).
(2) Ml. W. nyt was orig. 'there . . . not'<*w(e) ita 189 iii (3) : and was used before consonants as well as before vowels, as 0. W. cen nit boi (prob. b- = v-) CP. ' though there be not '. The difference in meaning between ny ' not ' and nyt ' there . * . not ' was lost, and both are used in the two senses, ny before consonants and nyt before vowels.
(3) Ml. W. nyt ' it is not ' before a noun, etc., may come from *ne tod 'it [is] not', where *tod 'it' is the neut. sg. nom. of *so, *sa, *tod>Gk. 6, rj, TO, 159 iv (i). It is improbable that nyt contains the verb ' to be ' as Strachan assumes, Intr. 98.
(4) Though the vb. was unacc. after *ne in direct sentences in Ar., it was accented in dependent clauses ; this may have led to a reduced unacc. *n e giving Kelt. *na, W. na. If so, the mutation after na and the form nat followed the analogy of ny, nyt ; but this is probable in any case.
(5) W. na, nac before the impv. may be referred to Kelt, unacc. na + a particle beginning with k-, possibly cognate with Lith. -ki, a particle suffixed to imperatives.
(6) W. na, nac in answering questions. In na ddo (: Ir. na-tlw) we have simple na ; in nac ef ' it [is] not so ' the -c may represent some form of the *ke- pronoun.
§ 218. Interrogative Particles. i. The interrogative par- ticles are : (i) before verbs, a [soft] ; before nouns, etc., Ml. W. ae, Mn. ai [rad.] 'is it? ' (2) before verbs, O.VV. anit, Ml. AV. pony(t), pany(t), Mn. poni(d), pani(d), pond, panel, oni(d), ond ' nonne ? ' ; before nouns etc., Ml. ponyt [rad.], Ma. ponid. pond, pand, onid, ond ' is it not ? ' The initial mutation after pony etc.
