Cornish it ceased to be recognised as having any u sound in it at all. In Welsh it is still written as u, and in carefully spoken Welsh is quite distinguishable from î. In Breton the sound is still approximately that of the French u. In some words in Cornish this sound became ew (as in the English word few) and rarely û (oo in moon), but generally it became î (English ee).[1]
What was once the sound of the French and Breton eu or the German ö, was represented in the MSS. by u, eu, ue. Later this became é (ay in may). Thus, dueth or duth, "came," became deth; luen, leun, "full," became len; due, "comes," became de; mur, meur, "great," became mer. This change is found occasionally as early as the Poem of the Passion. The rhythm shows that ue and eu form only one syllable. In the case of lues ( = luas), many, which later became lîas (or leeas), the rhythm shows that the u and e did not form a single vowel. Occasionally, as in the second person plural of certain tenses, eu of the early MSS. became ew, which it was probably intended to represent, but was often confused with ou ( = û or oo).[2]
The sound of ô or aw, as it certainly became in later Cornish, was represented by e, o, oy', a, oa, ao, au, aw. The tendency to pronounce a as aw' or short o before l, n, r, doubled or followed by a consonant, and sometimes single, is very marked in the spelling of late Cornish, and in the present pronunciation of place-names. There is no evidence of its age in Cornish; but it is very common in English and Irish, though unknown in standard Welsh or Breton.
- ↑ The combination ao in Irish is pronounced î. Thus caol, narrow, is cül the Highlands and kîl in Ireland.
- ↑ The word bewnans, life, formed from the root bew, was often written bownans in late Cornish and probably pronounced boonans. Similarly bowjy (= bewgh-chŷ), cow-house, must have been bewjy. This last, which is one of the surviving Cornish words, has its ow at present sounded as in now. This change has happened not infrequently in place-names.
