¶ Welsh w̯ is the same sound as that which is written u̯ in the hypothetic forms of Ar., Kelt., Brit., etc. Thus Mn. W. w̯ir ‘indeed’ is identical with the first syll. of Kelt. *u̯īr-os ‘true’ < Ar. *u̯ēr-os.
§ 18. i. The characters p, t, c had the values in O.W. of modern p, t, c. They also represented the mutated sounds b, d, g, see § 103 iii; as in scipaur juv. ≡ scubawr, Mn. W. ysgubor ‘barn’, creaticaul ox. ≡ creadigawl, Mn. W. creadigol ‘created’. When they have this value they are sometimes doubled; thus in m.c. we find catteiraul, Mn. W. cadeiriol ‘cathedral’ adj., carrecc, Mn. W. carreg ‘stone’, hepp, Ml. W. heb ‘says’. Possibly this is due to the influence of Irish spelling. [In Old Ir. original *nt > *d-d written t and sometimes tt.]
ii. In Ml. W. p, t, c no longer represent b, d, g medially, but finally after a vowel they continued to do so even down to the Mn. period. The facts are briefly as follows: In the b.b., late 12th cent., the final labial is written p, but often b (mab 27, 28, 29); the dental is always d, because t is used for the soft spirant ẟ; the guttural is always c. In the 14th cent. the labial very generally appears as b, though often as p; the dental is always t, the guttural always c. In the 15th cent. (e.g. Ỻ 28) we have b, d, c. In the 1620 Bible b, d, g, but c in many forms, unic, lluddedic, etc. The final c is still written in ac and nac, which should be ag, nag, § 222 i (1), ii (3). On the sound of the consonant in these cases see § 111 v (4).
Finally after a consonant p, t, c have always represented the voiceless sounds.
iii. In Ml. W. and Early Mn. W., initial c is generally written k. The chief exceptions are the combinations cl, cr. Medially we find c, k, cc, ck. Finally after a consonant, though we generally have c, we also find k (or even ck); as grafangk, oerdrangk r.p. 1321, diag̃k etc. do. 1314, digelk do. 1364, Iork r.b.b. 397, carbunck, Ỻ.a. 170. In these words the sound was, and is, voiceless. Note that after a vowel, where the sound is now g, it is never written k in Ml. W. Thus k, which represents the tenuis only, is clearly distinguished from c, which also finally represents the media.
