- Ni fyn cariad i wadu,
- Na’i ddangos i lios lu.—D.G. 69.
‘Love will not be disavowed, or manifested to many a host.’
- Gwahawdd Saeson bob Ionor
- I’r Deau maent ar hyd môr.—L.G.C. 155.
‘They invite Saxons every January to the South across the sea.’
- Anodd rhyngu bodd y byd.—T.A. a 14967/29.
‘It is difficult to please the world.’
(2) aw in the ultima began to be reduced to o in the Ml. period; thus we find Edeirnon w.m. 50, achos Ỻ.A. 4, Meirẏon r.b.b. 13. But the bards even in the Mn. period continued to write the aw for the purposes of rhyme. In recent times, owing to ignorance of the older language, they have sometimes written aw for original o, as “esgawb” for esgob ‘bishop’, “dyniawn” for dynion ‘men’. This is not due to a confusion of the sounds of o and aw (for the a in aw is a pure a, quite distinct from o), but to the blundering notion that as some o’s may be written aw, any o may. The Early Mn. poets generally use aw correctly, guided by a living literary tradition. The distinction is seen in Ml. W. yscol ‘school’, iscol b.b. 81 from Lat. sc(h)ola and yscawl w.m. 189 ‘ladder’ < Lat. scāla, both ysgol in Mn. W.
(3) In a few cases aw comes from o: praw(f) beside profi < Lat. prob‑; mawl beside molaf ‘I praise’, Ir. molim; tymawr r.p. 1244 for the usual tymor < Lat. tempora. In each case the o comes before or after a labial. In Vulg. Lat. there was a tendency to lower a vowel before a labial so that prob- might become *prɔb- > prawf. But it is more likely that all these are due to false analogy.
In awr ‘hour’, and nawn ‘noon’ we have aw < Lat. ō. These have been explained as late borrowings ; but historically this is improbable. Possibly the pronunciation of hōra varied in Lat., since Gk. ω (≡ ō̦) was popularly sounded ō̦ (γλῶσσα > Ital. chio̦sa); ō̦ would give ɔ > aw. For nawn see § 76 iii (4).
iii. āg > O. W. oü, Ml. W. eu, Mn. W. eu, au; thus breuant ‘wind-pipe’, O. W. ‑brouannou < *brāgn̥t‑: Ir. brāge gl. cervix, O. Bret. brehant;—W. pau ‘country’, O. Bret. pou, Corn. pow < Lat. pāg-us;—so āk or āg before a consonant: W. gwaun, O. W. guoun l.l. 156, 196 ‘lowland’, Ir. fān < *u̯ākn- < *u̯o-ak‑n- § 104 iii (1);—W. ceulo ‘to congeal’ < *cāgl- < Lat. co-āg’l-o. But before t the ā is shortened § 74 iv.
iv. ‑ān- often gives onn in the present penult: cronni: crawn § 202 v (2);—ffynhonnau ‘fountains’ < fontān‑;—Meirẏonnyẟ g.c. 122, r.b.b. 263, beside Meirẏonyẟ do. 303, 306, < Mariān‑.
