rh remain unchanged; and words which cause the tenues to become spirants do not alter the other six. This is always understood when the nasal or spirant mutation is named, and there is no need to particularize except in case of irregularity.
Strictly speaking, of course, words which caused the nasal and spirant mutations changed I, r to II and rh. But for practical purposes it is simpler to treat the changes as above; see § 103 i (4).
Later Consonant Changes.
Loss of Voiced Spirants and Sonants.
§ 110. i. The soft mutations of b, d, g, m have all tended to be softened to the vanishing point. Being very soft “buzzes” ẟ and f were liable to be confused; and so we find one substituted for another as in cuddygl (kuẟygɏl w.m. 140, r.m. 211) ‘cell’ for *cufygl < Lat. cubic’lum (prob. influenced by cudd ‘hidden’); Eiẟẏonyẟ r.p. 1287 for Eifionydd (eiwonit b.b. 69) ; Late Mn. W. Caer Dydd for Caer Dyf ‘Cardiff’; or two metathesized, as in clefyẟeu r.m. 182 for cleẟyveu do. 126, and in clefytaud (t ≡ ẟ) b.b. 48 for cleẟyfawd: W. cleddyf, § 76 viii (2) (Ir. claideb ‘sword’ < W.).—S.V. (P.Ỻ. xci) says of the line Kawn vedd rhad kyneddvau Rhys (by H.K., see c.c. 344) that it pleases the ear though it violates the rule. The ear does not notice the inversion v ẟ / ẟ v.
ii. (1) The soft mutation of g has uniformly disappeared as an initial sound. Thus *dy ᵹardd has become dy ardd ‘thy garden’. Medially it disappears or becomes i̯ before a vowel, or before I, r or n § 103 ii (1), § 104 ii. Medial nᵹn > n, as in ynad § 62 ii; cf. § 106 ii (1).
(2) Medially after I or r it appears as i̯, § 105 ii, which is lost before y, as in cŏ́lyn < O.W. colginn § 54 ii. This palatalization of ᵹ to ᵹ̑ > i̯ after a liquid is comparatively late, for it does not take place finally; in that position ᵹ remained dark, and became non-syllabic ỿ, as in Ml. W. daly (1 syll.) ‘to hold’; this was either assimilated to the l as in N. W. dăl (<*dal-l, double I, not ỻ), or was lowered to a and became syllabic, as in S. W. dala; from Brit. *dalg- < *dₑl’gh‑, √delāˣgh‑: Skr. dīrgháḥ ‘long’, Lat. indulgeo, longus. Medially it is i̯ from the same stem, as in dali̯af ‘I hold, maintain, continue’. So we have Ml. W. hely ‘to hunt’, N. W. hĕl ‘collect’, S. W. hela; Ml. W. boly bag, belly ', N. W. bŏl, S. W. bola; Ml. W. gwaly, Mn. W. gwala ‘sufficiency’; Ml. W. eiry 'snow', Mn. W. (N. and S.) eira, and eir in eir-law ‘sleet’, ces-air ‘hail’; Ml. W. llary ‘generous’ < Lat. largus, Mn. W. llari̯aidd. The form ‑a appears in writing as early as the b.b., e.g. llara 7, where, however, the word counts as only one syllable in the metre.
1402
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