departed from. But in lit. W. sentences of the above form are used rhetorically where the noun or adv. is not emphatic; hence some scholars have doubted that a and yẟ are relatives. It seems clear however that the sense preserved in the spoken language is the literal one. This is confirmed by the use of the rel. verbs sydd, pieu, see iv (1), § 192 ii (3); cf. § 163 v.
Interrogative Pronouns, Adjectives and Adverbs.
§ 163. i. The interrogative pronouns, adjectives and adverbs are the following (the form of the interrogative is the same whether the question be direct or indirect):
(1) Ml. and Mn. W. pwy ‘who?’
Puy guant cath paluc b.b. 96 ‘who wounded P.’s cat?’ Ac ny wnn i pwy wyt ti w.m. 3 ‘and I know not who thou art’; ẏ bwy y r͑oẟit w.m. 402 ‘to whom it should be given’; Pwy a osododd ei mesurau hi, os ywyddost? neu pwy a estynnodd linyn ami hi? Job xxxviii 5. Bwy W.Ỻ. 44, 59.
In Ml. W. pwy is also used for ‘what is?’ as dayar, pwy ẏ llet neu pwy ẏ thewhet b.t. 20 ‘the earth, what is its breadth or what is its thickness?’ pwy enw y teir kaer do. 35 ‘what is the name of the three forts?’ Cf. r.p. 1054. It is also found later with enw, as Pwy dy henw D.G. 365 ‘what is thy name?’ This may be for py *wy where *wy is an older form of yw ‘is’ § 78 iv (1); if so, in pwy yw dy enw Ỻ.A. 128 the yw is redundant.
The use of pwy before a noun is rare: Pwy ystyr yw gennyt ti kelu&8203;…w.m. 454 ‘what reason hast thou to conceal…?’ Probably the yw here is redundant as above, and the construction was originally that in Pwy ystyr nas agory ti do. 456 ‘what is the reason that thou wilt not open it?’ This type of phrase might give rise to the adjectival use of pwy, which occurs more frequently later, and is common in the dialects: pwy wr Ỻ 30/103, pwy ryw fyd do. 480, cf. pwy un § ii (1) below.
(2) Ml. W. pa, py, ba, by, Mn. W. pa, ba (rarely pỿ) ‘what…?’ adjectival. It causes the soft mutation (b.b. pa gur ≡ pa ᵹwr).
