pages of the B.B., bat are not found in the B.A. It may have arisen partly as a support to an infixed pron., as Mi a,e dywedaf yt IL.A. 4 ' I will tell it thee ' ; hi &y gwelei ef W.M. 251 ' she saw him ' ; Hi ay provwn do. 66 ' We will try it', cf. iv below ; and partly mi a wn may be a confusion of mi wn ' I know ' with mi a wyr K.P. 1227 = Bret, me a oar ' [It is] I that know'. The a is often written where the metre shows that the author did not use it, as in hi a vu several times in R.P. 1365 for hi vu.
(4) In Mn. W. ef a, mi a etc. remain in use, as Mi a euraf 38 ix, Ef a borthes yr lesu D.N. F.N. 94 ' Jesus fed [the multi- tude] '. In the Bible ef a becomes efe a, except where it is clearly a particle, when it is written fe or fe a, asfe allei Gen. xvi 2, fe a allei I Bren. xviii 27, or fo as fom lleddir Diar. xxii 13.
But the natural Mn. forms seem to be ef, e,fo,f' y fe\ mi, ti etc. ; as Ef aelh D.G. 374, 527, E fti amser i (i), E gaeodd Mai 129 ii (i), Fo ddaw D.G. 175, fo'm cafodd do. 177 ; Mi vu do. 501, Mi welwn T.A. G. 238.
Tra fo gwlith mewn tref a gwlad Fo sdn dynion am danad. W.1L. 18.
' While there is dew in town and country men will talk of thee.'
F' aeth anwir ar faeth ennyd ;
F' aeth y gwir ar feth i gyd. I.F. F. 42.
' Untruth has prospered for a season ; truth has wholly failed.' Fe wna hon a fynno hi. D.G. 516.
' She will do as she pleases.' Note fe with fern, subject. The form was prob.fo, a.sfe is late; it occurs in the i6th cent. : ve golhid yr hen lyfreu Y.L.H. [8] ' the old books would be lost '.
In the spoken lang., in S. W. t (forjtf, mil) and/g are heard; but in some parts the pron. of the same person as the subj. is used, as chi welwch ' you see ', nw dn' ' they will go '. In N. W. mi alone is used for all persons, having ousted fo, which survives only in parts of Powys. In Sweet's specimens of N. W. dialect TPS. 18824, 477 many assertions begin with the verb, with rad. initial, which is utterly impossible in pure dialect. Every such verb is introduced by an affirmative particle, except in answers and denials consisting of single words, as Clywof ' Yes, I hear '.
(5) Ml. W. efaa in (i) above is the same as the ef in noc ef ' not so ; no', at e 'is it so?' and i-ef 'it is so'. The construction mi ganaf may be originally ' as for me, I will sing ', which explains the
