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§ 37 ‘lions’, maroryn Ỻ.A. 25 for marworyn D.G. 363 ‘ember’, it generally remained in these words. Late examples of its loss: Ml. W. etwo (varying with etwa by § 34 iv) gives etto 1357, Mn. W. eto (≡ etto) ‘again’. So penwag became *penwog whence pennog ‘herring’, the pl. retaining the w̯: penw̯aig L.G.C. 158, Ml. W. penw̯eic i 66.

iv. i̯ drops before w̯ owing to the extreme difficulty of pronouncing the combination, but it remains before vocalic w; thus gweithi̯wr ‘worker’, gweithi̯w͡yd ‘was worked’, but gweithw̯ɥr ‘workers’ (not *gweithi̯w̯ɥr).—Of course vocalic i remains in all cases: ysbī́-wr ‘spy’, pl. ysbī́-w̯ɥr.

i̯ drops after w̯ following a consonant, or following a diphthong; thus ceidw̯ad for *ceidw̯i̯ad ‘keeper, saviour’, geirw̯on for *geirw̯i̯on, pl. of garw̯ ‘rough’, hoyw̯on for *hoyw̯i̯on, pl. of hoyw̯ ‘sprightly’. But when w̯ follows a simple vowel the i̯ remains, as in glew̯i̯on, pl. of glew ‘bold’, glaw̯i̯o ‘to rain’.

It is kept in gw̯i̯alen when contracted (as in D.G. 60) for gw̯i|á|len, § 75 vi (2).

vi. i̯ drops after u, as in duon for *dui̯on, pl. of du ‘black’, goreuon for *goreui̯on pl. of goreu ‘best’.

vii. i̯ drops after r or l following a consonant, as meidrol for meidri̯ol ‘finite’ (veidrẏawl 1233, veidrawl do. 1234), budron for *budri̯on, pl. of budr ‘dirty’, crwydrad for crwydri̯ad ‘wanderer’, meistraid for meistri̯aid ‘masters’, teimlo for *teimli̯o ‘to feel’, treiglo for treigli̯o ‘to roll’.

Ambiguous Groups.

i. As above noted iw in ordinary writing represents both the rising diphthong i̯w and the falling diphthong iw̯.