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§ 78 In Mn. W. u having come to be sounded ɥ, it becomes i in those positions where ɥ would be so treated: thus barrug, esgus, cynnull are sounded barrig, esgis, cynnill.—D.G. rhymes menig / sarrug 8.—Before i̯ or i it is sounded i. Dr. M. writes iniawn Job i 1; we now say ini̯on ‘straight’ for uni̯on, inig for unig, tostirio for tosturio, etc. Hence carut ti became carit ti, and &#8209;it in Late Mn. W. replaced &#8209;ut as the 2nd sg. impf. ending.

u being rounded in O. and Ml. W., final ch after it retained its rounding; thus uch ‘higher’ ≡ ü$u̯$ch, sometimes written uwch in Late Ml. W.; when the u was unrounded the glide remained, and the sound became ɥw̯ch as implied in ywch 1295; this is the present sound; it is written uwch in Mn. W. But in the penult we have uch, as in uchel ‘high’. Hence the mutation, uw: u, § 81.

The modern pronunciation cited in this section is that of Gwynedd, where the sound ɥ or u is quite distinct from the sound i.

i. (1) The diphthong oe or oy, O. W. oi, remains finally in only two words: noe ‘basin’, doe ‘yesterday’; Ml. W. had moe ‘more’ also. Elsewhere it is regularly reduced to &#8209;o, as in creto ‘may believe’ for *cred-hoe appearing as cred-doe 53, a stray survival, § 183 ii; and in &#8209;no in personal names for &#8209;noe, clo for *cloe, etc. § 76 v (5); in am-do ‘shroud’ for *am-doe § 104 ii (2); th or ẟ may be lost after it as in heno ‘to-night‘ < O. W. henoid  ≡ henoeth  1040; it became ui by assim. in hunnoid > hunnuid  > Ml. and Mn. W. hwnnw; and hinnoid gave hynny by analogical assimilation (&#8209;d ≡ &#8209;ẟ in O.W.). A late example is y ddannodd ‘toothache’ < Ml. W. y ẟannoeẟ § 75 iv (2), in which however the final &#8209;ẟ remains.

Final &#8209;aeth > &#8209;a in the same way in yna, etwa for ynaeth, etwaeth.

Similarly w͡y, O. W. ui, may be reduced to w; cf. hwnnw above. Thus llw ‘oath’ § 104 ii (2); Gronwy 110, 111 > Gronw do. 101, 104, 105; Gronwy, Goronwy for *gw̯ronwy < *u̯(i)ro-gnā́u̯i̯os § 76 v (5); both forms survived: Pont Ronw (Llanedwen) is called Pont Ronwy by some, but whether the latter is of lit. origin is difficult to decide. So assu i 144 (≡ assw) < asswy ‘left’;—guru, banu < *gwrw͡y, *banw͡y § 76 v (6);—raccw § 210 x (3) .—Before a consonant: aor. 3rd sg. &#8209;w͡ys > &#8209;ws § 175 i (5); tyngwt 4 for tyngw͡yt; adeilwt, rannwt  106, 108; and doubtless impf. 1st sg. &#8209;wn is for an earlier *&#8209;w͡yn § 180 iii (1); &#8209;wn for *&#8209;w͡yn § 215 iii (1). So mwrthwl 46,  968, D.G. 430, myrthwl  32 beside mortuyl  77, morthwyl, mwrthwyl D.D., morthwyl Bible, spoken lang. mwrthwl pl. mỿrthw͡ylion. Late Mn. W. neithi̯wr ‘last night’ < neithi̯w͡yr § 34 ii, Ml. W. neithẏwyr 43.

Some cases occur of the late substitution of wy for w: madws ‘high time’ 22,  14 (: Sequ. matu.., Lat. mātūrus) is given by Wm.S. and D.D. s.v. as madwys, which is not attested;—cyfarws,  454, 459–60, later cyfarwys, see Silvan Evans s.v.

(1) In some words oe in the ultima was reduced to e, and w͡y to y; thus *nammoen ‘not more [than]’ became namen 15, 16 ‘only’, 