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§ 112 and so differed from h < s, which was voiceless. Examples are, initial: O. W. ha, hoc ‘and’; heitham do., Ml. and Mn. W. eithaf § 108 iv (1);—Ml. W., from i, huydvet (wythfed) 58; huchof ib. ‘above me’; hun din (un dyn) 124 ‘one man’; yr hun (yr un) 256; huiui (wyf i) 114; er hyd (yr ɥd) 326 ‘the corn’; ohyd (o ɥd) 82 ‘of corn’; hercki (erchi) 152; hodyn (odyn) 78, etc. Medially it occurs not only where a soft spirant had disappeared, as in diheu 181 < *di-ᵹeu, Mn. W. dïau ‘truly’; rohi i 118 < roẟi; but also where no consonant ever existed, as in diheu Ỻ.A. 21 ‘days’; dihag̃ei  48 ‘escaped’.

Although this breathing has generally been smoothed away, it was liable to become voiceless before an accented vowel, and in that case it survived as h; thus medially in dihangol ‘escaped, safe’; initially, after a vowel in pa hám for *pa am ‘what for’, pa hachos Ỻ.A. 123, pa hawr do. 13; after r in un ar hugain ‘21’, yr holl § 168 ii (3); in all positions in hogi ‘to whet’ for *ogi < *āk‑, √ak̑‑/&#8203;oq‑: W. agalen ‘whetstone’. This occurs in several cases in which an initial accented vowel was followed by two consonants, so that it was pronounced rather forcibly; thus W. hagr ‘ugly’ for *agr, Bret. akr, hakr, √ak̑‑/&#8203;oq‑;—W. hardd ‘handsome’ for *arẟ ‘high’: Ir. ard, Lat. arduus, cf. Harẟ-lech orig. quite evidently ‘high rock’;—so sometimes henw̯ ‘name’ (henw̯ ‘noun’ 1121), generally with h- in Gwyn. dial., but anwédig without it: Bret. hañv, hanu, hano, Corn. hanow; O. W. anu, Ir. ainm, see p. 81.

On the other hand initial h (< s) might come to be confused with the soft breathing, and so disappear before an unacc. vowel, as in eleni ‘this year’ < *he-fleni: Bret. hevlene, with the same prefix as heẟiw ‘to-day’; yvelly 41 for *hefelly, see § 110 v (2); O. W. anter-metetic gl. semiputata (hanner mededig).

In O. W. the breathing is found (rarely) before a suffix where it was clearly marked off from the stem, as in casulheticc (casul-edig), but no trace of a breathing in such a position remains. We have, however, a medial h before an accented vowel under the following conditions:—(α) Where the vowel is followed by two consonants, as cenhédloedd Ps. ii 1; kynhel-lis 234, cynhali̯aeth (l‑l and li̯ < *lᵹ); cymhedrawl  ii 343 (cymedrawl ib. 355); cynhyrchol Marc iv 8; but this never became a strict rule; it is carried somewhat further in the recent than in earlier periods: cynneddfau Diar. xxxi cyn. (1620), cynheddfau in late edns.—(β) Where n stands for ẟn, as in bonhéddig from bonedd < *budníi̯ā, as if the ẟ had left a soft breathing; blynyddoedd is a late formation § 122 iv (2) and has no h.—(γ) Where r comes after n, as in anrheithi; this occurs even after the accent, as anrhaith § 111 i (1).

An h which has always been voiceless occurs before the accent (a) in the nasal mutation of p, t, c §106 iii (1), as danheddog for *dant-eẟawc; kymhellawẟ 327 < Lat. compell‑; anghenus < *aŋk‑; angheuol < *aŋk‑, etc.; probably plannhedeu §48 i followed the analogy of planhigi̯on < *plant‑; canhwylleu  380 seems to be due to the treat-