Page:Morris-Jones Welsh Grammar 0198.png

198 Nouns in which the vowel is affected in the sg. and pl.; thus Brit. *u̯radi̯os, pl. *u̯radi̯ī > W. gwraidd ‘root’ or ‘roots’.

As it is inconvenient to have the same form for sg. and pl., new distinctions grew up. These took three forms: (1) Nouns belonging to the first of the above classes had their vowel affected to form a pl.; probably some of those mentioned in § 117 i are examples of this.—(2) A pl. termination was added; thus as Lat. medicus, medicī had both become meẟyg, a new pl. meẟygon was formed; and for pl. pysg a collective pyscawt Mn. W. pysgod was used, § 123 iii.—(3) A sg. termination, m. ‑yn(n), f. ‑en(n) was added; thus gwraidd in the sg. became gwreiddyn; and as pysg continued to be used as a pl., a new sg. pysgodyn was formed from the pl. pyscawt.

The W. pl. terminations are the Brit, stem-endings of imparisyllabic nouns, which were lost in the sg. representing the old nom. sg., but survived in the pl. after the loss of the pl. endings *‑es, neut. *‑a, § 113 i. Thus Lat. latrō and its Brit. pl. *latrŏnes gave W. lleidr, pl. lladron, by regular sound-change; then the ‑on of the latter and similar nouns naturally came to be regarded as a pl. ending, and was added to nouns of other declensions where a pl. sign was needed, as to meddyg, see above. Such additions were made on some analogy, mostly of meaning, sometimes of form.

i. Mn. W. ‑au, Ml. W. ‑eu, O. W. ‑ou comes from Brit. *´‑ou̯es, *´‑ou̯a the pl. endings of u-stems; thus Brit. *katus, pl. *kátou̯es, gave W. cad ‘battle’, pl. cadau. This termination spread and became the commonest in W. (and Bret.). It was added to—

most names of common objects; as penn-eu 41, Mn. W. pennau ‘heads’; clust-eu ib., Mn. clusti̯au ‘ears’; guefl-eu ib., Mn. gweflau ‘lips’; amrann-eu ib., 1270, Mn. amrannau, late amrantau, sg. amrant ‘eyelid’; arv-eu 7, Mn. arfau ‘arms’; tlyss-eu do. 37, Mn. tlysau, sg. tlws ‘jewel’; loggou 120 (gg ≡ ŋŋ), llongeu  39, Mn. llongau ‘ships’; badeu 39, Mn.