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§ 140 ‑ig forms m. titles, as gwledig ‘prince’, pendefig ‘chief’, and f. diminutives as oenig, etc.

‑in is m. in brenin ‘king’, dewin ‘sage’, buelin ‘drinking horn’, ewin ‘(finger‑)&#8203;nail’, gorllewin ‘west’; otherwise f., as byddin, cegin, cribin, gwerin, hesbin, megin, melin.

‑ai, Ml. W. ‑ei (for ‑hei) forms nouns of com. gender, as llatai § 136 ii; see cicai f. D.G. 166.

i. No useful rule can be laid down for determining by the form the gender of nouns without derivative endings. It is true that nouns having w or y in the ultima are mostly m., and those having o or e are mostly f.; thus asgwrn, arddwrn, dwrn, dwfr, ellyll, byd, bryn are m.; colofn, tonn, ffordd, ffenestr, gwên, deddf are f. But exceptions are so numerous that the rule is of no great practical value.

A few doublets occur with m. ‑w‑, f. ‑o‑; as cwd m. ‘bag’, cod f. ‘purse’. The others are borrowed words containing ‑or + cons.; as torf ‘crowd’ < Lat. turba: twrf ‘tumult’;—fforch ‘a fork’ < Lat. furca: ffwrch ‘the fork, haunches’;—ffordd ‘way’ <