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§ 143 The following are m. in Ml. W., f. in Late W.: damwein. 29, . 19 ‘accident’; breint 121,. 71 ‘privilege’; dinas 3, 8, Ỻ.A. 44, D.G. 325 ‘stronghold, city’, still m. in place-names; nef Ỻ.A. 4 ‘heaven’, S.Ph. (m. W.Ỻ.) late 16th cent. has ne’ gwyn, but H.S. mid. 15th already has nef f., see § 160 iii (2) (c); chwedɏl 192 ‘tale’, chwedl drwg Ps. cxii 7; gruẟ Ỻ.A. 93 ‘cheek’, y grudd, deurudd in the bards, but f. in Bible; gweithret  i 526,  7, Ỻ.A. 132; ergit  42; krevyẟ Ỻ.A. 143.

The following are f. in Ml. W., m. in late W.: tangneveẟ 43,  30, 38 (but y tangneveẟ  55) ‘peace’, m. in Bible; gwirioneẟ  29,  19 ‘truth’, m. in Bible and later bards,  357; cyg̃reir  18,  160 ‘truce’, m. in Bible, Deut. xxix 14; r͑ydit 83 ‘freedom’; person  19, Ỻ.A. 3 ‘person’; llynn  51,  36 ‘lake’; llys  5,  3 ‘court’.

In some cases the gender fluctuates in Ml. W.: breich, as in 18 ar y breich ‘on the arm’, and in the next line ẏ’r vreich ‘to the arm’; it is m. in the Bible, but now f. except in place-names;—heul ‘sun’, m. Ỻ.A. 3, f. do. 161, generally f. in the bards, m. in Bible, f. in Wms. 257, now m.; heulwen is an improper compound of haul wenn § 46 ii (1);—clot ‘praise’ m. as clot bychan 142,  212, generally f. in the bards  184, f. in the Bible, 1 Bren. x 7, now m., orig. neut. § 66 v.

The difference is in some cases dialectal: ciniaw ‘dinner’ f. in 61,  43, now f. in S.W. but m. in N.W.; troed m. in Ml.W. e.g. deudroet always (not dwy‑), m. in N.W., f. in S.W. The following are f. in S.W., m. in N.W.: cyflog, hanes, garr, gwnïadur, llyn, pwys, munud, clorian (though ar y funud, yn y glorian in N.W. also); in Mn. Lit. W. these are mostly m. as in N.W.; crib ‘comb' now m. in N.W., but crib ‘ridge’ f. On the other hand in N.W. cusan (m. 58, 61) and cwpan (m. in Bible) are sometimes treated as f., doubtless a late misuse, as also the use in some parts of canhwyllbren as f. But clust m.  54, m. in S.W., is f. in N.W. and in the Bible. N.W. is not uniform: sach m. in Gwynedd (< Lat. saccus) is f. in Powys.

Derivative nouns are formed from simple nouns, from adjectives, and verb-stems by the addition of the following endings:

Diminutive endings, largely used to form singular nouns § 126: m. ‑yn, f. ‑en. The O.W. forms are ‑inn, ‑enn, and the n is doubled in Ml. and Mn. W. when a syllable is added, as defnynn-au Can. v 2, canghenn-au Luc. xiii 19. They probably represent the Ar. suffixes ‑ino‑, ‑inā- with dimin. gemination § 93 iii (2), giving Brit. *‑inno‑s, *‑innā.

They may also be added to adjectives and vb.-stems, as coeg-yn ‘fop’, (coeg ‘empty, vain’), ysgogyn ‘swaggerer’ (ysgog-i ‘to shake’).

Diminutive endings added to nouns: ‑ach, as corrach ‘dwarf’ < a Brit. *‑akkos, with dimin. gemination;—‑an, as dynan ‘little