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§ 148 adjectives. Bret. preserves traces of a wider use of ken which shows that it is an adverb or conjunction: ken ar re binvidik, ken ar re baour ‘les riches aussi bien que les pauvres’ Troude, Die. Fr.-Bret. s.v. aussi 3. The W. lenition is probably more original than the Bret. non-mutation, as ‑n tends to cause provection. The base of cynn is very probably *kom- as has been supposed, but it contains an additional element, doubtless an adverbial suffix, probably the loc. suffix *‑dhi or *‑dhe § 162 vi (2), thus cynn < *kon-dhi; cf. Umbr. ponne ‘cum’ < *q$u̯$om-de, O.Lat. quamde ‘quam’.

In Ml. W. beside kyn- as kyndebycket 34, and kynn written separately as kynn decket Ỻ.A. 19, 67, kynn gadarnnet do. 67, etc. we sometimes find ky- as kygyfyg̃het 150, ky ẟruttet ib. This is due to the loss of final unaccented ‑nn, see § 110 v (2).

The misspelling can for cɥn arose in the 18th cent., and was adopted by Pughe ; but there is absolutely no justification for it either in the earlier written language or in the spoken dialects.

The Ir. eqtv. in ‑ithir, ‑idir is not phonetically related to the W. eqtv.

i. The following adjectives are compared irregularly:—

agos ‘near’ § 222 i (3); eqtv. mor agos 34, Job xli 16, kynnesset  58; cpv. nes; spv. Ml. nessaf, now spelt nesaf.

bỿchan ‘small, little’; eqtv. bỿchaned, lleied; cpv. Ml. llei, Mn. llai; spv. lleiaf.

cỿnnar ‘early’, buan ‘quick’; eqtv. cỿnted; cpv. cɥnt; spv. cỿntaf.—buan is also compared regularly: buaned D.G. 132, buanach do. 225, Galarnad iv 19; so cynnar, spv. cynharaf ‘earliest’ etc.

Ni wyẟwn i varch gynt…no hwnn 9 ‘I knew of no fleeter steed than this’.

buan § 63 vii (3);—cynt (: Ir. cēt, Gaul. Cintu‑) is perhaps cpv. in meaning only; it is believed to be cognate with Goth. hindumists;