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§ 190

i. (1) The verbs of the v.n.’s cánfod ‘to perceive’, dárfod ‘to waste away; to happen’; górfod ‘to overcome’; hánfod ‘to be from; to come’, are conjugated with the b-forms of the verb ‘to be’; as canffýddaf, etc. In Ml. W. canfod appears generally with the pref. ar‑.

In darfod two verbs have prob. merged: (a) darfod ‘to waste away, to perish’ < dar‑: Gk. 🇬🇷 § 98 i (4);—(b) darfod ‘to happen’ < *do-ári- § 156 i (13). The latter is used in the 3rd sg. only, see § 196, as Beth a ẟarvu uẟunt wy? Ỻ.A. 7 ‘What happened to them?’; often as a so-called “auxiliary”; as pei na ẟarffei ẏ’r dwst gyvodi 68 ‘if the dust had not risen’; deryw in Ml. W. is generally thus used. In Mn. W. it is replaced by darfu; but the pres. had a past force from the sense of ‘afore(time)’ in the prefix. The v.n. darfod introduces noun-clauses corresponding to direct statements with deryw, as Ml. W. wrth ry-ẟarvot iẟaw ẏ r͑oẟi. 32 ‘since he had given it’.

Examples: (a) derfydd. 27 ‘will perish’, darfu D.G. (§ 160 i (1)) ‘is spent’, darfyẟant Job iv 9 ‘they perish’, ni ddarfu 1 Bren. xvii 16 ‘wasted not’, darvuan. 6 ‘they perished’;—(b) darffo 1 Cor. xv 54, darfu ’m (for darfu ym) Gr.O. 98 ‘it happened to me’, i.e. I did; y darffai. 112; a vynno Duw derffit 155 lit. ‘what God will let it come to pass’.