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356 The 3rd sg. impf. ind. has the ending ‑ẏat, ‑at, Mn. W. ‑i̯ad. The ending ‑ei is rare in Ml. W.: gwyẟyei 6,  1264. The ‑ẏ- (≡ i̯) in gwyẟẏwn etc. doubtless spread from ‑ẏat; it did not come into general use. In Mn. W. ‑i̯ad survived in poetry, but gwyddai, adwaenai became the usual forms. See gwyẟẏat 183,  85,  11, atwaenat  72,  150.


 * Yr oedd i rai a wyddiad
 * Obaith dyn o fab i’th dad.—T.A., 14694/117.

‘There was, to those who knew, hope of a man in a son of thy father.’ See adwaeniad D.G. 430, T.A. . 234.

On the ‑t- for ‑d- before w̯, see § 111 v (2).

Note the accentuation of gwybū́m, adnabū́m, in which the last syllable has a late contraction, § 41 iii. Uncontracted gwybū́-um occurs as late as the 15th cent.; see § 33 iv. The 3rd sg. gẃybu, adnábu has no contraction, and is accented regularly.


 * O’r tad Hywel ap Cadell,
 * Nid adnabū́m dad neb well.—T.A., 84/849.

‘[Sprung] from his father, H. ap C.,—I have not known a better father to anyone.’ Cf. adnabûm, so accented, 105; so canfûm do. 16, 91. Ml. W. gwybuum 389, adnabuum ib.

(1) gwnn probably comes from *u̯indṓ § 66 iii (1), or middle *u̯indṓi: Skr. vindá-ti ‘finds’, Ir. ro-finnadar ‘is wont to know’, √u̯eid- with ‑n- infix. The 3rd sg. gŵyr seems to be a deponent form made by adding the impers. *‑re directly to the root § 179 viii (2); thus *u̯eid-re > *u̯eig-re (§ 104 iv (3)) > gŵyr.—The 2nd sg. gwẟost represents a periphrastic form *u̯idós’si, verbal adj. + verb ‘to be’, the remnant of a tense like euthum, re-formed in the pl. with aor. endings § 182 iv (1). In Mn. W., and occasionally in Late Ml. W. gwẟ- becomes gwyẟ- on the analogy of the other tenses. The impers. gwŷs prob. represents a passive *u̯id-tos (’st).

The tense replaces the old perf. with pres. meaning, *u̯oida: Gk. 🇬🇷.

The impf. 3rd sg. gwyẟiad may be for *gwẟiad § 180 iv (1). The 2nd sg. gwyẟut may represent a thematic *u̯eidoithēs, in which case its wy is original; and the 3rd sg. may have taken wy from this. The wy is the falling diphthong: Pob meistrolrw͡ydd a w͡yddud D.G. 460.

The rest of the verb comes from periphrastic tenses formed of a present participle of some such form as *u̯eidans and the verb ‘to be’.

(1) adwaen corresponds to Ir. ad-gēn, which comes from *ati-gegna, re-formed in Kelt. for *g̑eg̑nōu: Skr. jajn̑ā́u, Lat. nōv‑i, √g̑enē‑; but W. adwaen, which is for *adwoen § 78 ii (1) (2), contains ‑u̯o- as pointed out by Rhys, RC. vi 22; it seems also to have the vowel of the reduplicator elided; thus adwaen < *ati-u̯o-kn‑a < *ati-u̯o‑g’gn‑a. It may however represent *ad-wo-ein < *ati-u̯o-gegn‑a. The 3rd sg. had *‑e for *‑a and gives the same result in W. The rest