Page:Origin and Growth of Religion (Rhys).djvu/33

Rh Celts of the British Islands, we should have to suppose the word submitted to the operation of phonetic processes suggested by other words in their respective vocabularies: thus, according to Old Irish phonology, the, j would go and the word must appear as Ogma, as indeed it does, while in Welsh the changes implied would be rather greater: thus it would first become Ogmijos with j, sounded like English y in the word yes, liable to be modified into đ, or the sound of th in the English word this; moreover, the case-termination must go, and if the word happened to have survived among the Welsh glosses of the 9th century, it would have been found written 'ogmiđ' or 'ogmid.' The next stage would be represented with m softened to v and g to gh, sounded like g in the softest pronunciation of the German word sagen, and soon elided altogether, just as sagen not unfrequently becomes saën in colloquial German, with as little or less trace of the guttural consonant left as in the English equivalent say. The use of the word is first attested in the Black Book of Carmarthen, a Welsh manuscript of the 12th century, and the spelling has since then varied, according to the orthography adopted, from ouit, owit, ouyd, ovyd to ofydd, which is the present orthography, the pronunciation being approximately 'ovüđ,' with its second vowel nearly like a German ü. The exact meaning of the word in the earliest passages where it occurs is not easy to fix; but that of 'one skilled or versed in anything, a teacher or leader,' would suit them all. Later, the duties of an 'ovyđ' were said to be 'to improve and multiply knowledge;' and it is now the name of one of the three kinds of graduates or professors