kimkat2483e Some Dialectal Boundaries in Mid-Wales. Thomas Darlington. Y Geninen. 1901

 

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Dialectology


Some Dialectal Boundaries in Mid-Wales
Thomas Darlington 1901
The ‘narrow a’ is a feature of lower north Wales, and south-eastern Wales
 
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xxx

 

 

Erthygl gan Thomas Darlington (g. 1864, Burland, Swydd Gaer; m. 1908, hynny yw, yn 43 neu 44 mlwydd oed)

“Some Dialectal Boundaries in Mid-Wales”

 

 

 

 

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THE

TRANSACTIONS OF

THE HONOURABLE

SOCIETY OF CYMMRODORION.

 

 

SESSION 1900-1901.

 

 

LONDON: ISSUED BY THE SOCIETY.

 

NEW STONE BUILDINGS, 64, CHANCERY LANE.

 

1902.

 

 

 

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CONTENTS.

 

REPORT OF THE COUNCIL FOR 1900-1901.....v

 

STATEMENT OF RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS FOR 1900-1901.....xi

 

Art and Handicraft in Wales: Some Criticisms and Suggestions. By Mr. W. GOSCOMBE JOHN, A.R.A......1

 

Some Dialectal Boundaries in Mid Wales: with Notes on the History of the Palatalization of Long A. By Mr. THOMAS DARLINGTON, M.A......18

 

The Diplomatics of Welsh Records: with Appendices—

i. Repositories of Welsh Records.

ii. A Classification of Welsh Records according to their Repositories.

iii. The Welsh Records Classified Diplomatically. By Mr. HUBERT HALL, F.S.A., Director of the Royal Historical Society.....40

 

Archbishop Peckham: with Appendix containing an Extract from the Records of the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury. By J. WILLIS BUND, F.S.A......58

 

Correspondence: "Owain Lawgoch." By Mr. W. LLEWELYN WILLIAMS, B.C.L......87

 

“Owain Lawgoch: a Rejoinder." By Mr. EDWARD OWEN.....98

 

 

 

 

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(x13) SOME DIALECTAL BOUNDARIES IN MID-WALES: WITH NOTES ON THE HISTORY OF THE PALATALIZATION OF LONG A.*

 

* Read before the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion at 20, Hanover Square, on Wednesday, 8th May, 1901. Chairman, Principal Rhys, LL.D.

 

BY THOMAS DARLINGTON, M.A.

(H.M. INSPECTOR OF SCHOOLS FOR THE ABERYSTWYTH DISTRICT).•*

 

*In the phonetic notation used in this paper all symbols have their usual Welsh value, where the contrary is not indicated but the distinction between and close vowel-sounds is expressed by printing the former in italics; thus (ē) represents the long open heard in English care, (ō) the vowel in Welsh dol, as pronounced in Carnarvonshire. The extra symbols for English sounds are provided as follows: - (ô) represents the long open vowel in E. shawl: (æ) the short Southern English a, as in man: (ə) the short English u, in cut; and () the obscure vowel so common in unaccented syllables in English. All letters or words written in this phonetic notation are enclosed within brackets.

 

 

THE district with which I propose to deal in the present paper, and which is commonly, though rather loosely, known as Mid-Wales, may be defined as comprising the whole of the county of Merioneth with North Cardiganshire on the west, and the whole of the counties of Montgomery and Radnor with the adjacent portions of Denbigh and Brecknock on the east. The district thus belongs partly to North, and partly to South Wales, but I need scarcely remind my present audience that in the region of dialectal investigation this geographical distinction is quite irrelevant, since many of the dialectal phenomena popularly

 

 

 

 

 

 

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 (x14) 14 SOME DIALECTAL BOUNDARIES IN MID-WALES.

 

supposed to be specially characteristic of South Wales are found to exist equally in a large portion of Montgomery and Merioneth also. This is the ease with respect to two of the three points I propose to consider this evening, viz., the South Welsh pronunciation of u and initial chw. As to the third point, the palatalized or so-called “narrow” pronunciation of long a, I hope to show that any attempt to discriminate between North and South Wales in this connexion would be especially misleading, since this pro- nunciation was in its origin characteristic of the border country of Mid and South Wales alike.

 

I proceed to describe, in the first place, the northern boundary of what is known as the South Welsh pronunciation of u (y), as in bu, llys, ufudd, hyn; that is to say, the pronunciation which makes no distinction between i and u. Starting from the coast near Tonfannau Station on the Cambrian Railway, this boundary-line runs through Rhoslefain and Llanegryn, then passes to the south of Abergynolwyn, and crosses the hill to Esgairgeiliog; thence leaving Corris and Aberllefenni to the north, it runs down Cwmllecoediog to Aberangell. From this place to Llanerfyl in the valley of the Banw, the boundary-line is formed by the watershed which separates the valley of the Banw and those of its tributaries from the valleys watered by the tributaries of the Dovey. From Llanerfyl the line crosses the ridge between the Banw and the Vyrnwy (here also called the Bechan), passes between Pont Dolanog and Pont Robert, and then, leaving Llwydiarth and Llanfihangel-yng-Nghwynfa well to the north, follows the watershed between the Vyrnwy and the Cain to Llansaintffraid, where the English-speaking portion of Montgomeryshire is reached. Llansaintffraid itself is for the most part English-speaking, but so far as can be ascertained, the South Welsh pronunciation of u predominates

 

 

 

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(x15) DIALECTAL BOUNDARIES IN MID-WALES. 15

 

among those of the place who still speak Welsh.

 

Where in the above statement the boundary-line is said to pass through a village it is meant that the pronunciation of the vowel u is found to be mixed, either in the sense that some of the inhabitants use the S.W. vowel, and some the N.W. vowel, as is the case at Rhoslefain and Bwlchycibau; or that an intermediate vowel, very like the ordinary English (short) i, is used, as is the case at Llanerfyl.

 

There can be no doubt that the area of the S.W. vowel is spreading northward. This is partly due the spread of a knowledge of English, since careless bilingual speakers will not trouble to distinguish sufficiently between the English i and the N.W. u. The influence of the school often reinforces this tendency. Children who have been taught in their English reading lesson to pronounce the English sit correctly, tend to pronounce the Welsh sut in precisely the same way, unless they have been systematically drilled in the difference between the two sounds. But the spread of the S.W. vowel is also due the influence of certain market-towns, such as Machynlleth and Towyn. For instance, although in the above statement I have placed Corris distinctly within the N.W. area, a tendency to use the S.W. vowel is to be clearly traced among the younger inhabitants of the place. This is undoubtedly due to the fact that the railway has brought the Corris people of late years into much closer touch with Machynlleth, while their connexion with Dolgelly has been proportionately weakened.

 

I come now to the pronunciation of initial chw as wh, i.e., as a voiceless w plus an aspirate. On the western side of the country the northern boundary of this pronunciation is a little difficult to fix with precision, as the ch

 

 

 

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(x16) 16 DIALECTAL BOUNDARIES IN MID-WALES.

 

before w is, in the district of Aberdovey and Machynlleth, pronounced so weak as to approximate to the S.W. sound, which frequently replaces In Machynlleth itself the S.W. sound predominates, though not to the exclusion of the standard pronunciation, which persists especially in an intervocalic position, as in tri a chwech. The influence of literary Welsh also tends in favour of the introduction of the N.W. sound, even where it is not native. For example, the N.W. sound is heard at Llanbrynmair, but I am nevertheless convinced that the S.W. pronunciation is the normal one at this place. This mixed pronunciation extends right up the Dovey valley as far as Aberangell, from which point onwards the boundary-line becomes practically coincident with that between the N. and S. pronunciations of u. There is always fringe of country, however, to the north of the u-line, where the ch is very indistinctly pronounced. Thus, at Hafod in the parish of Llanerfyl, at Llangadfan, Pont Dolanog, Llwydiarth and Llanfihangel, and again at Llanfyllin and Llanfechain in the valley of the Cain, a weak ch is usual. It is not, until we reach such places as  Garthbeibio, Llanwddyn, Hirnant, Llanrhaiadr-yn-Mochnaut, that a full and distinct chw is pronounced, as in Carnarvonshire or North Merionethshire. Places on the u-line tend to the South Welsh rather than the North Welsh pronunciation of chw; at Llanerfyl, for example, the weak ch sometimes heard appears to be exceptional. South and east of the u-line, e.g., at Pont Robert, Llanfair Caereinion, Meifod, the N. W. pronunciation of chw is never heard in colloquial Welsh.

 

I have now to describe the geographical limits within which “narrow” long (as in glās, māes) prevails in Mid-Wales. Both the northern and, up to a certain point, the southern boundaries of this dialectal district are

 

 

 

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(x17) comparatively easy to define, as they are for the most part coincident with natural boundaries, such as watersheds or rivers.

Starting from the coast, the northern boundary is as follows: — First, Traeth Bach; then the boundary between the parishes of Llandecwyn and Maentwrog; then that between the parishes of Maentwrog and Trawsfynydd; then, succecssively, the watersheds between the Mawddach and the Dee, the Dee and the Vyrnwy, the Dee and the Ceiriog, the Ceiriog and the Tanat. The boundary line meets the English border at Llansilin, where both the narrow and the broad sounds are heard from natives. It then excludes Rhydycroesau and the upper valley of the Cynllaith. As to the Welsh region to the east of the English border, the testimony of place-names, such as Llwyn-y-maen (me:n), between Trefonen and Oswestry, as compared with Caeglas (kai-glas) in Oswestry, points to the dialectal boundary being coincident with the parish boundary between Trefonen and Oswestry. It is, however, difficult to be certain what the native pronunciation of Welsh in Trefonen really is, as English now predominates there, and of these who speak Welsh, many seem to be immigrants.

The southern boundary is as follows:  — First, the low ridge of hills between Eglwysfach and Tre’rddol in North Cardiganshire, then the Plynlymon watershed, or what comes to the same thing, the boundary between the counties of Montgomery and Cardigan. When the border of Radnorshire is reached, the river Elan becomes the boundary, until its junction with the Wye. From this point, eastward and southward, we are dealing with a purely English-speaking district, and are therefore driven back upon the evidence afforded by the pronunciation of place names. So far as can be judged by this kind of

 

 

 

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(x18) evidence, which is often meagre enough for the purpose, the Wye now becomes the boundary, certainly as far as Builth, though the degree of palatalization is here slight. The line then turns southward in the direction Brecon, where Llanfaes is pronounced (Lanvēs). I am unable to indicate precisley the direction of the boundary-line from this point to the borders of Gwent and Morgannwg. But the enquiries I have made leave no doubt on my mind that the palatalized pronunciation of long a, here equivalent to (ē). is normal in the pronunciation Welsh place-names over the whole of English-speaking Breconshire between the Wye and the Usk. This point appears to have been missed by previous writers on the subject, and it is of course of great importance, since the gap is thus bridged over between the two great dialectal regions in which the narrow long a has been recognized as prevailing, namely, the Mid-Wales region on the one hand, and that of Gwent and Morgannwg on the other. It therefore follows that this this be regarded as the normal pronunciation of Welsh long a all along the border from Oswestry to the mouth of the Wye. It should be added that a palatalized pronunciation of ā (or āe) occurs sporadically in names of places which lie as far outside the above defined area as, e.g., Llandovery, Aberystwyth, and Cardigan.

The palatalization varies considerably in character in different parts of the defined area, all the main stages through which Elizabethan long a in English has passed in its progress towards its present diphthongized pronunciation (ei), being represented in Mid-Wales. On the fringes of the district, e.g., at Llanrhaiadr and Trawsfynydd or Talsarnau, the sound heard is the long vowel corre­sponding to the short a (æ) in Southern English man: e.g., y gath fach (giǣth vǣch). Nearer the centre, e.g., at Llanbrynmair or Dolgelley, it is an open e-sound, like the

 

 

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(x19)

 

 

vowel-sound in E. care (y giēth vēch). Finally, over the whole of the anglicised portion of the district, it is a close e-sound, like the vowel-sound in E. Kate, when pronounced as a monophthong, e.g., Vronlas (vronlēs), Maesmawr (mēsmor). The development of this close e from the open e of the Welsh-speaking districts is probably to be regarded as a purely English phenomenon. The same may be true of the short (æ) as in man, which is used in Radnorshire. There is no trace of this short (æ) in any Welsh-speaking district, except in the solitary instance of mam, where presumably the palatalization has either been caused, or preserved, by habitual collocations such as “tad a mam”, “mam bach” (mæm bǣch, mem bēch). Short (æ) appears to be equally unknown to the dialect of tho English-speaking districts of Montgomeryshire. The Severn valley pronunciation of cat, catch, is consistently (kiat, kiatsh),*

*It is worth while to observe here that the palatalization of an initial k or g is in no wise dependent on the palatalization of the following a. Palatalized k and g occurs regularly before short (a) in Montgomeryshire; e.g., afon gam (avon giam); and before both short and long (a) in South East Carnarvonshire: e.g. (gi
āth). A precisely similar phenomenon ia observable in the English border dialects of Cheshire and North Shropshire, where also guttural consonants are palatalized before long and short (a) as well as before palatal vowels.

not (kiæt, kiætsh), as in Radnorshire.

It remains to notice the treatment of the diphthongs of which long a forms the first element, viz. āe and āw. Both of these diphthongs are at present pronounced in the Welsh-speaking parts of the district under consideration, and in all but the easternmost fringe of the English-speaking portions, with the narrow a. But there is reason to suppose that, at any rate as regards āe, the narrowing of the a took place later, and probably much later, than in the simple vowel. This seems to follow from the fact that

 

 

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(x20) in the parts of the district where Welsh died out earliest, the broad sound is preserved in place-names in the first element of ae, though the simple vowel has the narrow pronunciation. Examples from different points along the border are: — Porth-y-Waen near Oswestry, Caegweision in the parish of Kinnerley, Cae-gwy in the parish of Churchstoke, Maes-y-crwyn in the parish of Chirbury, Maes-gwaster near Knighton (on the Salop side of the border). In the foregoing examples, which it will be noticed are nearly all from Shropshire, the ae is diphthongally pronounced, viz., as (ai). Some instances from Radnorshire, on the other hand, simplify the diphthong into ā; e.g., Maesgwyn (two miles east of Llanbadarn-fynydd) pronounced (Mās-gwin), Blaencwm in the parish of Llangynllo, pronounced (Blānkwm). Blaen-y-plwyf (blain -plwiv or blein plwiv) in the parish of Bleddfa, retains the diphthongal sound, but the occurrence of Cae Huw with the simple front vowel (k’ē) in the same neighbourhood, suggests that the word meant is really Blaenau plwyf, and if so, the treatment of the ae in the penultimate, where of course the first element of the diphthong is not long, would be quite normal; compare the pronunciation of Llaethty (leiti), commonly spelt Llaithdu, in the parish of Llanbadarn-fynydd. In an unaccented position the diphthong ae frequently becomes a short monophthong (æ): thus Blaen-y-cwm in the parish of Llandewy Ystradenny, where blaen is pronounced (bln). In the south of Radnorshire and in Brecknockshire maes is regularly thus shortened in an unaccented position; for example Maesllwch, Maescoed, (Măslwk, Măskōd). Many of these shortenings are in all probability very old, as is certainly the case with Cascob (= Cae Esgob). *

 

*Compare the following shortenings of the simple vowel from the English-speaking region near Oswestry: Caeglas (Kaiglăs) in Oswestry, Plas Griffith, Plas gwyn (Plăzgriffith, Plăzgwín), in Whittington.

 

 

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SOME DIALECTAL BOUNDARIES IN MID-WALES 21

 

The instance of broad long a for ae from the neighbourhood of Llanbadarn Fynydd, given above, appears to indicate that the palatalization of ae is a very recent phenomenon, as the broad a is only preserved in purely English-speaking districts, and the village of Llanbadarn Fynydd, at any rate, did not become such until after the middle of last century. The same conclusion is suggested by the occasional pronunciation of ae as (ēĕ), which one hears from older people in the Welsh-speaking districts of Mid-Wales. The tradition of the diphthong is, as it were, preserved in this pronunciation, the two elements, similar as they are, not yet having had time to become fused.

 

Before proceeding further, it will be well to call special attention to the extent of country over which the long palatalized a has been shown to exist. It is used in the greater part of Glamorganshire, throughout the whole of the counties of Monmouth, Radnor, and Montgomery, Over much of Brecknock and Merioneth, and it also affects portions of Cardigan, Denbigh, and Salop. By far the greater part of the population of Wales use it, either in their everyday speech, or at least in their pronunciation of local place-names. Although large tracts of the country over which it prevails have been lost to the Welsh language, it is probably still the habitual and natural pronunciation of nearly half the Welsh-speaking population of Wales and the Marches. It is clear that we have here to do with a most important and widely spread dialectal phenomenon. In fact there is no other divergence from the normal Welsh sound-system of anything like the same degree of importance, with the possible exception of the two points we have already considered, namely, the i (for u) and hw (for chw) of South Wales. My reason for insisting upon the importance of the long narrow a will be evident in connexion with the discussion of the question

 

 

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(x22) — to which I now proceed — as to the period when this long palatal a was developed.

 

It has hitherto been assumed that the palatalization of long a, at any rate in Mid-Wales, is very old, dating in fact to a period anterior to the earliest written monuments in the Welsh language. I am heterodox enough to believe, on the contrary, that it is not older than the 17th century. My reasons are, briefly, that prior to that century, there is an entire absence of evidence of its existence, either in the history of the language, or in the literature, or in the statements of grammatical and phonetic authorities.

 

I proceed in the first place to give some reasons for supposing it to have been unknown to Old and Medieval Welsh.

 

Sometime before the 8th century, all original long a's in Welsh (in accentuated syllables, at all events) had become aw. The dialects of Mid-Wales formed no exception to this rule. Here, as elsewhere, the old Welsh long a, whether native or borrowed, is consistently represented aw, as in brawd, fffawd. Nor does the first element of this diphthong, in its present day pronunciation, shew any sign of palatalization, except only in open monosyllables, as llaw, rhaw, etc., where the first element was lengthened later, and so became subject to the same influences as have affected the simple long vowel.

 

We find, then, no trace of the palatalization of long a in Mid-Wales up to the 8th century.

 

At some time after the change of original long a to aw was completed, or at least well advanced, a new set of long a's came into existence in Welsh, owing to the lengthening of original short a before certain consonants, such as s, d; e.g., glas, tad. But this lengthening took place only in monosyllables, the original short quality of

 

 

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(x23) the vowel being preserved in all other cases: thus we have Glăscwm and Gwenlăs corresponding to glās, tădau corresponding to tād. The new long a's were also reinforced by the introduction of Norman-French or English words containing long a, as plās. These foreign long a's accommodated themselves in all respects to the native rule of correspondence between longs and shorts, so that while the a of plas retained its length in the monosyllabic singular plās, it became short in the dissyllabic plural plăsau.

 

This law of correspondence between long and short vowels was probably established early, though I am not aware that we have the means of fixing the date with any approximation to accuracy. It was, however, fully carried out in the Middle Welsh period. The point of importance for my present purpose is that whensoever this correspondence was established, the development of narrow long a in Mid-Wales or elsewhere must have been posterior to it. The lengthening of short broad a in glas can only (at first) have given long broad a, and not a narrow long a, such us is heard in Mid and South-East Wales. Again, the shortening of the vowel in plas must have taken place while it was still broad, or we should have had a narrow short a in plasau. But the correspondence of long narrow a with short broad a in spoken Welsh is, in the district under consideration, complete.

 

The conclusion we are entitled to draw from these phonetic considerations is that the development of long narrow a must be at any rate later than the First Middle Welsh period.

 

This conclusion is confirmed by the absence, so far as has been ascertained, of all trace of the long narrow a, whether as a monophthong or as the first element in a diphthong, in Mediaeval Welsh literature. I do not claim my such first-hand acquaintance with this literature as

 

 

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(x24) would justify me in speaking with confidence on this point of my own knowledge; but I am unable to discover by enquiry from Welsh scholars that any mediaeval poet who wrote in the districts which now use the narrow long a, shows any trace of this pronunciation, either in spelling or rhyme.

 

Now leaving the middle ages behind us, we come to the 16th century, where at length we find something in the nature of positive evidence that the long narrow a was then unknown in Wales. Our first witness shall be William Saleshury. In “A playne and a familiar introduction, teaching how to pronounce the letters in the Brytishe tongue, now commonly called Welshe... Set forth by W. Salesbury, 1550. And now, 1557, pervsed and augmented by the same:” we find the following statement, under the heading “The pronounciation of a.”

 

“A in the British in euerye word hath ye true pronounciation of a in Latine. And it is neuer sounded like the diphthong au as the Frenchmen sounde it commynng before m or n, in theyr toungue, nor so fully in the mouth as Germaynes sound it in this woord wagen, .... But as I sayd before a in Welsh hath alwayes but one sound, what so euer letter it folow or go before, as in these wordes ap, cap, whych haue the same pronounciation and signification in both the tongues” — i.e., in Welsh and English.

 

The identification of the Welsh vowel with the Latin a, its slight differentiation from the German a in wagen, and finally its identification with the a of contemporary English pronunciation, all make it certain that Salesbury's Welsh a was the broad guttural a of North Wales, and that he knew no other. In the “litle treatyse of the

 

 

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(x25) englyshe pronounciation of the letters” which he prefixed to his Dictionary, published in 1547, he had already stated the identity of the English and Welsh a as follows:—

 

“A Seisnic sydd vn natur ac (a) gymreic / val y may yn eglur yn y geirieu hyn o saesnec ale/aal: ac ymhymraec kwrw; pale/paal: sale/saal.”

 

I need scarcely remind the members of this learned Society that at the time Salesbury wrote, and for some time after, the English long a retained its mediaeval value, that is, it was identical with the a of French, Italian and Spanish. This is made quite certain by the statements of contemporary authorities. It is also a necessary inference from the present pronunciation in Welsh of those borrowed words, the date of the introduction of which can be assigned with certainty to the Elizabethan period, such as tatws. A pronunciation such as (potētoz) could only have given tetws in Welsh, and not tatws.

 

 

Salesbury, then, clearly knew nothing of the long narrow a. This, perhaps, would prove little as to its existence or otherwise, if we were not able to point to the fact that Salesbury was an acute and precise observer of phonetic and dialectal differences. In the treatises from which I have already quoted he does actually make a point of noting variations from standard pronunciation, both in Welsh and English, See his remarks in the “litle treatyse “, s.v. gh*

 

* “A vegys y mayn anhowddgar gan saeson glywed rhwnck y llythyr hon gh / velly may Kymbry deheubarth yn gwachel son am ch, ond lleiaf gallant. Can ti ay klywy hwy yn dywedyt hwaer a hwech lle ddym ni o ogledd kymbry yn dywedyt chwaer a chwech.”

 

and l (ll),*

 

* “Ond yn rhyw wledydd yn lloecr val w y traythant l / ac ll mewn rhyw eirieu val hyn bowd yn lle bold: bw dros bull / caw dros cal. Ond nid yw fath ddywediat onid llediaith / ac nid peth yw ddylyn oni vynny vloysci y gyd a bloyscon.”

 

 

and in the “Introduction”,

 

 

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(x26) s.v. ch, f *,

 

* “I my selfe haue heard Englysh men in some countries of England sound f, euen as we sound it in Welsh. For I haue marked their maner of pronounciation, and speciallye in soundinge these woordes: voure, vine, disvigure, vish, vox: where they would say, foure, fine, disfigure, fish, fox, &c.”

 

and u.’ *

 

* Therefore who so euer wyll distynctlye learne the Welsh sound of u let hym once gette care to a Northern Welsh man, whan he speaketh in Welsh, the wordes that signifie in English obedient (or) chaff singlerly: whyche be these in Welshe, uvudd, usun...

 

Thys u is more in vre wyth vs of North Wales than wyth theim of the South parteis; whose wryters abuse it, whan they wryte thus, un yn for yn un.”

 

(All the above quotations from Salesbury, as also those given later from Wallis and Cooper, are copied from Ellis’ “Early English Pronunciation.)

 

His observations on the Southwalian pronunciation of u and chw are especially significant in this respect, for, important as these dialectal phenomena undoubtedly were, they were, if anything, less likely to strike Salesbury’s atTention than the long narrow a, if it existed. Assuming it that it did exist, and had reached its present limits, it not only occupied all the most accessible parts of Wales, but was actually used within Salesbury’s own county of Denbigh. The presumption is therefore as strong as it well could be that, as Salesbury is silent about any such pronunciation of the long a, it did not then exist.

 

A similar line of argument is applicable to a passage in Dr. John David Rhys’ Cambro-Brytannicae Cymraecaeve Linguae Institutiones et Rudimenta (London, 1592), to which my attention was first called by Professor Anwyl. Speaking of the letter a the author says (p. 7):

 

“Hanc literam cymraei, oris rictu mediocriter hiante, spiritusque conatu decoro et venusto, moderata etiam vocis tum claritate, tum apertione pronunciant.

 

“Cymraece igitur hoc elementum proferre volenti, non minus A clausi crassive vitandus est obscurior sonus, quam eius qui vel ab impense constrictis bronchi musculis formatur angustus nimis

 

 

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(x27) exilisque, et puerirum vagitui non absimilis, vel qui a plus iusto nonnullorum affectata et effeminata oris diductione audiri solet.

 

“Itali praesertim Hetrusci tum vernacle tum Latine loquentes, omnium optime hoc cymraecum, apertum et clarum A proferunt, quod olim a nobis.... observatum est. . .

 

“Angli istud A fere edunt in vocibus Pale, ale, sale, wan, pan, phan, &c. at non in vocibus hall, shall, call, mall: ubi A ante ll geminatum crassius auditur: neque in dictionibus quibus mulierculae nonnullae & puellae anglicanae nimis anguste ipsum A expediunt, quum pro shame shæme, pro marie mærie, pro Jane Iæne, pro James Iæmes, pro chamber chæmber, etc., pronunciant.”

 

The author’s description of the Welsh a in the first paragraph above quoted is hardly precise enough to satisfy a modern phonetician: nor is the identity of the three sounds with which he proceeds to contrast it clear beyond a doubt, though I think the sounds he probably had in mind were what Dr. Sweet would call low-back-narrow, low-front-wide, and low-back-wide respectively. When, however, he tells us that the “clear, open Welsh a” was pronounced precisely as in Latin and Italian, we know that we are following a safe guide: for John David Rhys was a famous scholar both in Latin and Italian, and had resided long in Italy, where he had taken his Doctor’s decree at the University of Sienna, and had even written a learned book in Italian. His testimony, therefore, as to the identity of the Welsh with the Italian a is unimpeachable. He recognises no other pronunciation of a in Welsh; the normal English a, he tells us, is practically the same, though he does mention, with a fine scholarly contempt, another pronunciation, affected by a few women and girls in England, in which the a was being modified in the direction of e.

 

Now, assuming that the palatalized pronunciation of long a in Mid and South-East Wales was then in existence, is it conceivable that John David Rhys should not have been aware of it, and being aware of it, should not have mentioned it? It must be borne in mind that the

 

 

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28 SOME DIALECTAL BOUNDARIES IN MID-WALES.

 

greater part of the years during which he resided in Wales were spent in, or in close touch with, the very region where the palatalized pronunciation is now in vogue. His childhood and part of his adult life were passed at St. Donat's, in Glamorganshire. He composed the major part of his Welsh Grammar at the house of Morgan Meredith, near Beguildy, in Radnorshire, where he was frequent and a welcome guest. At other times he lived on his own little property at Clun Hir, near the Brecon Beacons.*

 

* “A'mwyaf parth o'r llyfr yma a fyfyriwyd ac a feddyliwyd yn gyntaf, ynn Nhy y Pendefic M. Morgan Meredydd o ymyl y Bugeildy ynn Nyffryn Tafida o fywn Swydd Faesyfed: ynn y lle lawer gwaith y bu fawr fy nghroeso, a'm hansawdd o fwyt a llyn, gan y gwrda a'r 'wreicdda. Eithr diweddbarth y Llyfr hynn, a fyfyriwyd dann berthi a dail gleision mywn gronyn o fangre i mi fyhunan a elwir y Clun Hir, ym mlaen Cwmm y Llwch, a thann Odreuon Mynydd Ban-nwchdéni. Rhai a eilw y Mynydd hynn (Bann Arthur) eraill (Moel Arthur)." Address to the Welsh people, prefixed to the above-mentioned work.

 

He must therefore have been familiar with the palatal pronunciation of long a, if it existed, from a child, and it must, one would think, have seemed to him the normal and correct pronunciation. Let us suppose, however, that he was led to reject his native pronunciation in favour of one which appealed to him as being more in harmony with Italian and English modes of speech. Is it in that case likely that he would have failed to condemn the despised pronunciation, when used by others of his fellow-countrymen? We have seen that he does condemn a similar fashion of speech on English lips, though only used by a few women and girls. How, while seeing so clearly the mote in the eye of his English neighbours, could he have neglected to point out the beam that was in his countrymen's eye? It is fairer to conclude that the beam did not exist.

 

It may serve to confirm the conclusions we have already

 

 

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29 SOME DIALECTAL BOUNDARIES MID-WALES.

 

reached, if we briefly mention the fact that Dr. Davies, of Mallwyd, writing in the very heart of what is now the district of: the palatal a, makes no mention of it, though his reference on p. 3 of his Grammar to the South Welsh treatment of chw shows him to have been not unobservant of dialectal distinctions. Both in his Grammar and his Dictionary, he equates Welsh a with Latin a, without further explanation. Thus down to the end of the 16th century, and even for some years later, there is no sign of the narrow long in Welsh. But when we get to the middle of the 17th century, we at last begin to come upon its traces. I have now to invite your attention to the statements made about the pronunciation of the Welsh a by two of the most famous English phoneticians of the seventeenth century, viz., John Wallis, author of the Grammatica Lingvae Anglicanae (1st ed., 1653), and C. Cooper, author of a work with the same title, published in 1685.

 

Treating of the palatal vowels, Wallis says about a: - “Majori apertura formatur Anglorum a, hoc est a exile. Quale auditur in vocibus, bat, vespertilio; bate, discordia; pal, palla Epis- copalis: pale, pallidus; Sam (Samuelis contractio); same, idem; lamb, agnus; lame, claudus; dam, mater (brutorum); dame, domina; bar, vectis; bare, nudus; ban, execror: bane, pernicies, etc.... Cambro-Britanni, hoc sono solent suum a pronunciare."

 

Cooper's remarks, so far as they concern us, are to much the same effect:—

 

“A formatur à medio linguae ad concavum palati paululum elevato.... In his can, possum, pass by, a corripitur, in cast, jacio, past, pro passed praeteritus, producitur. Frequentisgimus auditur hic sonus apud Anglos, qui semper hoc modo pronunciant a latinum, in amabam. Sic etiam apud Cambro-Britannos....”
 

In the passages just quoted, Wallis and Cooper agree in describing the English short a as a palatal vowel, and there can be no reasonable doubt that the sound they both indicate is (æ). This sound, the ordinary Southern

 

 

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30 DIALECTAL BOUNDARIES IN MID-WALES.

 

short a as in that, is a very old one in English. It was the normal representative of Germanic short a in Old English times, and can be traced in Southern speech as late as the middle of the 14th century. We then lose sight of it for a time, though it doubtless continued to be used in the spoken English of the South. The standard English dialect, however, preferred the broad a still used in the Midlands and the North of England. The latter is the sound recognised by Salesbury, John David Rhys, and other writers of the 16th century. But sometime during that century came in the tendency towards the palatalization of English a referred to in the passage already quoted from J. D. Rhys, and under the influence of this tendency short (a) was in the 17th century deposed favour cf (æ): (ðæt) again became the standard pronunciation, as it had been before the Conquest. A long (ǣ), exactly corresponding in quality, was used in Wallis' time in such words as bate (bǣt). By Cooper's time the a in bate had become an open e, (bēt); but (ǣ) was used in such words as cast, barge, path, which are now pronounced by educated Southern English speakers with the broad (ä) .*

 

*This long (ǣ) was developed from original short (æ) before certain consonants and consonantal combinations, and hence it never affected those English dialects which did not use the short (æ). Similarly we find such words as father, cast, cart, path, master, pronounced at the present time with the long (ǣ) in Radnorshire where the short (æ) is regularly used, while the long (ǣ) is unknown to the Montgomeryshire dialect of English, which uses the broad short a.

 

Now Wallis and Cooper both proceed to state that this palatal English a, i.e. (æ) was also used in Welsh. Apparently, their statements must be taken as referring to both the long and short vowel; to that we will return directly. The important point to observe is that a palatal Welsh a which was unknown to Salesbury and J. D. Rhys in the 16th century, and even to Dr. Davies, of Mallwyd,

 

 

 

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SOME DIALECTAL BOUNDARIES IN MID-WALES. 31

 

in the early part of the 17th, and made its appearance by the middle of the latter century. And as the broad English a had developed in the same direction at the same time, the inference is almost inevitable that the two phenomena are connected together.

 

My theory is that the palatal a developed in both languages pari passu in the mouths of the bilingual speakers of the eastern border, and that its extension to the Welsh hinterland was a gradual later process.

 

The existence of a large bilingual population on the eastern frontier of Mid and South Wales in the 17th century is scarcely open to doubt. It is equally certain that the inferior of the country, with the exception of the market-towns, was almost purely Welsh-speaking. John Penry's testimony, in his Humble Supplication (Oxford, 1587), is decisive for his own time on both points. I quote the locus classicus in full:—

 

“Admit we cannot haue Welsh preachers, yet let vs not be without English, where it is vnderstood. There is neuer a market towne in Wales where English is not as rife as Welsh. From Cheapstow to Westchester (the whole compasse of our land) on the Sea-side they all vnderstand English. Where Munmoth & Radnock shiers border vppon the marches, they all speake English. In Penbrok sheer no great store of Welsh. Consider Anglisey, Mam-gymru, Caernaruon, and see if all these people must dwel vpon mount Gerizzin and be subiect to the curse, because they understand not the English toung.”

 

The omission of any mention of Brecknock in this passage is curious, unless we suppose that Radnock is an error of the Oxford printer for “Radnor and Brecknock." It is more probable, however, that Brecknock was in Penry's time shielded from Anglicising influences by the fringe of Welsh-speaking country in Herefordshire, and that its bilingual period began somewhat later. The two Vaughans, born 1621 at Newton, in the parish of

 

 

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32 SOME DIALECTAL BOUNDARIES IN MID-WALES.

 

Llansaintffraed, Breconshire, spoke nothing but Welsh in their youth. The country about Hay aud for some distance up the valley of the Wye, however, became Anglicised early, and was probably in Penry's time as bilingual as Radnorshire. Welsh was evidently loosening its hold at this time upon the borders of Montgomeryshire, for Lord Herbert of Chirbury tells us that in 1592, when he was a lad of ten, it was found necessary to send him to Plas-y-ward in Denbighshire to learn Welsh, "to enable me to treat with those of my friends and tenants who understood no other language.” The bilingual period, however, lasted at other points of the border all through the 17th century. Welsh services were not finally discontinued at Beguildy Church until about 1730. Vavasor Powell, who was born at Knucklas, certainly spoke Welsh, for his license to preach, dated September 11th, 1646, sets forth that he was authorised to “exercise his gifts in his own countrey of Wales, he also having the language thereof". There is, however, little need to multiply proofs of the existence of a bilingual belt of country along the border of Mid and South Wales in the 17th century, since the very fact that a broad strip of Montgomeryshire, Radnorshire and Monmouthshire, with probably a bit of Brecknock, became exclusively English-speaking in the 18th century is sufficient to shew that there must have been a preceding period of considerable length during which the same districts were bilingual.

 

Penry's account of the linguistic condition of the interior of Wales tallies fully with the statement of Salesbury forty years earlier, “odit o blwyf ynkymbry eb Sasnigyddion ynthi," if we remember that Salesbury was thinking of literate persons, and Penry of the unlearned many. There is evidence that people throughout Wales were

 

 

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SOME DIALECTAL IN MID-WALES. 33

 

in the 17th century very well acquainted with English, though we must not forget that Lord Herbert of Chirbury had "friends as well as tenants", who understood only Welsh. As to the mass of the Welsh people away from the borders, there seems to be nothing to shew that English was better understood among them in the 17th century than in John Penry's time.

 

But whatever the linguistic condition of the interior may have been, there can be no doubt as to the existence of a considerable bilingual population along the border of Mid and South Wales in the seventeenth century; and these are precisely the conditions under which a phonetic change, such as that with which we are now concerned, would arise. It was not only natural, but inevitable, that a sound, originally identical in both languages, should change on the lips of bilingual people in one language when it began to change in the other. Such changes are brought about by imperceptible degrees, and their beginnings are not noticed. It is a matter of common experience that sounds which are similar, though not identical, are with difficulty kept apart by uneducated or half-educated bilingual speakers. It would be still more difficult for an ordinary bilingual speaker to observe a very minute differentiation of two sounds originally identical. Once the fashion of speech had established itself among the bilinguals of the eastern border, the extent to which it would affect their monoglot countrymen to the west would depend upon many conditions, among which the direction of trade-routes and the influence of market-towns would play an important  part. There is, of course, no difficulty in supposing that the palatalization of long a spread over the Welsh- speaking back-country of Montgomery and Merioneth during the period succeeding the 17th century. Fashions in

 

 

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34 SOME DIALECTAL BOUNDARIES IN MID-WALES.

 

speech spread rapidly. This very fashion did actually spread over the whole of England within the space of a century. We have noted above that neither Wallis nor Cooper, in asserting the identity of the Welsh with the English a, makes any distinction between the long and the short vowel. It is possible that they may have had only the long vowel in mind; but it is not necessary to assume this. As already stated, certain English-speaking border districts of Mid-Wales which were bilingual in the 17th century do actually use a palatal a (æ). The fact that all the Welsh-speaking, and some of the English-speaking, districts which have adopted the long palatal vowel, show practically no trace of a corresponding palatal short vowel, need not greatly trouble us. Long vowels are much more prone to change than short ones; and in the absence of evidence, it is equally easy to believe either that the palatalization of short a never affected the monoglot population of Wales, or that it affected them only temporarily. Those who take the latter view will regard the solitary instance of mam as a survival of a tendency which wag once more general.

 

It may be asked how it was that Wallis and Cooper give as Welsh without qualification a pronunciation which on the theory just expounded was only used on the bilingual border. The answer is that as neither of them, so far as is known, was personally acquainted with Welsh, it was precisely from bilinguists that they must have obtained their information; and that it did not concern their purpose to enquire whether various pronunciations of the Welsh a might not exist.

 

Another question which may naturally be asked is whether other similar changes in Welsh vowel-sounds can be shown to have taken place On the lips of bilingual speakers under similar circumstances. Three cases suggest

 

 

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SOME DIALECTAL BOUNDARIES IN MID-WALES. 35

 

themselves for consideration: viz., short w, as in hwn, and the diphthongs ai, awe, as in craig, mawr. In Salesbury's time the English equivalents of these sounds were u, as in cut, ai as in rain, and aw as in awe, respectively. Since then, while the Welsh sounds have remained the same, the corresponding English sounds have altered considerably, short u having been unrounded, and the two diphthongs having been simplified into monophthongs. These cases are, however, not quite parallel to the fronting of long a, for while the changes indicated were undoubtedly proceeding in the 17th century in standard English, their operation in respect to provincial dialects was partial and obscure. The unrounding of short E. u has not been even yet carried out in the Northern and North Midland dialects: and in Herefordshire the diphthongal pronunciation of ai, as in say, rain, is still heard. It may, however, be well to note such facts as I have been able to ascertain with regard to the treatment of these three sounds in the place-names of the English-speaking portion of the district of the narrow a.

 

Instances of the short w are hard to find; but in Knucklas (nәklәs), = Cnwcglas, the unrounding has certainly taken place. In Bwlch the rounding has been preserved by the analogy of English bull, full: e.g., Bwlch bach, near Nantmel (bwlk bēk). The treatment of the diphthong aw is interesting. It is equated with the English aw, as in awe, fall, by Salesbury. But in the next century the English diphthong had been simplified by most spetakers into deep a-sound,*

 

*The Northumbrian dialect preserves this sound approximately: fall = (fâl)

 

though Wallis implies that the older diphthong was still used by others. By the end of the century the diphthong had

 

 

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36 SOME DIALECTAL BOUNDARIES IN MID-WALES.

 

disappeared, and the a-sound later on developed into the present (ô). In accordance with these facts, we should expect the Welsh aw in place-names in East Radnorshire, which was bilingual in the 17th century, to be pronounced as and this is exactly what happens. Mawr is consistently so pronounced as (ô): e.g., Beili Mawr (môr), Llanbadarn Fawr (vôr). Porthcawl and Brynmawr in South Wales are pronounced with the vowel; but the late seventeenth-century stage of the history of the sound has been preserved in the American Brynmawr (Brinmär). Manaughty = Mynachty – a place-name which occurs twice in East Radnorshire - is a specially instructive example. Here an u-sound was inserted before the guttural spirant, as was regularly done in English; cp. taught (O. E. tǣhte, M. E. tahte, taughte). The diphthong thus formed then followed the normal English development, and the guttural being also lost in the usual way, from (Mynawchti) came (Mәnöti). The simplification of ai into e must have been much later,*

 

*But the simplification probably took place much earlier in unaccented than in accentod syllables, since such a pronunciation as (Kәrginant) for Craig-y-nant in Llanddewi Ystradenni could only have come through an intermediate Cregynént.

 

as the diphthongal pronunciation is still used by some of the Older Radnorshire people, who say (wai, rain) for way, rain; but ui is generally e in Radnor and the adjoining parts of Brecon, as I believe it is also in many parts of Monmouth: thus Bryncraig (crēg) in Llandewy, Graig (grēg) in several places in Radnorshire, Parc y brain (brēn) in Brecon. Rhayader, again, is locally pronounced (rēadәr). It will be seen that the above-mentioned facts, meagre though they are as a basis for positive conclusions, involve nothing that would in the least invalidate the main thesis of this paper, but confirm it as far as they go.

 

 

 

 

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SOME DIALECTAL BOUNDARIES IN MID-WALES.

 

Let me now anticipate another objection, which at first sight may appear a formidable one. It may be asked why this fronting of a into e, which was universal in England, affected only a part of Wales, viz., the hmterland of the border between Oswestry and Chepstow, and did not affect the hinterland of the border between Chester and Oswestry. I do not think that this objection constitutes a real diffeulty. In the first place, we hear remarkably little of bilingualism on the eastern borders of Denbigh and Flint in the 17th century. If a bilingual belt of country did exist there it was narrow and unimportant, otherwise the inroads of the English language during the succeeding century would have been as extensive in Denbigh and Flint as they undoubtedly were in Montgomery, Radnor. Hereford and Monmouth. All available evidence goes to show that in the 17th century English monoglottism marched closely with Welsh monoglottism all along the fringe of the two northern shires, just as it has continued to do almost down to our own day.

 

But even if the linguistic conditions prevailing in the 16th and 17th centuries could be shown to have been uniform along the whole Welsh border, a study of certain phenomena exhibited by the Cheshire dialect of English will suggest a very plausible reason why Denbigh and Flint should have been otherwise affected than the more southerly Welsh counties.

 

Let me remind you that the chief characteristic of the modern English vowel-shift, so far as it concerns the series ā, ē, ē, ī is that the last of the series, i, became a diphthong, and that then each remaining vowel of the series shifted one or more places to the right, each place as it became vacant being filled up by the vowel standing to the left of it in the above order. Thus, after the ī of M. E. wīn had become diphthong, M. E. seme (ē) passed

 

 

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38 SOME DIALECTAL BOUNDARIES IN MID-WALES.

 

into (sīm); M. E. seam (ē) passed through (sēm) and also became (sīm); and finally M. E. same (ä) passed through (sēm) into (sēm). An analogous process has taken place in connexion with the series ō, ō, ū.

 

Now one of the most remarkable peculiarities of the Cheshire dialect consists in this, that while it has in respect of this vowel-shift proceeded generally along the same lines of development as standard English, its vowel-sounds are in every case one stage in advance of those of the latter. Thus seme not only reached the form (sīm), but passed on into the diphthongal (seim); seam has also, through several intermediate stages, reached the diphthongal (seiәm); same has passed through the forms (sēm) and (sēm) into (sīm). The guttural series ō, ō, ū, has been analogously affected.

 

Owing to the fact that the phonology of English dialects has only in very recent times become the subject of precise investigation, it is of course impossible to say with certainty that the relative positions of the Cheshire dialect, and of standard English speech were the same in the 16th century as they are to-day, or as they were a hundred years ago, by which time the vowel-system of Cheshire had reached its present condition. But the probabilities are that they were; and if so, that means that the change of ā into ē was well advanced in the Cheshire dialect before the end of the 16th century. In other words, the ā-sound had ceased to exist On the English side of the Flint and Denbigh border before any considerable portion of the Welsh-speaking inhabitants of that border became bilingual, and therefore its later modification in the direction of ē could exert no influence on the Welsh speech of the latter.

 

It is necessary to add that what I have for convenience sake here called the Cheshire dialect really includes, for

 

 

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SOME DIALECTAL BOUNDARIES IN MID-WALES. 39

 

all the purposes of the argument, most of the English-speaking portions of Denbigh and Flint. The particular phenomenon which concerns us here, viz., the change of M.E. ā into (i) has not, I believe, been observed further south than Hanmer, but its range may have at one time extended still further to the south and south-west. Dialect boundaries tend to shift owing to a variety of external causes, and the influence of Shropshire habits of speech on this part of Flintshire is at the present time very noticeable.

 

 

 

..

Sumbolau:

a A / æ Æ / e E / ɛ Ɛ / i I / o O / u U / w W / y Y /
MACRON: ā
Ā / ǣ Ǣ / ē Ē / ɛ̄ Ɛ̄ / ī Ī / ō Ō / ū Ū / w̄ W̄ / ȳ Ȳ /
BREF: ă Ă / ĕ Ĕ / ĭ Ĭ / ŏ Ŏ / ŭ Ŭ / B5236:
 B5237:
ˡ ɑ ɑˑ aˑ a: / æ æ: / e eˑe: / ɛ ɛ: / ɪ iˑ i: / ɔ oˑ o: / ʊ uˑ u: / ə /
ʌ /
ẅ Ẅ / ẃ Ẃ / ẁ Ẁ / ŵ Ŵ /
ŷ Ŷ / ỳ Ỳ / ý Ý /
ɥ
ˡ ð ɬ ŋ ʃ ʧ θ ʒ ʤ / aɪ ɔɪ əɪ uɪ ɪʊ aʊ ɛʊ əʊ /

ә ʌ ẃ ă ĕ ĭ ŏ ŭ ẅ ẁ Ẁ ŵ ŷ ỳ Ỳ
wikipedia, scriptsource. org

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ǣ

 

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