Re: re Mutations initial (in Welsh, for example) (was Re Re New conlang)

--- Rodlox <Rodlox@...> wrote:

> > He could have added that in Welsh focused elements
> are fronted.
>
> > Prynodd Huw  gar ddoe.
> > (bought Hugh car yesterday).
>
> >     English (cleft): It was Hugh who bought a car
> yesterday.
> >               Welsh: Huw (a) brynodd gar ddoe.
> [The (a) is normally
> > omitted in spoken Welsh]
>
> >     English (cleft): It was a car (that) Hugh
> bought yesterday.
> >               Welsh: Car (a) brynodd Huw ddoe.
>
> >     English (cleft): It was yesterday that Hugh
> bought a car.
> >               Welsh: Ddoe (y) prynodd Huw gar.
> [The (y) is normally
> > omitted in spoken Welsh]
>
> >               Welsh: Prynu gar ddoe (a) wnaeth
> Huw.
> >                      (Buy  car yesterday did
> Hugh).
> >
> > (The Welsh examples have the added interest of
> initial consonant mutation
>
>  um, if I might ask, how/where did it mutate?   as
> far as I can see,
> |prynodd| & |brynodd| became |prynu|...but wouldn't
> that be a suffix or
> affix to the opening word?
>
>  apologies if I'm misunderstanding what you mean by
> 'initial'.
>
Well, what happened was this:

prynu "buy"  (stem pryn-)

becomes:  pryn + odd   (3rd singular past tense)

Then in certain contexts, the "p" mutates to "b".
Since the "p" is at the beginning of the word, it is
called "initial consonant mutation".


Elliott.


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