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394
Accidence
§ 204

chwiltath D.G. 319 (beside chwilota); annos ‘to incite’ (beside annog); gwastrod-edd Gr.O. 178, 300 from gwastrawd ‘groom’, suff. § 143 iii (13).

§ 204. i. Many verbal nouns have no verbs, but are used exactly like other v.n.’s in construction. Most of them have been named: cardota, blota, etc. § 201 iii (4) (a), cyfeddach, etc. § 203 i (3), germain, etc. § 203 ii (3); godro ‘to milk’; ym-lā́dd ‘to tire one’s self’ < *m̥bi-ləd‑, √lēd‑: Gk. ληδεῖν ‘to be tired’, Lat. lassus § 156 i (2); but ým-laẟ ‘to fight’, √qolād- § 101 ii (3), is conjugated throughout; § 41 i.

ii. The most important v.n.’s without verbs are byw ‘to live’ and marw̯ ‘to die’. They are also abstract nouns, and adjectives.

(1) They are v.n.’s after wedi, or yn with the radical, in periphrastic conjugation or forming participle equivalents:

Os marw bun, oes mwy o’r byd?
Mae’r haf wedy marw̯ hefyd.—T.A., c. ii 79.

‘If the maiden is dead does the world any longer exist? Summer is dead too.’

I fardd ydwyf, ar ddidol,
Yn brudd yn byw ar i ôl.—T.A., a 24980/166.

‘His bard am I, in seclusion, living sadly after him.’

Also when qualified by an adverbial expression consisting of yn and an adj., as byw’n gymwys W.Ỻ. f. 32 ‘to live justly’.

Gwell bedd a gorwedd gwirion
Na byw’n hir yn y boen hon.—D.G. 108.

‘Better the grave and innocent rest than to live long in this pain.’

(2) They are abstract nouns when qualified directly by adjectives, as marw mawr ‘great mortality’, byw da ‘good living’, or when they follow yn, with the nasal mutation:

Am ych dwyn ym myw ’ch dynion
Yr oerai’r sir, eryr Siôn.—T.A., g. 229.

‘Because you were taken in the lifetime of your men the shire became cold, eagle[-son] of Siôn.’

Also generally with prefixed pronouns: o dihenghy a’th vyw gennyt w.m. 476 ‘if thou escapest with thy life’: Mn. W. yn fy myw ‘in my life’, meaning ‘for the life of me’.