460 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



certainly to be found in Old Welsh, cf. BBC. p. 20, 1. 12 [ed. Skene] 

 huyf guas guinwydic, 'may I become a blessed servant &c. ;' 12,8 

 Crist, ny buv-e trist y'tb orsset, ' Christ, may 1 be not sad before 

 thy throne.' Or, cf. p. 304, 19 [from EBH.] bwyf derwin y duw 

 diheu, ' may I be ardently devoted to God ' ; or the usage in 

 B. Taliessin, p. 200,7,19 a'm bwyf-i gan Grrist, 'may I be with 

 Christ' ; 175, 8 hu bwyf y'th rat, ' may I be bold in thy grace.' 



Before citing examples of the use, it will be well to exhibit the 

 endings of the mood. 



The forms given in Zeuss^, p. 506, are as follows : — 



Sing. 1. caruim 



2. caruit 



3. caroi^ Passive — car-er 

 Plur. 1. carom 



2. caroch 



3. carointj caront. 



These are nearly identical with the modern forms : -wyf, -ych, ;. 

 -om, -och, -ont, except in the 2 sg., where we have a notable example 

 of a wrong text, for Ebel has (Zeuss^, p. 512) " in codice rubro -yt in 

 hoc exemplo, Tcyn nys gellyt (etsi non id potes), Mab. I., 268" ; but 

 the text, which occurs on p. 220, 18 in the new edition, has no such 

 portent, but the regular normal form, Tcyn nys gellych. 



I should further observe that I have not taken into consideration 

 the so-called imperfect tense of the subjunctive, simply because no 

 such form exists : the language of all periods uses the indicative 

 endings, and Welsh idiom says pei a's gwypwn [si id scirem], just as 

 French says, si je Vavais su. It is obvious therefore that the use of 

 the subjunctive can only be investigated from the instances in the 

 present tense, where the forms are quite distinct. 



Some grammarians of Modern "Welsh exhibit a tense which they 

 call the future-perfect tense, but as this is merely an adaptation to the 

 exigencies of Latin grammar, it is unnecessary to make more than 

 mere passing reference to this superfluity of terminology. 



[1 have not printed the peculiar vowel w, hecause the press has not got it in its 

 founts, and I did not think it of sufficient importance to have a letter cast specially. 



^ Very noteworthy is the singular omission of the formative -0, in the verbs 

 cl (eat), del (veniat), gwnel (faciat), instead of elo &c. But the fuller forms are all 

 found in Morgan's Job, cf. xiv. 20 fel yr elo; v. 21 pan ddelo ; delo, cf. xiii. 13 ; 

 xiv. 14 ; xxvii. 9 ; xli. 16 (mod. ddaiv) v. 12 fel na wnelo (mod. alio &c.) ; but 

 xKxvii. 15 pan wnel efe (mod. y givnaeth). 



