Atkinson — On the Subjunctive Mood in Welsh. 461 



The old-style number 6, whidi sometimes is made to do duty for it, is a very poor 

 substitute, to which only dire necessity should make anybody have recourse. But 

 even in Mr. Evans' admirable transciipt of "Welsh Texts, the use of the letter is not 

 absolutely uniform. For we have, even in the same line, 168, i, the word kawat 

 spelt in both ways ; 51, 15 adopts the consonant, but 46, 18 has the voivel, form of 

 the letter, and so in scores of examples which I have noted down. Again, so far as 

 gw is concerned, when the g is elided the following vocalic w, now become initial, 

 is written as a consonant iv ; thus, we have, as a rule, 



with vocalic w, gweith, gwedy, gweleis &c. 



with consonant tc, tveith, wedy, weleis &c. 



I say, as a rule, but it is certainly not adhered to with absolute accuracy, for we 

 find vocalic iv in wnaeth 6, y ; but consonant w in tvnaeth, 6, x. 



Or again, at 96, x we find gwedy, with consonant «;-; so giveith 1, 2 &c. 



Obviously, irregularity in the use of a letter introduced for the sake of distinc- 

 tion, is not calculated to aid an ignorant student, who would find himself puzzled 

 by the following, with vocalic iv : wdost 31, x ; wdam 48, 21 ; 88, 13 ; 240, 3 but 

 with consonant ii' : 18,3; 36,22; 48,3; 129,22 &c. ; for here he would have a 

 difficulty in deciding from this text, whether he should say 



udost or '^dost ? 



So in gwreic, gwney, gwnant, gwnel &c., he would have to be specially directed 

 what to do with the accentuation or not of this vocalic w, which is written as a 

 consonant when the initial g is elided. 



However, the matter is not of importance in reference to the present paper, 

 which is concerned solely with the question of function, not of form. 3 



In general, the subjunctiYe mood is really suhjunctixe : it occui's 

 chiefly in dependent clauses, the use in principal clauses being confined 

 to the expression of the optative, where indeed it is common enough, 

 but mainly in the 3 sg. ; cf. such expressions as Fr. a Dieu ne plaise, 

 Dieu soit hue, grand lien vous fasse &c. 



It occurs in apodosis, at 6, 2, ar ny del yn. vuud, hymheller, 

 'he who will not come obediently, shall be compelled'; 199,22, 

 ny chatwyf Yj wyneb, ot af. 



Apparently used in the apodosis, with suppressed protasis, of 

 a hypothetic clause : 103, 16, namyn mab brenhin . . . neu y gerdawr 

 a dycko y gerd, ny atter y-mywn, ' unless [it were] the son of a 

 king . . . , or (unless it were granted) to a player bringiag his art, 

 nobody wotild be let in.' 



166, 10 a gwr du mawr . . . , ny 3o llei dim no deuwr wyr y 

 byt hwnn, ' and a big black man who [if he were measured] would 

 not be at all less than two of the men of this age.' 



Cf. also 103, 6 a thitheu ny lo teu dy benn byrr y kyuerchy di, 



