The Four Ancient Books of Wales (Cymric Poems of the Sixth Century)

NOTE REGARDING THE WELSH TEXT

marthen, where "rereint" is written in the manuscript original: MS. instead of "redeint." Furthermore, the words are not always separated correctly, and it is difficult to distinguish between the letters u and n; often one was intended but the other was printed.

Regarding the spelling original: orthography, it should be noted that in old manuscripts, the tenues original: tenues; "voiceless" consonants produced without vibrating the vocal cords, such as p, t, or k. are frequently used among the "mute" consonants where modern spelling uses the mediæ original: mediæ; "voiced" consonants produced with vocal cord vibration, such as b, d, or g.. For example, final C and T are used instead of G and D. Additionally, the initial mutation A grammatical feature of Celtic languages where the first letter of a word changes depending on the word before it. only appears occasionally. However, even though these changes were not always written down, they seem to have been understood by the readers; for instance, the letter G sometimes represents its simple sound and at other times clearly represents the "ng" sound. An N sound must also sometimes be assumed to exist before the letters T and D.

An initial C is often represented by K. The sound of the modern Welsh F is represented by the letters U and V. The letter W (when following G or A) is written in older manuscripts as U or sometimes V; in the Book of Taliessin and the Red Book of Hergest Two of the most significant medieval Welsh manuscript collections, dating from the 14th century., it is represented by a unique character resembling the number 6. The diphthongs Two vowel sounds joined in one syllable, like "oi" in "oil." AI and AU appear as EI and EU, and the diphthong EI is represented by the letter Y.

The Old English-style capital letters used in this text represent the rubrical letters original: rubrical letters; large, decorative initial letters often written in red ink to mark the beginning of a new chapter or section. found in the original manuscripts.