[Spellyans] quyt/quit

[j.mills at email.com]

Cornish quit is borrowed from Old Norman French: quite, quitte; quit, quiet, quiete, which has a long vowel. Unless there is any good reason to suppose that the vowel became short after this word was borrowed, and I see no reason, then we should assume a long vowel and write this word qwit. 
Ol an gwella
Jon

_____________________________________ 
Dr. Jon Mills, 
School of European Culture and Languages, 
University of Kent



-----Original Message-----
From: nicholas williams <njawilliams at gmail.com>
To: Standard Cornish discussion list <spellyans at kernowek.net>
Sent: Mon, Feb 8, 2010 11:05 am
Subject: [Spellyans] quyt/quit


The word quyt, quit is well attested in the texts. It is used emphatically with in mes, 
dhe ves:



ow scoforn treghys myrough quyt the ves thyworth ow pen  PC 1144-45

ha tenna in mes quyt ha glan agan lell feith in mes agan colonow TH 45a

ny a gor quit mes a bys BK 1857.


Is the vowel long in this word (cf. Breton kuit) or is it short (cf. English quit)?


The spelling of <quyte> seen in han segh gallas quyte drethaf CW 1573


suggests that the vowel was long. In which case we should spell it <qwit>.
If the vowel is short, we should write <qwyt>.


What do others think?


Nicholas

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