[Spellyans] lyw & lew

Craig Weatherhill craig at agantavas.org
Fri Feb 11 14:24:50 GMT 2011


Pryce's word (pilot, steersman, helmsman) does turn up in place-names,  
where it is a personal name.

Craig


On 11 Whe 2011, at 13:18, nicholas williams wrote:

> And then there is also the question of Tregear's <lew> 'flood' and  
> <lew> 'colour' in CW.
> The form lew 'colour' means that the minimal pair liu ~ leu may not  
> be so.
> I recommend:
>
> lyw 'colour'
> lew 'lion'; in poetry and cf. the modern coinages lewes 'lioness',  
> lewyk 'lion cub'
> lew 'rudder'
> liv 'flood'; cf. the plural lyvyow in CW
>
> Neither lew 'lion' nor lew 'rudder' is attested in Middle Cornish.
> The usual word for 'to drive' (a car) in revived Cornish is lewyas,  
> but this word
> is not attested. The word lêuiader 'pilot' is given by Pryce, but  
> may derive from
> Lhuyd's Welsh form llywiawdr.
> The only attested word for 'to drive' in Cornish is seen in Tregear:
>
> pan rug an tas aga dryvya in mes a paradice TH 13
> Eff a ve dryvys war thyller TH 49a.
>
> Nicholas
>
> On 2011 Whe 11, at 13:00, Dr Jon Mills wrote:
>
>> The SWF gives LYW for 'rudder' and gives LEW for 'lion'. The  
>> attestations for these two items are as follows.
>> LYW: 'rudder', Old Cornish:  "clavus: leu pi obi" [Vocabularium  
>> Cornicum: 282];  Lhuyd (1707)  "lêụ" [48b]; "lêu" [16b]; "Lêụ  
>> gụrhal The rudder of a ship" [48b].
>> LEW: 'lion', Old Cornish:  "leo: leu" [Vocabularium Cornicum: 560];  
>> Lhuyd (1707)  "lêụ" [241b]; "† lhêụ" [78a].
>> Given that the attestations for these two items are identical,  
>> should we not spell these words the same way, i.e. <lew>?
>> Note: I am aware that Middle Cornish does not attest LEW and  
>> instead uses "lyon".
>> Ol an gwella,
>> Jon
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--
Craig Weatherhill





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