[Spellyans] 'special'

[nicholas williams]

It occurs in Lhuyd's preface where he uses many that are clearly based on Welsh:
e.g. rammatek 'grammar' (W gramadeg), tavazeth 'dialect' (W tafodiaeth), argrapha 'to print' (W argraffu),
nouedzhanz 'change' (W newidiad), arverezek 'customary' (W arferol), legrianz 'corruption' (W llygriad), etc.
The root of arbenning is Proto-British *arepenniko-, Celtic *arekwenniko-. The congener in Irish is
airchinneach 'leader, chief, erenagh', which is a noun. The original meaning of Welsh
arbennig was 'chief, principal'. The sense 'special' is a development in Welsh. 
This perhaps makes a Cornish origin for arbednek rather unlikely.

On 2011 Gor 27, at 12:59, Craig Weatherhill wrote:

> Do we know that Lhuyd invented it?  Or had he heard it used in speech?

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