Rhaifun (was Brithenig diphthongs)

["Raymond A. Brown" <raybrown@macline.co.uk>]

At 10:46 am -0400 18/5/98, John Cowan wrote:
>Rhaifun Bryn yscrifef:
>
[......]
>> Raifun.
>
>You seem to always write "Raifun", but Andrew's original remarks
>made it "Rhaifun".  Is this some grammatical point I'm missing
>whereby signatures get the soft mutation?

No - just mental aberration ;-)

Rhaifun indeed it should be.
I remember many years ago before bilingual roadsigns became normal, some
monoglot Anglophone Gwent Councilor saying that there was no need to add
Rhaglan as well as Raglan to signposts, since the Welsh "saw" an 'h' there
in any case.  I guess I'd become too us to "seeing" the 'h' after the 'r',
so to speak, that I didn't notice it myself.

The vocative, presumably, has soft mutation just as it does in Welsh &
Gaelic.  But the signature, I guess, is nominative & unmutated.

Rhaifun.


==========================================================
Written in Net English        Humor not necessarily marked

==========================================================