The Welsh bardic grammars on Litterae
-
T.M. Charles-Edwards
Abstract
The first part of this chapter considers the relatively straightforward relationship between the section on letters in Gramadegau Penceirddiaid (GP), the Welsh vernacular grammars, and the section on Litterae in Donatus’s Ars Maior. It then goes on to consider the more problematic case of how the voiced dental fricative /ð/, now written in Welsh with a double dd, was spelt in the different versions of GP. In particular the adoption of the Latin abbreviation for que as a spelling for /ð/ in the Peniarth 20 version is considered in the context of the development of consistent orthographies in late Middle Welsh.
Abstract
The first part of this chapter considers the relatively straightforward relationship between the section on letters in Gramadegau Penceirddiaid (GP), the Welsh vernacular grammars, and the section on Litterae in Donatus’s Ars Maior. It then goes on to consider the more problematic case of how the voiced dental fricative /ð/, now written in Welsh with a double dd, was spelt in the different versions of GP. In particular the adoption of the Latin abbreviation for que as a spelling for /ð/ in the Peniarth 20 version is considered in the context of the development of consistent orthographies in late Middle Welsh.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword & acknowledgements vii
- Abbreviations ix
- List of plates xiii
- Notes on contributors xv
- Editors’ introduction 1
- Allegory, the áes dána and the liberal arts in Medieval Irish literature 11
- Cryptography and the alphabet in the “Book of Ádhamh Ó Cianáin” 35
- Caide Máthair Bréithre “What is the Mother of a Word” 65
- The expression of “sense, meaning, signification” in the Old Irish glosses, and particularly in the Milan and Saint Gall glosses 85
- The verbal paradigms in Auraicept na nÉces 101
- The glossing of the Early Irish law tracts 113
- Teaching between the lines 133
- The Welsh bardic grammars on Litterae 149
- Poetry by numbers 161
- Gramadeg Gwysanau 181
- Master list of references 201
- Index of manuscripts 219
- Index of subjects 221
- Index of terms by language 225
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword & acknowledgements vii
- Abbreviations ix
- List of plates xiii
- Notes on contributors xv
- Editors’ introduction 1
- Allegory, the áes dána and the liberal arts in Medieval Irish literature 11
- Cryptography and the alphabet in the “Book of Ádhamh Ó Cianáin” 35
- Caide Máthair Bréithre “What is the Mother of a Word” 65
- The expression of “sense, meaning, signification” in the Old Irish glosses, and particularly in the Milan and Saint Gall glosses 85
- The verbal paradigms in Auraicept na nÉces 101
- The glossing of the Early Irish law tracts 113
- Teaching between the lines 133
- The Welsh bardic grammars on Litterae 149
- Poetry by numbers 161
- Gramadeg Gwysanau 181
- Master list of references 201
- Index of manuscripts 219
- Index of subjects 221
- Index of terms by language 225
