Old Welsh

Old Welsh is the early stage of Welsh language, developed into Mid Welsh in 1100.^[1] The preceding period, from the time Welsh became distinct from Old Briton around 550, has been called "Primitive"^[1] or "Archaic Welsh".^[2]

Old Welsh
ᚉᚑᚋᚏᚐᚓᚌ
Pronunciation	[kɵmräe̞g]
Era	800—1100
Language family	Indo-European Celtic Insular Celtic Briton Old Welsh
Early forms	Old Celtish Old Briton
Language codes
ISO 639-3	owl

Phonology

The phonology of Old Welsh is as follows.^[3]

Consonant phonemes

	Labial		Dental		Alveolar		Palatal		Velar		Glottal
Nasal	m̥ʰ	m			n̥ʰ	n			ŋ̊ʰ	ŋ
Stop	p	b			t	d			k	ɡ
Fricative	ɸ	β	θ	ð	s				x		h
Approximant	w				r̥ʰ	r	j
Lateral					l	ɬ

Vowel phonemes

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i	ɨ ʉ	u
Mid	e̞	ə ɵ	o̞
Open		ä

• Older /ɔ/ was diphthongized into /aw/ in (stressed) final syllables, but it was retained elsewhere. Whilst this persisted as a diphthong in Middle Welsh, in Modern Welsh /aw/ has collapsed to /o/ following the stress shift to the penultimate, except in monosyllables.
• [ə] and [ɵ] were allophones of /ɨ/ and /u/ in unstressed non-final syllables. In Middle Welsh these merged to [ə].
• Old Welsh /ei/ and /eʉ/ became /ai/ and /aɨ/ in Modern Welsh final syllables, in dialects where /ɨ/ has not merged with /i/.