o dan
Welsh
editAlternative forms
editEtymology
editFrom Middle Welsh a dan, from Old Welsh guotan. Reanalyzed in modern Welsh as o (“of, from”) + tan (“under”), but the first element is not actually o (“from”), but instead it was in reality Proto-Celtic *uɸo (“under”), which outside of o dan went extinct in Brittonic as a free-standing preposition.[1]
Pronunciation
editPreposition
edito dan (triggers soft mutation on a following noun)
Usage notes
editIn literary Welsh, tan can mean both "under" and "until". In Welsh usage today, however, dan (originally the soft mutation of tan) has become a preposition in its own right with the meaning "under" whereas tan means "until", retaining the meaning "under" in certain expressions, compound words and place names. Modern dan or tan are not usually mutated. o dan is an alternative to dan.
Inflection
editPersonal forms (literary)
Personal forms (colloquial)
References
edit- ^ Schrijver, Peter C. H. (1995) Studies in British Celtic historical phonology (Leiden studies in Indo-European; 5), Amsterdam, Atlanta: Rodopi, page 116