o dan

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See also: odan, ōdan, and ɔdan

Welsh

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From 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

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Preposition

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o dan (triggers soft mutation on a following noun)

  1. under
    Synonym: islaw

Usage notes

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In 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

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References

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  1. ^ Schrijver, Peter C. H. (1995) Studies in British Celtic historical phonology (Leiden studies in Indo-European; 5), Amsterdam, Atlanta: Rodopi, page 116