[Spellyans] Bewnans Ke - line 1705

[Michael Everson]

On 11 Aug 2008, at 09:51, Ray Chubb wrote:
> Ken compares 'kethel' to Breton 'keloù',  my own view is that this  
> is stretching things a bit.  What do we all think?

kelow (quehezlou, 1499, quelo 17th c) means 'nouvelles'. "Note la  
forme contracté de kehelow, pluriel de kehel."

kehel (quehezl, 1499) 'information, intention; dévolu, intersigne;  
question (de), procèe d'un ancien *kehuezl, équivalent au gallois  
cychwedl 'histoire, nouvelle, rapport'; tous deux sont issus du  
celtique *ko(m)-sketlo-.

> Perhaps we need to check all of Ken's interpretations if the  
> Kemmynites are going to accept them all without question as seems to  
> be the case in this instance.

Indeed. Thomas and Williams interpret the MS's "Is clowas kethel" as  
"Clowas kethtel" 'so much has been heard'. George rewrites "kethel" as  
"kedhel" 'item of information' at his 22.26 and interprets "is clowas  
kethel" as "es klywes kedh'l" (fudging the metre and rhyming with  
fudged "hwedh'l") reading 'than hearing of the news'. He also cites  
"getlow" as the plural at line 2222 (George's 27.37): he reads "Pa^  
nowothov pan getlow" as "pan nowodhow, pan gedhlow" 'what news, what  
information', rhyming with "hwedhlow". Thomas and Williams read "Pan  
nowothou, pan guestlow" 'what news, what pledges' where 'pledges' also  
means 'hostages' (Nance gwystel, pl gwystlow); the rhyme is with  
"whetlow".

George has to delete a syllable in "kethel" and has to change <t> to  
<th> in "getlow". Thomas and Williams add a <t> to "kethel" and an <s>  
to "getlow".

Personally I think that George is on dodgier ground. He's taking  
Breton "kehezloù" > "kezloù" > "keloù" and "kehezl" > "kehel",  
evidently, as though a similar process applied in Cornish, but it is  
hard to see the analogy holding.

Br kehezl, pl kehezloù
Br *kezl, pl kezloù
Br kehel, pl *kehloù > keloù

Kw kedhel, pl kedhlow.... is he saying that this was (given Welsh  
cychwedl, pl cychwedlau) < kewhedhel, pl kewhedhlow? Will those derive  
from *ko(m)-sketlo-? (Ah, no he says it is "ki-hwedhlow".)

Michael Everson * http://www.evertype.com

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