[Spellyans] tycky Duw

[Michael Everson]

On 13 Aug 2009, at 23:12, Craig Weatherhill wrote:

> It seems right to me that the plural should, instead, be "tyckyes  
> Duw" or "tyckyas Duw".  - pretty things of God".  Otherwise, it  
> would translate as "pretty thing of gods".

In Kensa Lyver Redya we have "tyckyas Duw". This is similar to "bóíní  
Dé" 'the little cows of God', plural of "bóín Dé" 'the little cow of  
God', which is the Irish term for butterfly.

I suppose if you re-analyse as "tyckyduw" you could have a plural  
"tyckyduwas" but if the word is analysed within the Celtic syntagm  
with "God", it's clear that "mothers-in-law" ought to be preferred to  
"mother-in-laws". The critter is a tycky. There may be other tyckyas.  
But I would translate "bóín Déithe" as 'the little cow of the gods"  
which is different from the plural of "the little cow of God".

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