[Spellyans] cùntell, cuntelles

[nicholas williams]

I notice that the phonetic representation in George's Gerlyvrik of  
<kuntell> 'gather, pick'
and <kuntelles> 'gathering, meeting' both have [y] in the first  
syllable.

I wonder whether the fronted <u> [y] is really correct.
In the later texts words containing the root cuntell- are not  
infrequently spelt with <o>
rather than <u>:

contulva an bobill TH 31
warbarthe contylles CW 2322
contellyes worbar John Keigwin
Contellyah worbarh an dowre John Keigwin
pereeg E contell Rowe
bos kontles var bar John Boson.

Moreover in his excellent Gerlevran Neil gives
collect(v): cuntel
collection(n): cuntelianz.

If he had thought the vowel were a fronted [y] in Middle Cornish, he  
would
have written the LC forms as *<kintel> and *<kintelianz>.

KS spells these two words cùntell and cùntelles, i.e. with an  
unrounded [u].

In his Gerlyver of the SWF Dan follows George and writes <kuntell> with
a fronted [y] and <kuntellyans> with a short open [I].
Perhaps both should be emended to an unrounded [u].

Nicholas

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