[Spellyans] lyw & lew

[Hewitt, Stephen]

The analogy of Breton supports this analysis.

 

The Breton for rudder (apart from Germanic stur) is lew with mid e, unlike béw ‘alive’, téw ‘thick’, with close e.

 

Breton has no word like lew for ‘lion’, which is simply lion or leon.

 

Steve Hewitt

 

________________________________

From: spellyans-bounces at kernowek.net [mailto:spellyans-bounces at kernowek.net] On Behalf Of Dr Jon Mills
Sent: Friday, February 11, 2011 2:01 PM
To: spellyans at kernowek.net
Subject: [Spellyans] lyw & lew

 

The SWF gives LYW for 'rudder' and gives LEW for 'lion'. The attestations for these two items are as follows.

LYW: 'rudder', Old Cornish:  "clavus: leu pi obi" [Vocabularium Cornicum: 282];  Lhuyd (1707)  "lêụ" [48b]; "lêu" [16b]; "Lêụ gụrhal The rudder of a ship" [48b].

LEW: 'lion', Old Cornish:  "leo: leu" [Vocabularium Cornicum: 560]; Lhuyd (1707)  "lêụ" [241b]; "† lhêụ" [78a].

Given that the attestations for these two items are identical, should we not spell these words the same way, i.e. <lew>?

Note: I am aware that Middle Cornish does not attest LEW and instead uses "lyon".

Ol an gwella,

Jon

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