Middle Welsh is the label attached to the Welsh language of the 12th to 15th centuries, of which much more remains than for any earlier period. This form of Welsh developed from Old Welsh.
Literature and history
Middle Welsh is the language of nearly all surviving early manuscripts of the Mabinogion, although the tales themselves are certainly much older. It is also the language of most of the manuscripts of Welsh law. Middle Welsh is reasonably intelligible, albeit with some work, to a modern-day Welsh speaker.
Phonology
The phonology of Middle Welsh is quite similar to that of modern Welsh, with only a few differences. The letter u, which today represents in North WesternWelsh dialects and in South Welsh and North East Welsh dialects, represented the close central rounded vowel in Middle Welsh. The diphthong aw is found in unstressed final syllables in Middle Welsh, while in Modern Welsh it has become o. Similarly, the Middle Welsh diphthongs ei and eu have become ai and au in final syllables, e. g. Middle Welsh seith = modern saith "seven", Middle Welsh heul = modern "sun".
Orthography
The orthography of Middle Welsh was not standardised, and there is great variation between manuscripts in how certain sounds are spelled. Some generalisations of differences between Middle Welsh spelling and Modern Welsh spelling can be made. For example, the possessive adjectives ei "his, her", eu "their" and the preposition i "to" are very commonly spelled in Middle Welsh, and are thus spelt the same as the definite article and the indirect relative particle. A phrase such as is therefore ambiguous in Middle Welsh between the meaning "the cat", the meaning "his cat", and the meaning "to a cat". The voicedstop consonants are represented by the letters t c at the end of a word, e.g. "protection", "running". The sound is very often spelled k before the vowels e i y. The sound is usually spelt u or v, except at the end of a word, where it is spelt f. The sound is usually spelt d. The sound is spelt r and is thus not distinguished from .
Grammar
Morphology
Middle Welsh is closer to the other medieval Celtic languages, e.g. Old Irish, in its morphology. For example, the endings -wŷs, -ws, -es and -as are used for 3rd person singular of the past tense in Middle Welsh as well as the form -odd. In the same person and tense exists the form kigleu from the verb clywed 'to hear ', which is very antiquated and corresponds to the Old Irish cúala from the verb ro-cluinethar 'he/she heard'. Middle Welsh also has more separate plural forms of adjectives that do not appear in modern Welsh, e.g. cochion 'red; rouges'. The plural termination -awr for nouns is very common in Middle Welsh, but has been replaced by -au.
Syntax
As in modern written Welsh, the VSO word order is not used exclusively in Middle Welsh, but irregular and mixed orders are also used: Y brenin a welodd gastell:. The suggestion is that the mixed order places emphasis on the subject, and is often used in Welsh today to emphasise something. The difference between the two is that a negative particle precedes the subject in the mixed order.
