[1] Middle Welsh pret. 1sg. -um and 2sg. -ost Linus Band University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies linus.band@wales.ac.uk 1sg. 2sg. bot ‘to be’ (and compounds) buum buost mynet ‘to go’ euthum, eithum, eythum aethost, aythost, eythost, euthost dyuot ‘to come’ douthum, doythum, doethost, doythost, deuthost, deuthum daethost gwneuthur ‘to do, make’ gwneuthum/gorugum gwnaethost, gwneythost, gwneuthost, gwneithost, gwnaythost, gorugost dwyn ‘to carrʊ; steal’ dugum dugost gwybot ‘to know’ (gwn) gwðost, gwyðost, gỽthost adnabot ‘to know, recognise’ (adwaen) atwaenost canu ‘to sing’ ceintum ceuntost rhoi, rhoði ‘to give’ roessum (rodeis) royssost (rodeist) A1. Morris-Jones (1913, 338) argued that “[d]eponent verbs in Brit[ish Celtic] had periphrastic perfects like those of Lat[in] deponents.” Preterite 1sg. euthum < *aktoimmi < *aktos esmi 2sg. aethost < *aethos + -t < *aktossi < *aktos (e)si 3sg. aeth < *aktosst < *aktos ’st A2. Adapted to present day scholarship, these would have developed as follows: ✓ 2sg. *xtos-eses > *axtos-ses (V ̽ > ZERO /V ̽ $C 1 _C 1 ) > *axtos > *ajθos + -t > MW aethost ✓ 3sg. *xtos-es > *axtos-s (V ̽ > ZERO /V ̽ $C 1 _C 1 ) > *axt > *ajθ > MW aeth ✗! 1sg. *xtos-emmi > *axtoim (-h- > ZERO /_V high ) > *axtim > MW **aethym Or, if no syncope: *axtoim > *axtøim > MW **aethëym (NB: Schumacher’s (2004, 295, 300–302) reconstructions of the present indicative of ‘to be’ are used here.) A3. Clarification of soundlaws: V ̽ > ZERO /V ̽ $C 1 _C 1 Loss of short unstressed vowel if it followed an unstressed syllable and stood between identical consonants (Schrijver 1992, 185; Schrijver 1995, 18 f.).