Note 59b — Chapter I · —SPELLING AND PRONUNCIATION
Reading edition
The word bewnans, life, formed from the root bew, was often written bownans in late Cornish and probably pronounced boonans. Similarly bowjy (=bewgh-chŷ), cow-house, must have been bewjy. This last, which is one of the surviving Cornish words, has its ow at present sounded as in now. This change has happened not infrequently in place-names.