Note 56 — Chapter IX · Place-name Stories

The softening of Cafaỻ to Gafaỻ could not take place after the masculine corn, ‘a horn’; but it was just right after the feminine carn, ‘a cairn.’ So here corn is doubtless a colloquial corruption; and so is probably the t at the end, for as ỻt has frequently been reduced to ỻ, as in cyfaiỻ, ‘a friend,’ from the older cyfaiỻt, in Medieval Irish comalta, ‘a foster brother or sister,’ the language has sometimes reversed the process, as when one hears hoỻt for hoỻ, ‘all,’ or reads fferyỻt, ‘alchemist, chemist,’ for fferyỻ from Vergilius. The Nennian orthography does not much trouble itself to distinguish between l and ỻ, and even when Carn Cabal was written the pronunciation was probably Carn Gavaỻ, the mutation being ignored in the spelling, which frequently happens in the case even of Welsh people who never fail to mutate their consonants in speaking. Lastly, though it was a dog that was called Cafaỻ, it is remarkable that the word has exactly the form taken by caballus in Welsh: for cafaỻ, as meaning some sort of a horse, see Silvan Evans’ Geiriadur. ↑