A first look at early Welsh printing

1. Familiar forms

Most early printing in Welsh poses no more problems than any other early printing. Most of it employs the forms familiar from modern Welsh spelling, including:

• Combinations in -h-, e.g. rh, ch, ph, th. Capture these as printed, i.e. as two letters.
• Doubled consonants, dd, ll, ff. Though these arguably represent single letters, capture them as printed, as two d's, two l's, etc. Double f (ff) can potentially be confused with the upper-case form of 'F' that resembles a doubled 'f'. If in doubt, prefer 'ff'.
• Circumflex accents on vowels, â, ê, ô, etc. Capture these using standard -circ character entities, including the entities for w-circumflex (ŵ) and y-circumflex (ŷ).

Here are some examples of forms found commonly in the Welsh texts that will require no special treatment.

Item	Examples	Capture	Comment
Horizontal marks over letters		a~wadal da~ ne~mawr e~nyd,
circumflex accents on vowels		gâr Câr ymhôb yn-ôl lês hên
vv as w		vvrth

2. Unfamiliar forms

Some early Welsh printing, however, makes use of experimental spelling systems. I have so far noticed the following distinctive usage, for which I make some suggestions as to appropriate capture.

a. Dotted forms

Example	Modern Welsh equivalent	Capture as	Context	Capture as	Comment
	ll	&ldotb;		ho&ldotb;
	dd	&ddotb;		i&ddotb;o
	w	&udotb;		Egl&udotb;ys p&udotb;nc

b. Unusual forms of w/W and y/Y (and Welsh use of eth [ð])

Example	Modern Welsh equivalent	Capture as	Context	Capture as	Comment
	w	&w;		&w;lad&w;yr
				* G&w;ernen y Llong	Apparently a borrowing of the common 'ou' Greek ligature. Capture as &ougr; also acceptable.
	W	&W;		DILEDR&Y;&W;	upper-case version
	y	y		phy&ddotb;loniaid an&w;yl	Apparent distinction between two different kinds of 'y'.
	y	&y;		Egl&udotb;&y;s &y;‘&w;lad c&y;n
	Y	&Y;		DILEDR&Y;&W;	upper-case version
	dd	ð		oðyno hyd	(shows contrast between d and eth)

Two distinct forms of apostrophe??

Example	Modern Welsh equivalent	Capture as	Context	Capture as	Comment
	’	'		cwb'l f'atteb	Apparent distinction between two forms of apostrophe, one (as commonly elsewhere) resembling the 'right single quote mark' (’) and the other (more unusually) the 'left single quote mark' (‘). In capture, distinguish the latter using the ‘ character entity.
	’	‘		mae‘n neu‘n a‘u i‘r i‘r a‘r a‘m

Unusual combinations requiring no special treatment

Example	Modern Welsh equivalent	Capture as	Context	Capture as	Comment
	dd	dh		dh&w;yn	capture as printed.
	f	bh		arbhaeth	capture as printed.
	ll	lh		lh&w;ydhiant	capture as printed.
	ff	ph		corph	capture as printed.