piau

See also: Piau

Äiwoo

Verb

piau

1. to suck in (e.g. water through a straw)

References

• Ross, M. & Næss, Å. (2007) “An Oceanic origin for Äiwoo, the language of the Reef Islands?”, in Oceanic Linguistics, volume 46, number 2. Cited in: "Äiwoo" in Greenhill, S.J., Blust, R., & Gray, R.D. (2008). The Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database: From Bioinformatics to Lexomics. Evolutionary Bioinformatics, 4:271–283.

Bourbonnais-Berrichon

Noun

piau f

1. skin

Hokkien

For pronunciation and definitions of piau – see 標 (“topmost branches of a tree; treetop; end; tip; peak; etc.”). (This term is the pe̍h-ōe-jī form of 標).

Occitan

Noun

piau m (plural piaus) (Limousin)

1. hair

Welsh

Etymology

From Middle Welsh pieu, from Old Welsh *piou (attested in piouboi), from *pi- (oblique case of pui (“who”)) and -wy, variant of yw (form of bod); compare Middle Cornish pew and Middle Breton bi(a)ou.

Pronunciation

• (North Wales, standard) IPA^(key): /ˈpiː.aɨ̯/
  • (North Wales, colloquial) IPA^(key): /ˈpiː.ɛ/, /ˈpiː.a/
• (South Wales, standard) IPA^(key): /ˈpiː.ai̯/
  • (South Wales, colloquial) IPA^(key): /ˈpiː.ɛ/

Verb

piau (defective verb)

1. own, possess

   y dyn biau castell anferth

   the man who owns a huge castle

   Pwy sy biau’r llyfr ’ma?

   Whose book is this?

   (literally, “Who [is it] that owns this book?”)

   • 2013 April 16, “Carchar: Cyngor Wrecsam yn awgrymu safleoedd”, in BBC Cymru Fyw‎^[1]:

     Perchennog preifat sydd biau Parc Kingmoor a Llywodraeth Cymru sydd yn gyfrifol am Firestone.

     A private landlord owns Kingmoor Park and the Welsh Government is responsible for Firestone.

   • 2016, Simon Thomas, “Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs”, in Record of Proceedings (National Assembly for Wales)‎^[2]:

     Y strategaeth bwyd môr yr ydych newydd ei chrybwyll yn fanna—pwy biau’r strategaeth yma?

     The seafood strategy you’ve just alluded to—who actually owns that strategy?

Usage notes

• As with angen and eisiau, piau does not use linking yn with bod and has no stem, meaning it must be used with periphrasis.
• piau most often occurs in the soft-mutated form biau.
• piau is frequently used in relative clauses, where the auxiliary is sometimes omitted, as in the first example above.

Mutation

Welsh mutation
radical	soft	nasal	aspirate
piau	biau	mhiau	phiau
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Further reading

• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “piau”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies