Irish (bh)fuil are from Old Irish fuil, originally an imperative meaning "see!" (PIE root *wel-, also in Welsh gweled, Germanic wlitu- "appearance", and Latin voltus "face"), then coming to mean "here is" (cf. French voici < vois ci and voilà < vois là), later becoming a suppletive dependent form of at-tá. Gaelic robh and Modern Irish raibh are from the perfective particle ro (ry in Welsh) plus ba (lenited after ro). Modern Welsh The present tense in particular shows a split between the North and the South. Though the situation is undoubtedly more complicated, King (2003) notes the following variations in the present tense as spoken (not as written according to the standard orthography): {| class="wikitable" |- style="background: #efefef;" | colspan="2" rowspan="2" | ! colspan="2" scope="col" style="font-weight: normal;" |Affirmative (I am) ! colspan="2" scope="col" style="font-weight: normal;" |Interrogative (Am I?) ! colspan="2" scope="col" style="font-weight: normal;" |Negative (I am not) |- style="background: #efefef;" ! scope="col" | Singular ! scope="col" | Plural ! scope="col" | Singular ! scope="col" | Plural ! scope="col" | Singular ! scope="col" | Plural |- ! rowspan="3" scope="row" style="background: #efefef;" | North ! scope="row" style="background: #efefef;" | First person | | | | | | |- ! scope="row" style="background: #efefef;" | Second person |—, | | | | | |- ! scope="row" style="background: #efefef;" | Third person | | | | | | |- ! rowspan="3" scope="row" style="background: #efefef;" | South ! scope="row" style="background: #efefef;" | First person | |, — | | | | |- ! scope="row" style="background: #efefef;" | Second person |—, | | | |— | |- ! scope="row" style="background: #efefef;" | Third person | | | | | | |} For example, the spoken first person singular dw i'n is a contraction of the formal written yr ydwyf fi yn . The Welsh F /v/ is the fricative analogue of the nasal /m/, the PIE suffix consonant for the first person singular. {| class="wikitable" |- style="background: #efefef;" | colspan="2" rowspan="2" | ! colspan="2" scope="col" style="font-weight: normal;" |Affirmative (I am) ! colspan="2" scope="col" style="font-weight: normal;" |Interrogative (Am I?) ! colspan="2" scope="col" style="font-weight: normal;" |Negative (I am not) |- style="background: #efefef;" ! scope="col" | Singular ! scope="col" | Plural ! scope="col" | Singular ! scope="col" | Plural ! scope="col" | Singular ! scope="col" | Plural |- ! rowspan="3" scope="row" style="background: #efefef;" | Preterite ! scope="row" style="background: #efefef;" | First person | | | | | | |-