Welsh challenge (5)

This post is the 5^th instalment of the Welsh leg of my current Celtic challenge. It covers chapter 4 of Colloquial Welsh. For earlier instalments, please see Welsh Archives – Language Miscellany

Mutation

Table 1 provides a reminder of the aspirate and nasal mutations discussed in earlier instalments.

Table 1. Aspirate and nasal mutations

For simplicity, table 1 shows only the written form of the consonants, not their phonological form or phonetic form.

As table 1 shows, there is a systematic relationship between how nasal mutation affects the voiced consonants <g b d> and how it affects their unvoiced counterparts <c p t>. For the unvoiced forms, the nasal mutations are aspirated <ngh  mh nh>; for the voiced forms, the nasal mutations are aspirated <ng m n>.

Aspirate mutation

Aspirate mutation occurs mainly after the following (though not in all regions of Wales):

• a (‘and’)
• â (‘with’), gyda (with) and tua (about)
• chwe (‘six’) and tri (‘three’)
• ei (‘her’)

In spoken Welsh:

• the aspirate mutation -t → -th is not usual.
• words starting m- or n- often undergo aspirate mutation to mh- and -nh, especially after ei (‘her’).

Nasal mutation

In spoken Welsh, nasal mutation occurs only:

• to express ‘my’: nhad = my father’ (‘father’ = tad).
• after the preposition yn (‘in’). Also:
  – before radicals starting with b-, p-, yn changes to ym
  – before radicals starting with c-, g-, yn changes to yng (table 2).

Table 2. Nasal mutation with yn

People sometimes use soft mutation (instead of nasal mutation) after yn, especially for place names beginning with p- and t-.  

From / to a place

To say ‘in a place’, use yn (nasal mutation follows): yng Nghaerdydd (‘in Cardiff’).

To say ‘from a place’, use o (soft mutation follows): o Gaerdydd (‘from Cardiff’).

Possessive adjectives

Possessive adjectives precede the noun. They can be reinforced with an optional 2^nd element after the noun. Table 3 shows the possessive adjectives, with the noun’s position marked with an ellipsis … and the optional 2^nd element shown in brackets.

Table 3. Possessive adjectives

The pronunciation of some possessive adjectives doesn’t match their spelling. For example, ei (‘his’, ‘her’) and eu (‘they’) are all pronounced <i>.

Mutation:

• Fy / ’(y)n (‘my’) is often omitted if nasal mutation changes the following consonant: mhlant i (‘my children’) but ’n sgidiau i (‘my shoes’).
• Ei (masculine only, not feminine) and dy trigger soft mutation, fy / ’(y)n triggers nasal mutation and ei (feminine only, not masculine) triggers aspirate mutation: ei mwyd e (‘his food’); dy fwyd di (‘your food’), ei bwyd (‘her food’). 
• For nouns beginning with a vowel, ei (‘her’, feminine only, not masculine), ein (‘our’) and eu (‘their’) trigger the addition of h-: ei harian hi (‘her money’)e arian, but e (‘his money’).

Genitive noun phrases

Genitive phrases are constructed in the form
[item possessed] + [definite article + [possessor]:
beic y ferch (‘bike of the girl’ = ‘the girl’s bike’, ‘girl = merch).

No definite article appears before the item possessed.

Welsh does not have a possessive construction like the English Saxon Genitive, eg the town’s centre. For more on the Saxon Genitive, please see Saxon Genitive – Language Miscellany

The textbook does not explain how to form a possessive phrase when the possessor is an indefinite noun (eg ‘a bike of a girl’, ‘the bike of a girl’).

Auxiliaries

Auxiliaries include gallu (‘can / be able to’) (gw)neud (‘do’) and cael (‘get, be allowed’).

Auxiliaries combine with a main verb that is in its verb-noun form (base form).  All auxiliaries (except bod ‘be’) cause soft mutation of the following verb-noun form.

Here are some forms of these verbs:

• Alli / Elli di?
  Can you? (ti form, informal singular)
  Elli di helpu fi?
  Can you help me?
• Allwch / Ellwch di?
  Can you? (chi form, plural or singular.polite)
  Ellwch di gywiro hwn i mi?
  Can you correct this for me?
• Allet ti fynd â’r plant
  Could you take the children?
  (mynd â = take, see separate section below)
• Nei di / Newch chi agor y drws?
  Will you open the door?
• Gei di / Gewch chi fynd â nhw lan wedyn
  you can take them up later

Table 4. Some questions and answers with auxiliaries

Bring and take

The usual way to express ‘bring’ and ‘take’ (ie accompany, carry)’ is dod â (‘come with’) and mind â (‘go with’.)

Some place names (enwau llefydd)

Many place are genitive phrases, often written as a single word:

• Rhydyfelin = rhyd y felin (‘ford [of] the mill) = ‘Millford’)
• Rhydaman (‘ford’ [of] Aman’ = ‘Amanford’)

2 common components of place names

Aber (‘river estuary’):

• Aberystwyth (estuary of the river Ystwyth; Ystwyth = ‘meandering river’
• Abertawe (Swansea—at the mouth of the river Tawe)
• Aberteifi (Cardigan—at the mouth of the river Teifi). The county of Ceredigion is known in English as Cardiganshire and Bae Ceredigion is Cardigan Bay.
• Abergwaun (Fishguard)
• Aberhonddu (Brecon, mouth of the river Honddu)
• Aberdaugleddau (Milford Haven, ‘mouth of the two rivers Cleddau’)

Llan (‘church’), often followed by a saint’s name, which will often be subject to consonant mutation (eg,):

• Llanfair (St Mary)
• Llandudno (St Tudno)
• Llaniltud Fawr (Llantwit Major, ‘St Illtud large’) https://languagemiscellany.com/2021/09/how-do-you-say-llantwit-major/
• Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllandysiliogogogoch https://languagemiscellany.com/2022/07/that-welsh-place-with-the-long-name/  

The Welsh name for Mount Snowdon is Yr Wyddfa Goodbye Snowdon, hello Yr Wyddfa – Language Miscellany

Some Welsh names for places outside Wales

Llundain (London), Manceinion (Manchester), Caergrawnt (Cambridge: caer ‘fortress, Granta+ old name for river Cam), Caeredin (Edinburgh), Caerliwelydd (Carlisle), Rhydychen (Oxford: rhyd = ford, ychen = ‘oxen’), Lerpwl (Liverpool). Caerlleon, or just Caer (Chester‘the fortress-city of the legions’, see https://languagemiscellany.com/2022/02/confusing-name-for-chester/

Lloegr (‘England’). For more on Celtic place names, please see Irish challenge (3) – Language Miscellany

Other geographical features: gogledd (‘north’), dwyrain (‘east’), de (‘south’), gorllewin (‘west’), canolbarth (‘midlands of a country’), prifddinas (‘capital’)

Other words and phrases

A weakness in the textbook

The textbook Colloquial Welsh doesn’t present the vocabulary in a very helpful manner. The book:

• introduces too many words in individual chapters without translating them in that chapter. This is partly because of a conscious strategy of getting the learner used to coping with unknown words. An interesting idea, but introduced too soon.
• introduces too many words and phrases without highlighting their components and structures.
• leaves out from the overall list at the end of the book too many words introduced in individual chapters.

I found myself having to spend far too much wasted time tracking down words and phrases, and trying to work out what the components meant. Spotting the components and relationships makes it much easier to remember the words.

Mutation

In the lists below, words that trigger mutation on a following word are shown below with the symbols [+SM] (short mutation), [+AM] (aspirate mutation), [+NM] (nasal mutation).

Vocabulary

geirfa (‘vocabulary’), geiriadur (‘dictionary’, plural –on), iaith (‘language’)

Question words: pryd (‘when’)

Prepositions: tan (‘until’), wrth (‘by’, ‘while’: wrth gwrs (‘of course’),

Verbs: aros (‘stay’), rhoi (‘give, put’) anlinellu (‘underline’), edrych (‘look’, appear’), cywiro (‘correct’), casglu (‘collect’), disgwyl (‘expect’), gadael (gadw-) ‘leave, let’

Nouns: (‘room’, pl.=oedd), stafell wely bedroom? stafell molchi bathroom? lolfa lounge, llwar (‘floor?’, plural lloriau), tŷ bach (‘toilet’: tŷ (‘house), bach (‘small’)), tŷ bwyta (‘restaurant’, bwyta ‘eat’, bwydo ‘feed’)), cegin (‘kitchen’), cinio (‘lunch’),

manylion (‘details’), enw (‘name’, plural -au)  cyfenw (‘surname’) cyfeiriad (‘address’, pl. -au) cyfeiriad cartref hom address cartre (‘home’), rhif ffôn cartref ‘home phone number: rhif (plural -au, ‘number), llofnod (‘signature’, llofnodi ‘to sign [one’s name]’), allwedd (‘key?’)

bisgedi (‘buisuits’), brws dannedd (‘toothbrush’), bys (‘finger’, plural -edd), cath (‘cat’, pl. -od), corff (‘body’, pl. cyrff), cyfriadur (‘computer’), cyllell (‘knife’), gwydyr (‘glass’), papur (‘paper’), tegell (‘kettle’), tepiadur (‘typewriter’), teulu (‘family’)

gwall (‘mistake’, plural -au), gweddill (‘rest, remainder’), trydan (‘electricity’), ysgrifenddes (‘scretary’), lle (‘place’), yswiriant (‘insurance’), synaid (‘idea’: synaid gwychu (‘great idea’)

dechrau (‘beginning’), diwedd (‘end’) dyfodol (‘future’), mis (‘month’, plural -oedd), rheolwr (‘manager’) tocy tymor (‘season ticket’: tocy ticket tymor ‘season’)

Noun phrases: ddiwedd yr wythnos (‘end of the week’), ffurflem gofretru ‘registration form’, ar waelod y ffurflen (‘at the bottom of the form’), druan ohoni (poor woman), druan ohono (‘poor man’)

Adjectives: rhydd (‘free, unoccupied’) gwychu (‘great’), lwcus (‘lucky’), gwahanol (‘different’), arbennig (‘special’), arverol (‘usual’), holl (‘all’), i gyd (‘all’), tebyg (‘likely’), arall (plural eraill, ‘other’), ar gael (‘available’)

Adverbs and adverbials: ychydig (‘a little’), am faint (‘how long’), dyddiau ’ma (‘these days’), yn ddiweddar (‘recently’), bellach (‘now’), (‘wedyn later’), lan lloft (‘upstairs’), i lawr (‘down’), ymlaen (‘on(ward)’), dim ond (‘only, just’), am y tro (‘for now’),

fel ‘as’, fel arall (‘otherwise’), fel hyn(‘like this’), fel (hyn)ny (‘like that’), felly so, in this way, rhywbeth felly (‘something like that’), rhywbeth (‘something like that’)

Phrases

Peidiwch poeni don’t bother (peidio ‘stop, cease, don’t’ poeni ‘bother’)

beth am banaid how about something? (‘beth am’ [+SM] ‘how about, panaid (‘cupful’))

p’un leiciet ti? (‘which one do you prefer? p’un ‘which one, licio ilike’)

glywest ti fod (‘did you hear that?’)

wedi priodi (‘got married’)

oes wyt to am [+ SM] (‘if you want to’)

Source

Colloquial Welsh, Gareth King (2008)