===========================
An HTML version of this lesson can be found at
[http://www.cs.brown.edu/fun/welsh/Lesson04.html]
Note: This lesson refers to the soft mutation and limited soft
mutation that are presented in Appendix 1. For those who do not have
Appendix 1 in front of them, I review the changes of the limited soft
mutation here:
Original Mutated Example
c g "cath" (cat) becomes "gath"
p b "porth" (port) becomes "borth"
t d "teg" (fair) becomes "deg"
g (disappears) "gardd" (garden) becomes "ardd"
b f "bore" (morning) becomes "fore"
d dd "do+l" (meadow) becomes "ddo+l"
m f "merch" (girl) becomes "ferch"
In addition to these changes, the (full) soft mutation adds:
ll l "llyn" (lake) becomes "lyn"
rh r "rhestr" (list) becomes "restr"
Contents:
4.1. Gender of Nouns
4.2. Plurals
4.3. Agreement of Pronouns
4.4. Mutation of Feminine Nouns after 'y'
4.5. The Number 'One'
4.6. Adjectives with Feminine Nouns
4.7. How to Say 'I want'
Ymarfer
Sgwrs
Geirfa
Exercises
4.1. Gender of Nouns
--------------------
Welsh falls within the majority of the Indo-European languages (of
which English is an exception in this regard) in assigning an often
arbitrary gender to every noun. Welsh has only two genders:
masculine and feminine. You can always tell feminine nouns, because
they're the ones that wear fingernail polish.
More seriously, those nouns for which the gender is obviously
intrinsic to the noun (e.g., girl, son) have the obvious gender
(unlike in German, which considers girls, for example, to be neuter),
but there remain many nouns for which assignment of gender is simply a
linguistic convention. The long and short of is that you need to
learn the gender for nouns at the time you learn the noun itself.
Consider it part of knowing the word itself.
4.2. Plurals
------------
Welsh nouns can be either singular or plural. (This is a marked
simplification over Homeric Greek, which has a dual number to indicate
two of something, or even over Russian, which puts two, three, and
four into a special class when counting.) There are a number of
different ways that nouns in Welsh form plurals:
(1) Addition of -(i)au to the stem. For example: 'mamau' (mothers),
'tadau' (fathers), 'pethau' (things), 'hetiau' (hats).
(2) Addition of -oedd to the stem. For example: 'lleoedd' (places),
'niferoedd' (numbers).
(3) Addition of -i to the stem. For example: 'bisgedi' (biscuits),
'basgedi' (baskets).
(4) Dropping a final -yn or -en. That's right: these nouns actually
get shorter when you make the plural. These nouns seem to be
generally the names of plants (or plant parts) and animals that are
normally encountered collectively rather than individually. For
example, 'rhosyn' (rose) becomes 'rhos' (roses); 'malwoden' (snail)
becomes 'malwod' (snails).
_Note:_ Nouns in this category that end in '-yn' are masculine and
those that end in '-en' are feminine.
There are many other 'regular' ways that Welsh nouns form the
plurals (though none quite so regular as the 'add -s or -es' in
English); in fact there are too many to list them all here.
Occasionally, the formation of the plural causes a modification of the
vowels. For example: 'mab' (son) becomes 'meibion' (sons); 'aderyn'
(bird) becomes 'adar' (birds).
And, of course, there are nouns with irregular plurals like 'brawd'
(brother) becoming 'brodyr' (brothers).
Since there have been nouns presented in previous lessons, all of
those nouns are repeated in this lesson, along with their genders
and how to form their plurals (where applicable).
_Note_on_pronunciation:_ When a plural is formed by adding -(i)au, the
'au' part is pronounced as a short 'e' in S. Wales and as 'a' in N.
Wales. (It is sometimes even spelled that way informally: there is a
shop in Aberystwyth with the word 'pethe' in its name.) It can, of
course, be pronounced the normal way.
4.3. Agreement of Pronouns
--------------------------
When a pronoun refers back to a noun, it must agree in gender and
number with that noun. Thus, we have:
Ble mae'r gwely? Mae _e_ yn y stafell.
Ble mae'r stafell? Mae _hi_ yn y ty+.
Ble mae'r tai? Maen _nhw_ yn y dre.
'Nhw' is used for any plural noun, regardless of gender.
4.4. Mutation of Feminine Nouns after 'y'
-----------------------------------------
The definite article 'y' causes a limited soft mutation in feminine
nouns. Thus, we have the following:
basged (basket) y fasged (the basket)
mam (mother) y fam (the mother)
gardd (garden) yr ardd (the garden)
llen (sheet) y llen (the sheet)
Masculine nouns do not suffer mutation after 'y':
mab (son) y mab (the son)
Plural nouns are also not mutated (even if they are feminine):
basgedi (baskets) y basgedi (the baskets)
tadau (fathers) y tadau (the fathers)
_Note:_ The word 'pobl' (people) is a feminine singular noun with a
collective meaning, so it does mutate: 'y bobl'.
_Exception:_ The plural of 'pobl' also mutates after 'y': 'y bobloedd'.
4.5. The Number 'One'
---------------------
The Welsh word for the number 'one' is 'un' (if you'll pardon my
French), pronounced (roughly) 'een'. It precedes the noun it
modifies, and causes a limited soft mutation in exactly the same
places that 'y' does, i.e., for feminine, singular nouns:
un fasged one basket
un mab one son
Of course, it is not used with plural nouns!
4.6. Adjectives with Feminine Nouns
-----------------------------------
Feminine nouns are not only mutated by 'y' and 'un', but they also
spell trouble for adjectives that modify them. Specifically, they
cause a full (not limited!) soft mutation of any following
adjectives:
y ferch fach the little girl
y llen resog the striped sheet
_Exception:_ The adjective 'braf' (fine) is never mutated:
y mab braf the fine son
y ferch braf the fine daughter
4.7. How to Say 'I want'
------------------------
One of the major uses for any language is to get what you want, so you
need to know how to say it. (Of course, being polite also helps.)
The word used to express wanting in Welsh is 'eisiau'. However, it is
not treated like a normal verb in that it is not preceded by 'yn' when
combined with 'bod':
Mae Tom yn dysgu. Tom is studying.
Mae Tom eisiau coffi. Tom wants coffee.
You can put a verb right after the 'eisiau':
Mae Tom eisiau mynd i'r dre. Tom wants to go to the town.
_Note_on_pronunciation:_ The 'ei' is pronounced like Welsh 'i', the
'si' like English 'sh' and the 'au' like Welsh 'o' (in the North) or
'e' (in the South). It is common to see the word spelled 'isio' by
authors from N. Wales.
_Notes_for_the_terminally_curious:_ The reason 'eisiau' is not
treated as a normal verb is that it is not a verb; it's actually a
noun. The form given is a colloquialism.
Ymarfer
-------
1. Masculine nouns. 'The big x and the little y.'
_____________________________________
y llew | mawr a'r | ty+ | bach .
y plentyn | | ci |
y llyfr | | drws |
yr achos | | gwely |
_____________________________________
2. Feminine nouns. 'The big x and the little y.'
______________________________________
yr anrheg | fawr a'r | fam | fach .
y ferch | | ddawns |
y stafell | | dre |
y sgwrs | | ardd |
_____________________________________
3. Make sentences by choosing one item from each column.
___________________________________________
Rydw i'n | mynd i'r | ty+ | .
Ydy Sia+n yn | osgoi'r | dre | ?
Dydyn nhw ddim yn | dod i'r | ddawns |
Rydyn ni'n | aros yn y | stafell |
Mae e'n | | gwely |
___________________________________________
4. Make sentences by choosing one item from each column.
_________________________________________
Mae Tom | eisiau | mynd i'r gwely | .
Rydych chi | | dod gyda fi | ?
Dydw i ddim | | darllen llyfr |
Ydyn ni | | aros gartre |
_________________________________________
Sgwrs
-----
[A translation of this conversation can be found in a different file.]
Elwyn: Bore da, Alun.
Alun: Bore da, Elwyn. Rydw i'n meddwl mynd i'r dre heddiw. Ydych chi
eisiau mynd gyda fi?
Elwyn: Pam rwyt ti'n mynd?
Alun: Rydw i eisiau prynu un peth bach.
Elwyn: Ydy Nerys yn mynd, hefyd?
Alun: Dydw i ddim yn gwybod. (i Mrs. Hughes) Mam, ble mae Nerys?
Mrs. Hughes: Mae hi yn y gwely o hyd ar o+l y ddawns fawr neithiwr.
Alun (i Elwyn): Dydw i ddim eisiau aros. Ydych chi'n dod gyda fi?
Elwyn: Ydw. Rydw i eisiau prynu anrheg fach dros Nerys.
Geirfa
------
achos [-ion, m.] - cause
allan - (adv.) outside
anrheg [-ion, f.] - present, gift
ar o+l - after
aros - (v.) wait, stay
basged [-i, f.] - basket
bore [-au, m.] - morning
braf - fine
ci [cw+n, m.] - dog
dawns [-iau, f.] - dance
dod - (v.) come
dros - (prep.) for
drws [drysau, m.] - door
gardd [gerddi, f.] - garden
gwely [-au, m.] - bed
gyda - (prep.) with
haf [-au, m.] - summer
heddiw - today
hefyd - also, too
i - (prep.) to, in order to
llew [-od, m.] - lion
llyfr [-au, m.] - book
mam [-au, f.] - mother
merch [-ed, f.] - girl, daughter, woman
neithiwr - last night
o hyd - still
peth [-au, m.] - thing
plentyn [plant, m.] - child
pobl [-oedd, f.] - people
prynu - (v.) buy
rhesog - striped
sgwrs [sgyrsiau, f.] - talk, chat, conversation
stafell [-oedd, f.] - room
tre [-fi, f.] - town
ty+ [tai, m.] - house
Exercises
---------
[The answers can be found in a separate file.]
1. Make the singular of each of the following plurals.
a. Tai mawr
b. Stafelloedd bach
c. Gerddi braf
d. Llewod rhesog
e. Boreau da
f. Anrhegion bach
2. Answer the following questions as indicated.
a. Ble mae'r llew? (in Africa) Mae e ______________.
b. Ble mae'r ardd? (outside) Mae ______________.
c. Ble mae'r stafell? (in the house) Mae ______________.
d. Ble mae'r llyfr? (in the room) Mae ______________.
e. Ble mae'r ty+? (in the town) Mae ______________.
3. Say 'one ___' for each of the following.
a. Basged
b. Haf
c. Llyfr
d. Tre
e. Gwely
f. Dawns
4. Fill in the phrase below in the pattern '______ eisiau mynd heddiw.'
a. They
b. Tom and Mari don't
c. Do you (informal)
d. We do
e. I don't
5. Translate the following sentences into Welsh.
a. The girl buys a book for the mother. Where is it?
b. I am going to town today. Are you (formal) coming with me?
c. To where are we going this fine morning? Outside.
d. Is the lion still in the garden? Yes! It is going after the dog.
e. Those people want good things. I want good things, too.
f. They are waiting in the little room.
g. One good basket is in this house.
h. She wants to see the very large garden.
i. The dog stays at home in the morning.
j. Why are you still in bed? Because I don't want to leave.