Colloquial Welsh morphology

The morphology of the Welsh language shows many characteristics perhaps unfamiliar to speakers of English or continental European languages like French or German, but has much in common with the other modern Insular Celtic languages, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Manx, Cornish, and Breton.

Initial consonant mutation

Initial consonant mutation is a phenomenon common to all Celtic languages. The first consonant sound of a word in Welsh may change depending on grammatical context (such as when the grammatical object directly follows the grammatical subject), or when preceded by certain words, e. g. i, yn, and a. Welsh has three mutations: the soft mutation, the nasal mutation, and the aspirate mutation:

Radical	Soft	Nasal	Aspirate
p	b	mh	ph
b	f	m
t	d	nh	th
d	dd	n
c	g	ngh	ch
g	∅*	ng
m	f
ll	l
rh	r

A blank cell indicates that the letter is not affected.

For example, the word for "stone" is carreg, but "the stone" is y garreg (soft mutation), "my stone" is fy ngharreg (nasal mutation) and "her stone" is ei charreg (aspirate mutation). The examples show usage in the standard language; the soft mutation is slowly supplanting the nasal and aspirate mutations as the mechanism behind the mutations ceases to be understood. These days, the aspirate mutation is only really carried out for words beginning with C in colloquial language and in some areas it is totally unknown (it is sometimes joked that a sign of hypercorrection amongst learners is to order "jin a thonic" in a bar). The nasal mutation is now only used in two circumstances and it is also being replaced by the soft mutation.

*The soft mutation for g is the simple deletion of the initial sound. For example, gardd "garden" becomes yr ardd "the garden".

Soft mutation

Related article: lenition

The soft mutation (Welsh: treiglad meddal) is by far the most common mutation in Welsh. When words undergo soft mutation, the general pattern is that unvoiced plosives become voiced plosives, and voiced plosives become fricatives or disappear; some fricatives also change, and the full list is shown in the above table.

Common situations where the soft mutation occurs are as follows – note that this list is by no means exhaustive.

feminine nouns with the definite article or the number one (un)
adjectives qualifying feminine nouns (including verbal nouns used as adjectives)
words immediately following most prepositions
nouns or adjectives used predicatively after yn
adjectives used adverbially (after yn)
nouns used with the number two (dau / dwy)
nouns following adjectives (N.B. most adjectives follow the noun)
nouns after the possessives dy (informal your) and ei (when it means his)
an object immediately following the subject (typically after conjugated verbs)
in many cases, the second word in a compound
verb infinitives following an indirect object (e.g. rhaid imi fynd - it is necessary to me to go)
conjugated verbs in the interrogative

The occurrence of the soft mutation often obscures the origin of placenames to non-Welsh-speaking visitors. For example, Llanfair is the church of Mair (Mary), and Pontardawe is the bridge on the Tawe.

Nasal mutation

The nasal mutation (Welsh: treiglad trwynol) normally occurs after the words fy (meaning "my") or yn where it means "in". It also occurs after the negating prefix an-, and sometimes after saith ("seven"). Under nasal mutation, plosives become nasals, and unvoiced plosives become aspirated nasals.

In words beginning with an-, the n is dropped before the mutated consonant, e.g. an + personol -> amhersonol (although it would be retained before a non-mutating consonant, e.g. an + sicr -> ansicr).

Pronunciation

The aspirated nasals may appear at first hard for English speakers to pronounce. However, in fact they are generally pronounced as an aspirated nasal followed by h, and this does not in practice result in a large cluster of consonant sounds because it is preceded either by the vowel ending of fy, or a form of yn where the -n is possibly replaced with -m or -ng to match the first letter of the mutated word. For example:

fy + tadau -> fy nhadau, pronounced as fyn hadau
yn + Caerdydd -> yng Nghaerdydd, pronounced as yng haerdydd

Grammatical considerations

Note that yn meaning "in" must be distinguished from other uses of yn which do not cause nasal mutation. For example:

In the sentence "Mae plastig yn nhrwyn Siaco.", trwyn has undergone nasal mutation.
In the sentence "Mae trwyn Siaco yn blastig.", plastig has undergone soft mutation, not nasal mutation.
In the sentence "Mae trwyn Siaco yn cynnwys plastig.", cynnwys is not mutated.

Note also that the 'm form often used instead of fy after vowels does not cause nasal mutation. For example:

Pleidiol wyf i'm gwlad. (not *i'm ngwlad)

Aspirate mutation

The aspirate mutation (Welsh: treiglad llaes) turns the unvoiced plosives into aspirated fricatives. It is easiest to remember based on an addition of an h in the spelling (c->ch, p->ph, t->th), although strictly the resultant forms are single letters which happen to contain an h as the second character. The aspirate mutation occurs mainly after the possessive ei when it means "her", after a ("and") and â ("with"), and after the numbers six (chwe) and occasionally three (tri). The aspirate mutation also causes an h to be added before words beginning with a vowel (e.g. oed = age, ei hoed = her age), although a / â before a vowel change to ac / ag and the word beginning with a vowel is itself unaffected.

Mixed mutation

A mixed mutation occurs when negating conjugated verbs. Initial consonants which change under the aspirate mutation do so; other consonants change as in the soft mutation (if at all). For example, clwyais i (I heard) and dwedais i (I said) are negated as chlywais i ddim and ddwedais i ddim.

The article

Welsh has no indefinite article. The definite article, which precedes the words it modifies and whose usage differs little from that of English, has the forms y, yr, and 'r. The rules governing their usage are:

When the previous word ends in a vowel, regardless of the quality of the word following, 'r is used, e.g. mae'r gath tu allan. This rule takes precedence over the other two.
When the word begins with a vowel, yr is used, e.g. yr ardd.
In all other places, y is used, e.g. y bachgen.

The article triggers the soft mutation when it is used with feminine singular nouns, e. g. tywysoges "(a) princess" but y dywysoges "the princess".

Nouns

Like most other Indo-European languages, all nouns belong to a certain grammatical gender; in this case, masculine or feminine. Aside from nouns whose gender is clear from the meaning (e.g. mam "mother" is feminine), there is no pattern, and gender simply must be learnt.

Welsh has two systems of grammatical number. There are the singular/plural nouns, which correspond to the singular/plural number system of English. Noun plurals are unpredictable and formed in several ways. Some nouns form the plural with an ending (usually -au), e.g. tad and tadau. Others form the plural through vowel change, e.g. bachgen and bechgyn. Still others form their plurals through some combination of the two, e.g. chwaer and chwiorydd.

The other system of number is the collective/unit system. The nouns in this system form the singular by adding the suffix -yn (for masculine nouns) or -en (for feminine nouns) to the plural. Most nouns which belong in this system are frequently found in groups, for example, plant "children" and plentyn "a child", or coed "forest" and coeden "a tree". In dictionaries, the plural is often given first.

Genitive relationships are expressed by apposition. The genitive in Welsh is formed by putting two noun phrases next to each other, the possessor coming second. So English "The cat's mother", or "mother of the cat", corresponds to Welsh mam y gath — literally, "mother the cat"; "the man's car's windows" is ffenestri car y dyn — literally, "windows car the man". The thing possessed never takes the article.

Adjectives

Adjectives normally follow the noun they qualify, while some, such as hen, pob, and holl precede it. For the most part, adjectives are uninflected, though there are a few which maintain distinct masculine/feminine or singular/plural distinctions. After feminine singular nouns, adjectives receive the soft mutation.

Adjective comparison in Welsh is fairly similar to the English system. Adjectives with one or two syllables receive the endings -ach "-er" and -a "-est", e. g. bannog "high", bannogach "higher", bannoga "highest". Adjectives with two or more syllables use the words mwy "more" and mwya "most", e. g. teimladwy "sensitive", mwy teimladwy "more sensitive", mwya teimladwy "most sensitive". Adjectives with two syllables could go either way.

These are the possessive adjectives:

		Singular	Plural
First Person		fy (n)	ein
Second Person		dy (s)	eich
Third Person	Masculine	ei (s)	eu
Third Person	Feminine	ei (a)	eu

The possessive adjectives precede the noun they qualify, which is often followed by the corresponding form of the personal pronoun, e.g. fy mara i "my bread", dy fara di "your bread", ei fara fe "his bread", etc.

The demonstrative adjectives are 'ma "this"' and 'na "that". They follow the noun they qualify, which also takes the article. For example, y llyfr "the book", y llyfr 'ma "this book", y llyfr 'na "that book".

Pronouns

The Welsh pronouns are:

		Singular	Plural
First Person		i	ni
Second Person		ti, di	chi
Third Person	Masculine	e, o	nhw
Third Person	Feminine	hi	nhw

Verbs

In Welsh, the majority of tenses make use of an auxiliary verb, usually bod 'to be'. Its conjugation is dealt with in Irregular Verbs below.

There are four periphrastic tenses in Welsh which make use of bod: present, imperfect, future, and conditional. All are formed in the same basic way: the appropriate form of bod, the complement marker yn (contracted to 'n after vowels), and the verbal noun. Thus he thinks (or he is thinking) is rendered Mae e'n meddwl. He will think is bydd e'n meddwl. Welsh does not distinguish progressive actions.

Welsh does, however, distinguish perfect actions in all the periphrastic tenses by replacing yn with wedi. The perfect is then expressed with the present forms of bod, the pluperfect with the imperfect forms, the future perfect with the future forms, and the conditional perfect with the conditional forms. For example, he has thought is mae e wedi meddwl.

Welsh maintains inflected preterite, future, and conditional tenses, demonstrated here with talu 'pay'.

		Singular	Plural
Preterite	First Person	tales	talon
	Second Person	talest	taloch
	Third Person	talodd	talon
Future	First Person	tala	talwn
	Second Person	tali	talwch
	Third Person	talith	talan
Conditional	First Person	talwn	talen
	Second Person	talet	talech
	Third Person	talai	talen

Notes on the preterite:
- First and second singular forms may be written as talais and talaist, though there is no difference in pronunciation.
- In some parts of Wales -s- may be inserted between the stem and plural forms.
- In parts of South Wales forms like talws are heard for talodd.
Notes on the future:
- di is used instead of ti, thus tali di, not **tali ti.
- Forms like taliff may appear instead of talith in some southern parts of Wales.
Notes on the conditional:
- -s- may be inserted between the stem and endings.

In the preterite, questions are formed with the soft mutation on the verb, though increasingly the soft mutation is being used in all situations. Negative forms are expressed with ddim after the pronoun and the mixed mutation, though here the soft mutation is taking over (dales i ddim for thales i ddim).

Periphrasitic constructions of the preterite, future, and conditional also exist. For all of these, the appropriate tense of gwneud 'to do' (conjugated below) may be used with the verbal noun. The preterite may also be formed with ddaru 'to happen', which does not alter its form.

Irregular verbs

Bod 'to be' is highly irregular.

		Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
		Declarative (I am)		Interrogative (Am I?)		Negative (I am not)
Present	First Person	dw	dyn	ydw?	ydyn?	dw	dyn
	Second Person	(r)wyt	dych	wyt?	ydych?	dwyt	dych
	Third Person	mae	maen	ydy?	ydyn?	dydy	dydyn
Preterite	First Person	bues	buon	fues?	fuon?	fues	fuon
	Second Person	buest	buoch	fuest?	fuoch?	fuest	fuoch
	Third Person	buodd	buon	fuodd?	fuon?	fuodd	fuon
Imperfect	First Person	roeddwn	roedden	oeddwn?	oedden?	doeddwn	doedden
	Second Person	roeddet	roeddech	oeddet?	oeddech?	doeddet	doeddech
	Third Person	roedd	roeddyn	oedd?	oeddyn?	doedd	doeddyn
Future	First Person	bydda	byddwn	fydda?	fyddwn?	fydda	fyddwn
	Second Person	byddi	byddwch	fyddi?	fyddwch?	fyddi	fyddwch
	Third Person	bydd	byddan	fydd?	fyddan?	fydd	fyddan

Bod also has a conditional, for which there are two stems:

		Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
		Declarative		Interrogative		Negative
bydd-	First Person	byddwn	bydden	fyddwn	fydden	fyddwn?	fydden?
	Second Person	byddet	byddech	fyddet	fyddech	fyddet?	fyddech?
	Third Person	byddai	bydden	fyddai	fydden	fyddai?	fydden?
bas-	First Person	baswn	basen	faswn	fasen	faswn?	fasen?
	Second Person	baset	basech	faset	fasech	faset?	fasech?
	Third Person	basai	basen	fasai	fasen	fasai?	fasen?

ddim (not) is added after the pronoun for negative forms of bod.
There are many dialectal variations of this verb.
Colloquially the imperfect tense forms are o'n i, o't ti, oedd e/hi, o'n ni, o'ch chi and o'n nhw. These are used for the declarative, interrogative and negative.
In speech the future and conditional forms often receive the soft mutation in all situations.
Welsh is unusual in having no fixed words for yes and no. The relevant part of the verb bod is used instead e. g.: Ydych chi'n hoffi coffi? (Are you liking coffee? = do you like coffee?) then either Ydw (I am = I do = Yes) or Nac ydw (I am not = I do not = No)

The four verbs mynd 'to go', gwneud 'to do', cael 'to get', and dod 'to come' are all irregular in similar ways.

		Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
		mynd		gwneud		cael		dod
Preterite	First Person	es	aethon	nes	naethon	ces	caethon	des	daethon
	Second Person	est	aethoch	nest	naethoch	cest	caethoch	dest	daethoch
	Third Person	aeth	aethon	naeth	naethon	caeth	caethon	daeth	daethon
Future	First Person	a	awn	na	nawn	ca	cawn	do	down
	Second Person	ei	ewch	nei	newch	cei	cewch	doi	dewch
	Third Person	eith	ân	neith	nân	ceith	câ	daw	dôn

In the conditional, there is considerable variation between the North and South forms of these four irregular verbs.

		Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
		mynd		gwneud		cael		dod
North	First Person	awn	aen	nawn	naen	cawn	caen	down	doen
	Second Person	aet	aech	naet	naech	caet	caech	doet	doech
	Third Person	âi	aen	nâi	naen	câi	caen	dôi	doen
South	First Person	elwn	elen	nelwn	nelen	celwn	celen	delwn	delen
	Second Person	elet	elech	nelet	nelech	celet	celech	delet	delech
	Third Person	elai	elen	nelai	nelen	celai	celen	delai	delen

Prepositions

In Welsh, prepositions frequently change their form when followed by a pronoun. These are known as inflected prepositions. Most of them, such as dan, follow the same basic pattern:

		Singular	Plural
First Person		dana i	danon ni
Second Person		danat ti	danoch chi
Third Person	Masculine	dano fe/fo	danyn nhw
Third Person	Feminine	dani hi	danyn nhw

There is some dialectal variation, particularly in the first and second person singular forms. In some places one may hear dano i, danot ti, or danach chi.

The majority of prepositions trigger the soft mutation.

References

King, G. (2003). Modern Welsh. Oxford: Routledge. ISBN 0-41-528270-5