Mutations

Welsh, as with all other Celtic languages, often sees changes made to the beginning of words depending on the word that precedes it, or the role it plays in the sentence. These changes are known as “mutations”, of which Welsh has three distinct types. Common situations in which a mutation may occur are when a word follows a preposition, possessive, or number.

The three classes of mutation are soft, nasal, and aspirate. Soft mutations are by far the most common, whereas aspirate mutations are becoming applied less and less in the spoken language. All mutations occur to words commencing with one of nine different consonants (p,t,c,b,d,g,m,ll,rh), replacing them with different consonants according to mutation type. There are two important things to note at this point:

·         ll and rh are treated as separate letters in their own right and hence have their own section in the dictionary

·         A good knowledge of the possible changes is essential when searching for a word in the dictionary: botel, mhotel, and photel – for example – are all mutated forms of the “base” word potel (meaning “bottle”), which will only be listed in this base (or radical) form in the dictionary. Similarly, knowing that the soft mutation of an initial g causes it to disappear will help to trace an instance of orsaf back to its radical form gorsaf (“station”).

Soft mutation:

Soft mutation occurs in several common situations in the language. Here is a list of those situations.

1. Feminine nouns: Welsh has two genders of noun but the importance of committing these genders to memory is slightly less obvious when teaching oneself then it is in other languages such as French and Spanish. While in French gender dictates a series of changes - which definite article is used (le/la), how adjectives agree (petit/petite)… - in Welsh the gender of the noun has a more subtle, but important role in constructing grammatically correct sentences.

Inserting the definite article y (yr before a vowel) causes a feminine noun to undergo a soft mutation.

Example:

·         bachgen - boy

·         merch - girl

after adding the definite article we have:

·         y bachgen - the boy

but:

·         y ferch - the girl (As can be seen from the table above, soft mutation means m becomes f )

The same occurs when the number un - one is placed precedes the noun. Hence:

·         un bachgen - one boy

·         un ferch - one girl.

Note ‘a boy’ would be put into Welsh as simply bachgen, there is no equivalent for the indefinite article ‘a’ in Welsh.

2. Adjectives following feminine nouns: Continuing to use the examples above we will see how any adjective following a feminine noun will also undergo soft mutation.

·         y bachgen - the boy

·         y ferch - the girl

Adding the adjective bach (Eng. little) gives us:

·         y bachgen bach - the little boy

but:

·         y ferch fach - the little girl ( b also mutates to f )

The difference is clear in the following two phrases:

·         Prynhawn da - Good afternoon

·         Noswaith dda - Good evening

Noswaith (evening) mutates the adjective da (good)→dda because it is feminine, while prynhawn (afternoon) - a masculine noun - does not.

3. After the majority of prepositions: Most prepostions, particularly monosyllabic ones, require a soft mutation.

Examples:

·         Croeso i Gymru - Welcome to Wales (C → G)

·         O Fangor i Landudno - From Bangor to Llandudno (B → F and Ll → L)

List of prepositions triggering a soft mutation -

am : ar : at : dan  : dros : drwy : gan : heb : hyd : i : o : wrth

4. After certain possessives: The pronouns for the possessives ‘your’ and ‘his’ also require soft mutation. Other possessives require nasal and aspirate mutations.

dy…(di) - your (familiar)

ei…(fe/o) - his

Examples:

tafarn - pub

gives:

dy dafarn (di) - your pub

llyfr - book

gives:

ei lyfr (fe/o) - his book

The pronoun ei also mean ‘her’, as well as his, but in this case it requires an aspirate mutation, as is seen in the section below.

In masculine and feminine nouns after the ordinal ‘ail’ (second) 

e.g. tþ - yr ail dþ - the second house (masc) 

 bachgen - yr ail fachgen - the second boy (masc) 

 merch - yr ail ferch - the second girl (fem) 

 desg - yr ail ddesg - the second desk (fem) 

When ordinals refer to feminine nouns, both the number and the noun will 

mutate 

 ‘y drydedd’ (the third), ‘y bedwaredd’ (the fourth), 

 ‘y bumed’ (the fifth), ‘y chweched’ (the sixth), 

 ‘y seithfed’ (the seventh’), ‘yr wythfed’ (the eighth), 

 ‘y nawfed’ (the ninth), y ddegfed’ (the tenth), 

 ‘y ddeuddegfed’ (the twelfth), ‘y bymthegfed’ (the fifteenth), 

 ‘yr ugeinfed’ (the twentieth), ‘y ganfed’ (the hundredth) 

 e.g. y bumed ferch - the fifth girl 

 y ddegfed gân; - the tenth song 

 y nawfed flwyddyn - the ninth year 

 y drydedd wobr - the third prize 

Aspirate Mutation:

This type of mutation is shown in the fourth column of the table.

1. After a certain possessive: The pronoun ei (this time, meaning her) causes an aspirate mutation.

ei…(hi)’ - her

Examples:

·         Carreg - Stone

·         Tad - Father

After adding ei, we have:

·         Ei Charreg (hi) - Her Stone

·         Ei Thad (hi) - Her Father

2. After a/ac A/ac is the word and (Ac is used before a vowel, hence it cannot cause an aspirate mutation).

…a… - …and…

Examples:

·         Trosedd - Crime

·         Cosb - Punishment

·         Bara - Bread

·         Caws - Cheese

If we link two of them together with a…

·         Trosedd a chosb - Crime and Punishment

·         Bara a chaws - Bread and cheese

Nasal Mutation:

Nasal mutation is the third column in our table.

1. After the locative: The locative in Welsh is the word yn (in).

·         This should not be confused with yn when it operates as a particle in constructing a verb. When used in this grammatical sense it does not require mutation.

Yn… - In…

Examples:

·         Porthmadog - Porthmadog

·         Tresaeth - Tresaeth

·         Caerdydd - Cardiff

·         Bangor - Bangor

·         Dolgellau - Dolgellau

·         Glanllyn - Glanllyn

If we add the locative:

·         Ym Mhorthmadog - In Porthmadog

·         Yn Nhresaeth - In Tresaeth

·         Yng Nghaerdydd - In Cardiff

·         Ym Mangor - In Bangor

·         Yn Nolgellau - In Dolgellau

·         Yng Nglanllyn - In Glanllyn

You may have noticed that yn also mutates. This is not a typing error. It mutates before a nasal mutation too:

·         Yn - Before a mutated T or D

·         Ym - Before a mutated P or B

·         Yng - Before a mutated C or G

2. After fy. The word fy, meaning “my”, causes nasal mutation in the next word:

·         dillad - clothes

·         fy nillad - my clothes

·         brawd - brother

·         fy mrawd - my brother

·         tadau - fathers

·         fy nhadau - my fathers

In the spoken language, because the nasal mutation occurs so rarely, the word fy can drop out entirely:

·         nillad - my clothes

·         mrawd - my brother

·         nhadau - my fathers   

Numbers:

1. We always use a singular noun after numbers in Welsh. (In English we

only use the singular forms hundred, thousand, million etc after

numbers).

e.g. saith ci - seven dogs

 naw bachgen - nine boys

2. There are masculine and feminine forms of the numbers 2, 3 and 4.and their use

depends on the gender of the noun to which they refer.

 e.g. dau afal (m) - two apples dwy het (f) - two hats

 tri llyfr (m) - three books tair cadair (f) - three chairs

 pedwar car(m) - four cars pedair pêl (f) - four balls

3. The numbers ‘pump’ (five), ‘chwech’ (six) and ‘cant’ (hundred) drop the final

consonant when they stand immediately in front of a noun.

 e.g. pum potel - five bottles

 chwe llwy - six spoons

 can punt - hundred pounds

4. Feminine nouns undergo a Soft Mutation after ‘un’ (one) (except those

nouns which begin with ll or rh). 

 e.g. un gath - un fraich

 un llwy - un bunt

5. Masculine nouns after ‘dau’ (two) and feminine nouns after

‘dwy’ (two) undergo a Soft Mutation.

e.g. dau gi (m) - two dogs dwy gath (f) - two cats

 dau dþ (m) - two houses dwy bont (f) - two bridges

6. Masculine nouns undergo an Aspirate Mutation after ‘tri’ (three)

  

 e.g. tri char - three cars tri thþ - three houses

 tri chap - three caps tri phlentyn - three children

There is no mutation after ‘tair’, the feminine form for ‘three’.

7. All nouns, masculine and feminine undergo an Aspirate Mutation

after ‘chwe’.

e.g. chwe cheiniog - chwe chadair

 chwe phlentyn - chwe phunt

 chwe thþ - chwe theise

8. (a) ‘deg’ (ten) becomes ‘deng’ before ‘m’

 ‘deuddeg’ (twelve) becomes ‘deuddeng’ before ‘m’

 ‘pymtheg’ (fifteen) becomes ‘pymtheng’ before ‘m’

 e.g. deng mlynedd - ten years

 deuddeng munud - twelve minutes

 pymtheng mis - fifteen months

 (b) ‘blynedd’ (year) becomes ‘mlynedd’ after many numbers although these

 numbers do not cause any other words to mutate nasally.

 e.g. 5 - pum mlynedd    7 - saith mlynedd

 8 - wyth mlynedd    9 - naw mlynedd

 10 - deng mlynedd    12 - deuddeng mlynedd

 15 - pymtheng mlynedd    18 - deunaw mlynedd

 20 - ugain mlynedd    50 - hanner can mlynedd

 100 - can mlynedd

9. When giving someone’s age, whether male or female, remember to use the

 feminine forms ’dwy’ (two), ‘tair’ (three) and ‘pedair’ (four) which refer to

 the number of years, which is a feminine noun in Welsh.

e.g. Mae hi’n ddwy oed.

 - She’s two years old / of age.

 Roedd Gwyn yn bedair oed ddoe.

 - Gwyn was four years old / of age yesterday.

10. It i s also possible to convey plurals by using a number followed by ‘o’ followed

again by the plural form of the noun.

 e.g. tri o blant - three children

 deg o geir - ten cars

In order to use this method of counting, it must be remembered that

 (a) ‘o’ causes a Soft Mutation

(b) the plural form of the noun must be used. This can cause a

 problem as plural forms are irregular and do not follow any

 particular pattern.

H

An h is added to words beginning with a vowel, after ei (her), ein (our), eu(their), e.g. eu hysgol (their school)

From WikibooksMutations